The Engineering Association in Palestine and the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center at An-Najah Successfully Conclude a Training Course

In cooperation between the Engineering Association and the Seismic Engineering Unit of the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center at An-Najah University, a group of 46 Engineering students successfully graduated from the “Earthquake-proof Buildings Design” course.

Attendees to the concluding ceremony were Engineer Ahmed Adili, Chief of Engineers, Dr. Jalal Dabbeek, Director of the Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction Center at An-Najah and Vice President of the National Agency for Disaster Risk Mitigation in Palestine, Engineer Abdel Hakeem Al-Johari, Member in Nablus Branch Committee of the Engineering Association, as well as Engineer Nidal Dalal, Director of the Engineers Training Center.

In the beginning of the ceremony, Dr. Dabbeek delivered a speech in which he welcomed the attendants and the graduates and praised the cooperation between the Engineering Association and the different educational institutions in Palestine such as An-Najah. He then spoke about the training course saying that it offered a great addition to the trainees’ knowledge of the requirements of design and modern constructions.

Engineer Adili thanked the Urban Planning Center and An-Najah for their cooperation and consistent work to provide their students with training opportunities. He then gave a summary about the Engineering Association and its service to the local community. He added that engineers are a major element in the development of the country and their training is essential.

Dr. Dabbeek mentioned that there is commitment shown by many municipalities in Palestine to make risk maps such as the detailed maps of seismic amplification and the landslides areas maps.

The course was administered by Dr. Dabbeek and addressed several issues including: Introduction to Seismology and the seismicity of the region, the impact of site’s soil on the seismic behavior of constructions, the movement mechanism of seismic works from the soil to the constructions, the architectural and constructional appearance of earthquake-proof buildings, measurement of the seismic forces that constructions encounter, how these forces are distributed among the building’s different constructional elements, the design of constructional elements in earthquake-proof buildings, evaluation of damage in constructions, evaluation of damage and collapse aftermath, and finally the reinforcement and rehabilitation of existing buildings to become earthquake-proof.

At the end of the course, certificates were presented to the trainees.