Education of future civil engineers, civil engineers, colleagues of other professions and the public

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Sonja Zlatović
• Author: Igor Gukov
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Civil Engineering
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: TECHNICAL SCIENCES; Civil Engineering

Abstract (english)

Earthquakes are rather rare in Croatia. Therefore, citizens of Croatia are less motivated in
understanding the earthquakes than the citizens of e.g. California or Japan. Unfortunately, this
results in difficulties which civil engineers have in fulfilling the requirements of clients and even
architects. Additionally, in education and lifestyle, Croatia is traditionally oriented towards Austria
and Germany, northern countries where the earthquakes are not significant for the stability of the
buildings. That is why the corresponding subjects were included in the civil engineering curricula
in Croatia rather late. Also, this is why many of the family houses have been often built without
any engineering support. Even after the March earthquake damaged a considerable number of
family houses and older buildings in Zagreb and the surroundings, the citizens in general still
do not understand that a stronger earthquake could be expected and they do not recognize the
difference between the reparation of the cracks and improvements of the structural stability. The
response of the Government showed that the community is ready to help people who lost their
homes in the March earthquake, even those whose apartments or houses suffered damages.
It is clear that a similar response could be expected in case other parts of the country got hit by
an earthquake. It is good to bear in mind that preventing damages of this kind is several times
less expensive than dealing with the damages. Therefore, it would be advisable to invest in
retrofitting the older buildings and family houses. The paper suggests education for the citizens
of Croatia to facilitate the understanding of the importance of the civil engineering role. The paper
proposes an addition to the education of architects to ease communication with the structural
and geotechnical engineers. The paper proposes elements of education for the civil engineering
study programmes and the graduated civil engineers to help them deal with seismological data.

• Keywords (english): education, architects, structural engineers, earthquakes, civilians
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Unknown
• Publication version: Published version
• Publication title: 1st Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 1CroCEE
• Numbering: pp. 627-637
• p-ISSN: 3043-8071
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5592/CO/1CroCEE.2021.169
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:237:699726
• Publication: 2021-03
• Conference: Title: st Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering; Location: Zagreb, Croatia; Start date: 2021-03-22; End date: 2021-03-24; Assembly type: Lecture
• Type of resource: Text
• Publisher: Sveučilište u Zagrebu Građevinski fakultet
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2024-09-02 05:59:56