Megacities = Mega Disasters? The Indian Subcontinent

摘要

Megacities, with their increased population densities, require special attention to city planning and enhanced building safety. This paper illustrates how long-standing customs and construction methods can be an impediment to building safety and suggests areas for improvement. Located adjacent to China, the Indian subcontinent is experiencing amazing concentrated urban growth facilitated in part by high-rise commercial and residential construction. These new projects are often of magnitude and complexity not imagined even a few decades earlier by the planners, designers, building authorities and building code writers responsible for assuring their safety. Much of this work is based on traditional, but unfortunately outdated, construction methods and building codes.