Sustainable Local Seismic Culture in Vernacular Buildings of the Indian Himalayas: Field Observations, Knowledge Dissemination, and Recommendations

Vernacular buildings are the classic examples of sociocultural development, centuries of experience, and empirical knowledge gained from past earthquakes to construct climate-cum-earthquake resistant indigenous buildings in seismic-prone regions across the globe. Vernacular buildings use re-cyclable materials with a low carbon footprint and are thus sustainable, and these buildings follow local seismic culture in their building attributes. Elaborate field investigations are conducted in the Indian Himalayas to investigate the local seismic culture in prevalent vernacular building systems, namely, Kath-Kunni, Thathara, Taq, Dhajji-Dewari, Ikra, and Rammed-earth. Based on field observations, these building systems are rated to understand their relative merits/de-merits for earthquake-resiliency and construction sustainability-related attributes. Simple, ready-to-use sketches are developed to disseminate the construction process of vernacular buildings. Further, recommendations are made to overcome deficits and promote vernacular buildings for earthquake-resilient sustainable development in the Indian Himalayas.