The anti-seismic construction of buildings is undoubtedly the main and decisive factor in dealing with the seismic risk.

In our country, which presents the highest seismic hazard in Europe and sixth worldwidethe design and construction of buildings capable of safely accepting seismic stresses, was and is a key priority of the State.

In this direction, many important steps have been taken in recent years, mainly with the establishment of strict Anti-Seismic Regulations. However, given that the first Anti-Seismic Regulation was implemented in Greece in 1959 and its first significant improvement was made in 1985the need arises in buildings that house critical infrastructures to examine their anti-seismic bearing capacity.

Today the OASP will post on its website the “ELECTRONIC BUILDING CENSUS PLATFORM”, where the competent services of the Ministries of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Education and Religious Affairs, Health and Citizen Protection in collaboration with the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) will register the identity details of the buildings under their jurisdiction within two months.

It is clarified that, responsible body for the registration of building identification data on the OASP building inventory electronic platform, is the body responsible for the operation and safety of buildings and facilities, while especially for public school buildings are the Municipalities.

At the same time, the TEE takes all the necessary actions to create an “ELECTRONIC REGISTER OF ENGINEERS”, as well as the process of training the engineers in collaboration with the OASP and the Civil Engineers Association of Greece, in order to immediately start the inspections after the inventory of the buildings. These checks will be carried out, in order of priority, in buildings that house public and private educational units of all levels, public and private hospitals and health centers, services of the Greek Police, the Fire Brigade, public staff services to deal with emergency needs from an earthquake and then to the rest of the buildings.

The Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias made the following statement:

Following the order of the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in collaboration with the Organization for Antiseismic Planning and Protection and the Technical Chamber of Greece, today begins the program of mandatory pre-seismic control, emphasizing mainly the critical infrastructures of the country, the buildings that house schools, hospitals, universities, police stations and fire stations.

The purpose of the program is:

1. To initially identify the buildings with structural problems, such as cracks in load-bearing and non-load-bearing elements, exposed or corroded reinforcement due to insufficient maintenance, poor workmanship, subsidence, etc. and for which immediate measures should be taken.

2. To register the country’s buildings in which critical ones are housed public and private sector infrastructure in general.

3. To calibrate these buildings in terms of their seismic risk according to the methodology of the OASP and depending on their classification, a secondary seismic control should follow, if deemed necessary.

It is emphasized that it is the first time where a clear framework of immediate pre-earthquake control is established with mandatory implementation, while funding from the Recovery and Resilience Fund has been secured in the amount of 32.5 million euros for the implementation of the project.