Earthquake Engineering: Sixth Canadian Conference

Countless lives have been saved as a result of recent strides in earthquake engineering and related sciences. This trend has been furthered by the work of the Canadian national Committee on Earthquake Engineering which has, over the past twenty years, provided specialists with a forum for exploring new approaches to the problem. Engineers, scientists, researchers, geologists, seismologists, and other professionals have shared research and experience at the committee's conferences. The sixth of these, held in June 1991, is documented in this volume.

Three keynote papers provide the overall focuses for the volume. Each deals with one of the three major areas in the field: structures, in a paper on design developments in high-rise design and construction in Japan; geotechnical engineering, in a discussion of the effects of site conditions on ground motions; and seismology, in an account of the development of phased strong-motion time-histories for structures with multiple supports.

Shorter papers fall into three broad areas: response analysis and design of structural components; the interaction of seismicity, mitigation, soil response, and social structure; and seismic codes and structures.

This conference, along with other similar events throughout the world, has contributed significantly towards understanding various phenomena needed for building safe, reliable, and economical structures that can meet the challenges presented by the forces of nature.

Shamin A. Sheikh is faculty memebrs of the Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto.