It is extremely important that there are effective management strategies put in place to help predict, prepare and protect from earthquakes. The main aims of these strategies are to reduce loss of life and property damage. MEDCs and LEDCs cope in different ways, this is mainly due to affordability of planning and preparation for the future. MEDCs tend to cope better when an earthquake hits, because the money is available to use to create effective strategies.
We are able to protect ourselves from the severe effects of earthquakes with effective management strategies, there are already many strategies in place that are proving to reduce loss of life and property damage, protecting human life and the economy.
One method under experimentation in America and Japan involves injecting water into faults, this is done to lubricate the rock along with the fault line. This would be an effective measure, as it is believed that this will result in gradual slipping rather than a series of sudden jerks, it is likely this would result in a reduction of property and infrastructure damage as there would be less impact. Although it is rather effective, it would not completely stop property and infrastructure damage, and deaths still would occur.
Evidence has shown that the collapsing of buildings are the biggest threat to human life and the economy, because of this, scientists in MEDCs are looking to improve buildings and infrastructure, making them more earthquake resistant. The main design in development is Aseismic designs, these buildings are designed to sway as the earth moves, are made of fire resistant materials and have deep and form foundations. One example of this type of design is the Trans-America Building in San Francisco, and the building withstood the Santa-Cruz earthquake in 1989, reading 7.1 on the Richter scale, this just shows how effective the design is at preventing