The importance of school buildings, among the built heritage of a community, is largely acknowledged. Due to past seismic events, damage or even collapse of schools have had a huge social impact. The safety of children and youth has a fundamental priority and, in addition, the unsafety of schools can aggravate social dispersion phenomena which follow an earthquake. In the aftermath of the Molise earthquake (2002), which caused the collapse of a primary school in San Giuliano di Puglia (Campobasso, Italy) and the consequent death of 27 children and a teacher, the Italian government issued a national plan for the seismic vulnerability assessment of relevant and strategic structures all over the country. The huge number of structures to be evaluated makes this operation extremely complex and, after almost twenty years, it still requires efficient and cost-effective (also in terms of execution time) tools to be effectively planned. More recently, the United Nations adopted, in March 2015, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, which is articulated in “priorities”, providing actions to be implemented. Specifically, Priority 1 is focused on “understanding disaster risk”, while Priority 2 sets the goal of “strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk”. Both objectives require to deepen knowledge of risks and of its components (i.e., hazard, exposure and vulnerability) at various territorial scale (e.g., national or urban). This thesis presents the seismic vulnerability and fragility assessment of school buildings in Italy, to address this problem at multiple scales, at municipality level and at national level, also including investigations on case studies for refined modelling. First, a prioritisation procedure to sort school buildings part of an urban stock by their seismic vulnerability is proposed. This procedure has the aim of supporting local administrations and enterprises in charge with built stocks in decision-making for the allocation of limited funds for retrofit. The knowledge process of the building stock is comprised of on-site visual surveys and retrieval of original projects documentations. Then, the priority list is defined based on the combination of a qualitative evaluation and of a quantitative capacity/demand ratio resulting from a simplified mechanics-based model. The former results from the application of a form, counting structural and non-structural deficiencies, which is proposed in this work for masonry, reinforced concrete (r.c.), and mixed masonry-r.c. buildings, by updating an existing form. The priority-ranking procedure was applied to r.c. school buildings managed by the Municipality of Padova, in north-east Italy. Then, in the second part of the thesis, the research focuses on the fragility assessment of macro-classes of buildings, representative of the Italian school taxonomy, aimed at risk evaluation at national scale. Based on the Italian school building census, macro-classes of buildings were identified according to a limited number of parameters (i.e., the construction material, age of construction, number of stories, and plan area). Fragility curves were derived for five damage states (from slight damage to complete collapse), with reference to the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS98). For masonry schools, fragility curves were derived for 265 building types by means of a simplified mechanics-based approach, named Vulnus, which accounts for both in-plane and out-of-plane responses. Fragility assessment was also carried out for a macro-class of r.c. school buildings by selecting two representative schools from the above-mentioned urban stock managed by the Municipality of Padova. A non-linear fibre model was developed for each prototype building, taking into account its specific features, such as the presence of infills and of non-seismic joints. Non-Linear Time History Analyses (NLTHA) were carried out by applying a great number of natural and scaled ground motion records, covering a large range of seismic intensities. Fragility curves were derived by statistically processing the outcomes of NLTHA. Thus, the application of two alternative approaches for fragility estimate are provided in this work. Finally, damage maps at national scale are provided by implementing the obtained fragilities, showing the distribution of expected damage for a selected return period and for observation time windows.

The relationships between student achievement and a number of variables relating to building and classroom conditions in Virginia elementary schools were examined. A systematic random sample of 300 schools was selected from all elementary schools in Virginia with grades three and five. Data on building condition, classroom condition, and demographics were collected with "An Assessment of Building and Classroom Conditions in Elementary Schools in Virginia." Building principals completed the survey. The scaled scores from the Spring 1998 Standards of Learning Assessments for third-grade English, fifth-grade English, third-grade mathematics, and fifth-grade mathematics were used as measures of student achievement. The percentage passing the fifth-grade technology assessment was used as a measure of achievement in technology as scaled scores were not available. Findings: A large portion of Virginia elementary schools are more than thirty years old and have a number of structural and classroom defects. While principals gave high composite ratings to their schools, their responses to individual questions indicate problems with roof leaks and climate control. The percentage of students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program accounted for the largest percentages of variance in English, math, and technology achievement. However, this variable had greater influence on achievement in English and technology than in mathematics. Air conditioning was a significant variable in third-grade English, fifth-grade mathematics, and fifth-grade technology achievement. Other variables found significant in one or more of the analyses were ceiling type, frequency of floor sweeping, frequency of floor mopping, connection to a wide-area network, room structure, overall building maintenance, and flooring type. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study is to determine sound principles for custodial service in the small school.

This study investigated the relationship of selected building descriptors, district characteristics, and finance, to the per pupil cost of new school construction. Variables selected were: Financial--assessed value, local effort in facility construction, state and federal funds, and the educational expenditures of the district; Building descriptors--the length of construction time, the percentage of instructional space, and the type of facility; district characteristics--geographic location, urban/rural, and net enrollment. The data were gathered from the West Virginia State Department of Education, the State Tax Department, and various architects who designed the 128 new schools constructed under the West Virginia Better School Buildings Amendment of 1972. Analyses utilized the multiple regression procedure to examine the relationship of the variables to construction costs. The results indicated a significant relationship between per pupil construction cost and three financial variables: (1) the assessed value of the district, (2) the amount of local effort put into facility construction and improvement, and (3) the amount of state funds utilized in the project. None of the district characteristics contributed significantly to the variance and the only descriptive variable to yield a significant contribution was the type of facility being constructed--elementary, secondary, or vocational-technical. The study implied need for the standardization of assessed values in West Virginia, equalization of local fiscal effort in school construction, and legislation to inject additional state money in capital outlay. It was recommended that a funding formula for facility construction and improvement be instituted utilizing money from two sources: a local effort fund, accrued and administered at the state level, to which each county would contribute on an equalized basis; and state appropriations designated on a yearly basis. These funds would eliminate the need for local bond issues and special levies for this purpose. It was recommended that further study be done to clarify the relationship between per pupil cost and federal funds, as well as instructional space. / Ed. D.

Wong Hoi Ho Michael. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2000-2001, design report." / Includes bibliographical references. / Site / Access / Massing / Community need / Building / Program / Section / Space interaction / Module compositions / Holiday conversion / Construction / Modules / Construction process / Holiday conversion / Integration / Planning control / Building control / FS control / Daylighting / Structure / Mechanical services / Policy / Site Analysis / Community needs / Access / Topography / Land use / Local precedent / Corridor Classrooms / Special rooms / Hall / Cover playground / Open playground / Communal space / SIP / Pre-fabrication

Wu Wei. / "November 2002." / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes special study report entitled: Vertical schools. Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture