Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran

Transcription

1 Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran By : Alireza Mahdizadeh The Head of Rehabilitation Schools Office Ministry of Education State Organization of Schools Renovation May

2

3 In the name of allah Ministry of Education State Organization of Schools Renovation Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran By : Alireza Mahdizadeh The Head of Rehabilitation Schools Office A.mahdizadeh@gmail.com Contributors : J. Borzoei F. Ebadi C. Charekhah M.R. Jafari H. Kermani M. Khebreh M. Mirhashemi A. Mardani D. Naeimi H. Seyri M.Yekrangnia 2011 May

4 Introduction Natural disasters have long posed serious challenges for human kind and the efforts in controlling them, made initiatives for numerous progressions and achievements. Earthquake is undoubtedly is one of the most important natural disasters and the studies for understanding its phenomenon and its related disaster management have been placed in high priorities in last century. The possibility of recording the seismic events and scanning them can be regarded as a turning point in earthquake disaster management which is due to great progressions in the seismology and earthquake engineering. Iran is one of the most earthquake prone areas in the world and this situation makes it to be at the top of list of the countries with great casualties and financial losses. Statistics show there is at least one major earthquake in each decade throughout the country. It is obvious that with public education and awareness, determination of vulnerability of the infrastructures and upgrading the seismic safety of the dangerous zones, the loss of lives and financial damages can be declined dramatically. Although this cannot be achieves without the contribution of the government in important and strategic parts of this project. One of the most important undertakings of Iranian government in reducing the seismic vulnerability of the country against the earthquake is "Study and performing Retrofitting of the Important Buildings and Lifelines" which covers 7 structural groups and was enacted since 2003 in the form of possession of stock finances. The school buildings which are considered as Important Buildings according to Code 2800 (Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings) are one of the major structural groups in the aforementioned plan. In parallel, the preliminary guideline for structural retrofit was prepared and with the aid of IIEES was published in Since the critical importance of retrofitting of school buildings, besides the aforesaid guideline, 4 billion dollars was granted by the Iranian Parliament according to 4th Development Plan in order to demolish and reconstruct the seismically dangerous schools and retrofitting the vulnerable ones. It is noteworthy that the quality control of these projects was within IIEES responsibilities. "State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization Is responsible for execution of seismic risk reduction plan and the demolition and reconstruction plan (2007) in the educational buildings and after 5 years is one of the most successful executive organizations in the country in the retrofitting realm. Among the outstanding achievements of this organization, demolition and reconstruction of classrooms and retrofitting of 9000 ones can be mentioned. This report is a brief review of the national project and achievements for retrofitting school buildings is presented in 6 chapters. Alireza Mahdizadeh State Organization of Schools Renovation The Head of Rehabilitation Schools Office

5 Introduction Abstract A Review on Retrofitting procedure of School Buildings in Iran A review on demolish and reconstruction of school buildings in Iran Technical certificate of educational places in Iran Utilizing IT in State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran Public contribution in school building construction in Iran... 77

6

7 1- Abstract 1.1 A Review of Seismicity of Iran The Iranian plateau has a long seismicity record in the past. There are evidences indicating seismic actions before 3000 B.C. The intersection of Saudi Arabia, India and Eurasia caused Iranian plateau which is weaker than the others to deflect and become surrounded by the form of Zagros Mountains in the west, Alborz and kape Dagh in the north and northern east, Makran in the east and southern east. The earthquakes around Zagros is numerous and men in magnitude. They are from little evaporating forming and without the surface cracking. However, Alborz seismic actions are far different from the Zagros's. The earthquakes in this region is rare but when occur, release enormous amounts of energy. The mountains and wrinkling in Iranian plateau has not yet become stable, so the seismic actions throughout the country are definitely expected. The scattering of the Iranian earthquakes in the past years is depicted in Figure 1. As can be seen in this figure, the difference between the Zagros and Alborz seismic actions is obvious. Fig 1 : scattering of the Iranian earthquakes in the past years 1

8 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran The concept of seismic risk is derived from the expected P.G.A. of a specific region which is correlated to the size and activeness of the nearby faults. By studying the active and inactive faults of each region, the seismicity map of that region can be developed. The seismicity of the world is presented in Figure 2. According to this figure, the regions worldwide are categorized into 4 regions: Low seismic risk, Moderate seismic risk, High seismic risk and Very High seismic risk. Bu taking a brief look at this map, the seismicity of Iran in comparison with other places in the world can be understood. Fig 2 : world seismicity The more specific seismicity of Iran is shown in Figure 3 based on the Code 2800 (Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings). As observed, most of the regions are areas with high and very high seismic risk and almost nowhere in the country is immune from the earthquake danger. 2

9 Fig 3 : Seismicity of Iran according to Code 2800 In past decades, some devastating earthquake hit Iranian urban and rural regions, claiming tens of thousands of lives and leaving many others permanently injured and homeless; chief among them is Bam earthquake, 2003 (Magnitude:6.5). Not only the major earthquakes did cause devastation, but also the moderate ones resulted in considerable loss of lives and damages. By taking a look on the important earthquakes in Iran, one can understand the gravity of this situation. In Table 1 some of the important earthquakes which occurred in Iran are listed and the resulted causalities and financial losses are presented. Important earthquakes in Iran Financial and structural damage deaths Magnitude Epicenter Date 64 villages were completely destroyed Silakhor villages were completely destroyed Salmas villages were completely destroyed Gharsinch 1336 Large part of the city destroyed Boien Zahra villages were completely destroyed Dashte Bayaz 1347 Large damage Ghir and Kazerun building collapsed Bandar Abbas villages were completely destroyed Tabas 1357 Some villages were completely destroyed Golbaf(Kerman) 1360 Some villages were completely destroyed Siraj(Kerman) 1360 Large damage in Manjil,Rudbar and other villages Rudbar(Manjil)

10 130 villages were completely destroyed Nir( Ardebil) villages were completely destroyed Ghaen 1376 Large Damage in Bam and Baravat Bam Buildings were damaged Dahuie 1383 According to the table above, there is at least one major earthquake in one decade including Bam earthquake, Manjil earthquake, Tabas earthquake and Boein Zahra earthquake. Also Iran experienced an earthquake with the magnitude greater than 6.5 in each 2.5 years. Accordingly, the possibility of hitting an earthquake with the magnitude greater than 6.5 is about 99.9% in a decade. Since an earthquake with magnitude greater than 6.5 can cause terrifying life and economic losses, considering the earthquake risk has been highlighted in the academic community and the public. The three major earthquakes in the structural engineering point of view are Tabas earthquake, Manjil earthquake and Bam earthquake. Tabas earthquake made the academic community awareness which resulted in publication of the Loading Bulletin (2800). Manjil earthquake is the main cause of the government awareness. Developing and enacting the Iranian Construction Engineering Law and intensifying supervision on the structural projects are among the direct results of this earthquake. Finally bam earthquake can be regarded as a turning point in earthquake disaster management and structural seismic retrofit. Understanding the importance of seismic retrofit structures and other critical infrastructures is an invaluable perception which has been achieved at a very high cost this perception is the main cause of generation of a new approach among engineering community. Defining the national and organized project of retrofitting is a product of this perception. 1.2 Enact of the Demolish and reconstruction law As stated earlier, Iran is one of the earthquake prone countries and considering the seismicity of this region, necessitates the structural safety. The importance of each building in seismicity point of view is determined based on some parameters like functionality, serviceability of the building after the disaster, and the possible human and financial losses due to earthquake. School buildings, are one of the most important buildings. For, they contain accumulated population and their role in post disaster management is crucial 4

11 In the Code 2800, school buildings are regarded as the buildings with high importance which ranks second after the buildings with very high importance. Regarding this importance, 4 billion dollars was granted by the Iranian Parliament in 2007 according to 4th Development Plan in order to demolish and reconstruct the seismically dangerous schools and retrofitting the vulnerable ones. According to this law, 132 thousands classrooms should have been demolished and reconstructed and 126 thousands ones should have been retrofitted. It is noteworthy that the quality control of these projects was within IIEES responsibilities. This state organization is responsible for execution of seismic risk reduction plan and the demolition and reconstruction plan (2007) in the educational buildings 1.3 Introduction to State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran The establishment law of this state organization which is one of the branches of Ministry of Education dates back to 1975 and this organization formally started its work in The responsibilities of this organization are construction, development, renovation and reconstruction of the school buildings and also providing them with facilities and equipment throughout the country. Fig 4 : State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran Presently, this state organization is the construction deputy to Ministry of Education and consists of a central office and 31 representatives in different provinces. The role of the central office is macro policy planning, steering and managing its agencies throughout the country. After pinpointing the goals and the perspectives in the realm of retrofitting school 5

12 buildings and after granting the specified budgets, the agencies which are the executive branches of the central office, perform the projects according to the specified procedures. Making contract with the proper consultants and contractors, ad supervision on the local projects are the main responsibilities of these agencies. High supervision on how the projects are going is one on the responsibilities of the central office which is made possible by sending knowledgeable squads to the site. The formation chart of this organization is presented in Figure 5. Fig 5 :The organizational chart of this organization 1.4 Technical certificate of school buildings In 2004 and based on a national plan, a comprehensive database about the structural specification of all school buildings was prepared. This database includes vast spectra of information e.g. the number of students to the situation of the foundation and the building facade and consists of 7 items. The most important items in this database are as follows: The number of students The number of staff The geometrical and technical specification of the structure The possible dangers to the building like earthquake or landslide,... 6

13 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran According to this project, more than 380 thousands classrooms in 100 thousands school buildings were analyzed by the staff of the ministry of education. This project was done under supervision of this organization which is responsible for preparing the educational places for the country. One of the most important outcomes of this database is classifying the school buildings in the stability point of view which are as follows: 1- Resistant buildings 2- Non-resistance buildings 3- Dangerous buildings The buildings which fall into the second group are the ones that in the case of performing retrofitting techniques are capable of being upgraded into group 1. The buildings group 3 should be demolished and reconstructed in any case. The initial results of this project are depictedd in Figure 6. It is noteworthy that this certificate has an outstanding role in enacting the demolition and reconstruction and retrofitting law by Iranian parliament. Also the planning of this project was done from 2007 to Satisfying Retrofit needed Demolish recinstruction needed Fig 6 : initial results of the technical certificate of school building According to this certificate, over 135 thousands classrooms should have been demolished and reconstructed and 126 thousands ones should have been retrofitted. Based on the experienced learned during 5 years of execution of this project, the technical certificate of school building has been revised and completed. The new certificate is better than the previous one in different points of view. The expansion in the parameters for data gathering, 7

14 the method for data gathering and data storing are of examples which have been altered in the new certificate. 1.5 Achievements of demolition and reconstruction and retrofitting law Before presenting the management and technical procedures of this organization for the demolition and reconstruction and retrofitting law, we have brief look on the main achievements of this law in the past 5 years. As previously this state organization uses two methods of demolition and reconstruction and retrofitting for upgrading the safety of school buildings during earthquakes. Figures below present the number of studied, reconstructed and retrofitted classrooms, respectively from 2007 to Number of Classroom Year Fig 7 : number of studied classrooms from 2007 to 2011 Number Year Fig 8 : number of retrofitted classrooms from 2007 to

15 Number Year Fig 9 : Number of demolished and reconstructed classrooms from 2007 to 2011 According to statistics, The Islamic Republic of Iran has upgraded seismic safety of more than 9000 classrooms (equal to 1 million m 2 ) in the form of retrofitting and more than classrooms (equal to 6.5 million m 2 ) in the form demolition and reconstructing from 2005 to It is noteworthy than although the number of reconstructed classrooms is considerably higher than the retrofitted ones, the rate of retrofitting projects is increasing when compared to the decreasing rate of the reconstruction projects. Provincial accounts have been added to national accounts for demolition and reconstructing of school buildings. In this regard, State organization of schools renovation has built more than 60,000 classrooms (equal to 8.1 million m 2 ). In the following, the expenses from these two sources are presented: 1- National Accounts: The national accounts are the ones which after enactment by the parliament are granted by the government and are dedicated centralized to ministry of education for demolition, reconstruction and retrofitting of school buildings. 2- Provincial Accounts: The provincial accounts are the ones which after enactment by the parliament are granted by the government and is dedicated to the governors for expenses in each province. These accounts in different stages are spent for provincial reclamation. Mentioning schools which considered for demolition, reconstruction in this report means they were supported from National accounts. 9

16 Natinal account Million US Dollar Year considered Fig 10 : The expenses from national accounts for demolition, reconstruction and retrofitting of school buildings Million US Dollar Provincial account Year Fig 11 : The expenses from provincial accounts for demolition, reconstruction and retrofitting of school buildings According to statistics, The Islamic Republic of Iran has spent more than 60 billion dollars in a 6-year period for upgrading the seismic safety of its school buildings and their facilities. Moreover, the public have been also contributed in the charity works for construction of school buildings which a separate chapter is dedicated to these works. 10

17 3- A Review on Retrofitting procedure of School Buildings in Iran 3.1 History of Retrofitting procedure of School Buildings in Iran The seismic retrofit of buildings in Iran dates back to more than 30 years ago. In fact, after each major earthquake there were some few undertakings for upgrading the seismic safety of important buildings; while there was no coherent and general plan in this realm. The subject of seismic retrofit of important governmental buildings was introduced for the first time in (m) chapter of the appendix 13 of the national budget law. According to the second part of this chapter, all the governmental offices were supposed to give their proposals for retrofitting of their organization to State Planning Organization and this state organization was responsible for granting the necessary budget for the retrofitting project. In the A part of this issue, the definition of retrofitting is: "The measurements and actions for increasing the stability of buildings and infrastructures against earthquakes and other natural disasters." In the same time, the instruction of seismic rehabilitation of buildings was taken into account by the academic community and with the critical role of IIEES. In the first edition, the local problems of construction techniques were and the new codes and guidelines were taken advantage of. For example FEMA 274 which used to be of the best references worldwide was used extensively in this document. The first edition of this record was finally prepared in 2003 and was reported to all the organizations in Iran. After preparation of the first the instruction of seismic rehabilitation of buildings, and by considering the proposals and recommendations of different organizations, one of the most important plans of Iranian government for seismic safety against earthquakes "Study and performing Retrofitting of the Important Buildings and Lifelines" was initiated. This plan which covers 7 structural groups and was enacted since 2003 in the form of possession of stock finances is now being executed: large hospitals and emergency buildings and firefighting stations Strategic buildings Universities and schools Important bridges Oil and gas infrastructures Important communication buildings Important bases and lifelines 11

18 However the retrofitting of the buildings face some serious challenges. The new instructions for retrofitting of buildings were too sophisticated and hence few specialists were able to utilize it. On the other hand the study chain and the analysis cost for a typical retrofitting project for a building were ambiguous. The procedure of preparing the reports and the master's approval were not determined. According to this, the improvement of retrofitting procedure of buildings and schools in Iran can be classified into three stages. The projects in each stage can be defined as first, second and third generation. Based on the circumstances, they were different in the areas of the technical supervisor, peer reviewer and the master and each of which was done because of a specific goal. This process was resulted in a new approach in the studying and retrofitting of school buildings which will be explained in the following chapters The First Generation of School Retrofitting Studies The First Generation of School Retrofitting Studies in Iran were done from 2003 to 2007 and coincided with the initiation of retrofitting plan in the buildings throughout the country. In these years, the technical supervisor and the plan manager was intensively guided by the consultant of State Planning Organization. The main target of the first generation projects was just entering to the school building process and pinpointing the problems related to studying and execution phases. Among the achievement of the first generation retrofitting projects is development of the instructions for consultant's services list, studying costs, and widespread education and briefing of the consultants and engineers The Second Generation of School Retrofitting Studies In the second generation which started in 2004, the central management of the plan was concentrated in this organization. In all projects of this generation, the whole studying processes were under management of the central office. The steering of plan manager and the consultants was within the responsibilities of the central office. The main aims of the second generation can be said to be development of the studying consultant organization and widespread education of the engineers and local offices of this organization for decentralized management of studying procedure and retrofitting of school buildings. 12

19 3.1.3 The Third Generation of School Retrofitting Studies The third generation or the national plan of retrofitting of school building started from 2007 after enacting the demolition and reconstruction of dangerous school building and retrofitting of the seismically weak ones. In this generation the management and steering of the studying consultants was one the responsibilities of local offices of this state organization. While control and enacting the technical documents of the projects was still done by the selected consultants of central office of State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran. So holding the regular technical meetings and educational courses for contractors, development of the technical and executive instructions for converging the consultants in designing and documenting the retrofitting projects can be regarded as the main achievements of this generation Development of new methods in retrofitting of Iranian school buildings Based on the experiences of this organization from 2004 to 2010, this organization has undertaken some innovative approaches in selection, studying and implementation of its retrofitting projects. These approaches are named making structural types in seismic rehabilitation of school buildings or partial rehabilitation of school buildings. In this approach, the school buildings which are to be retrofitted are classified into two groups. In the first group, the whole process of retrofitting studying is done which will be explained in the following. In the second group which is called seismic rehabilitation, the structural sketches and technical specifications prepared in the past years are used. In this approach, chances are that some of the structural deficiencies not become corrected and even in some cases, the building not reaches to the expected performance base, but the performance base of all buildings increases considerably. Moreover, this approach is implemented only in regions which are supposed to experience dramatic changes in the next twenty years. In other words, this kind of structures is not supposed to exist in more than twenty years. Development of this approach is to reduce the time and cost of the studying and has been very successful in fulfilling its goals. 3.2 Retrofit procedure The retrofit procedure of a typical building consists of a set of implementations in a specified manner which leads to upgrading the seismic safety of that building to a specific performance base. For completion of this procedure, various factors like the master, the consultant, the technical supervisor, the plan manager, and the beneficiary take part. In the case of a problem in each aforementioned part, the whole procedure can be resulted in a low-quality work or event a halt. Since most of the retrofitting projects in Iran is performed 13

20 on the governmental buildings, in almost all the projects the master, the executer and the beneficiary is different from each other. For instance, in the first generation projects, the mater was the State Planning Organization and the beneficiary was the ministry of education offices. Presently, the master of the projects is state organization of schools renovation which is the civil branch of the ministry of education and the beneficiary are the ministry of education offices or the manager of schools. This non-uniqueness between these organizations which is originated from the specialists works can lead to inconsistencies in the studying and implementation processes which will be covered in the following chapters of this report. Beneficiary Beneficiary Master Director of Retrofitting Studies Project Cunsultant engineers Master technical supervisor Contractor Structure of Retrofitting Study Structure of Retrofitting Implementation Fig 12 : The organizational chart of the studying and implementation of retrofit projects Selection of the project As previously stated, this state organization deals with the problematic school buildings in two ways: demolishing and reconstructing or retrofitting school buildings. Considering the differences between these two ways adds to the importance of proper selection and classification of the projects. Classification and prioritizing the school buildings is the first stage in retrofitting projects. This classification is divided into two phases: the first phase has something to do with the general policies related to all school buildings throughout the country. The second phase concerns with the decision making processes for each school buildings. In each of the aforementioned phases, a specialized information and data is needed. For example, for accounting the number of school buildings which have to be demolished and reconstructed, with a glimpse to the construction of the building, proper estimation can be made. In fact each buildings, regardless of its structural specification can be retrofitted; however considering the fast burst of the cities and explosion of the population on one hand and the limited budget and specialized forces available, proper decisions should be made; decisions which lead to the best safety condition, with the least budget and time. Te main question in this part is that which school building should be demolished and reconstructed and which one should be retrofitted? For answering this question, one should answer the questions below: 14

21 1- How much is the price of the school building? (The combination of the structure price, architecture preponderance and the facilities.) 2- How much is the cost of the retrofitting? (All the structural, architectural and facilities implementations) 3- How much would be the expected life of the building after retrofit? (Architectural preponderance after retrofit) Answering all the above questions requires the in-depth studies which performing them is feasible for 100 thousands school. So at the beginning in 2004, this organization confined for rapid screening of school buildings nationwide. It classified all the school buildings in three structural types: satisfying, retrofit needed and demolish-reconstruction needed for general planning and budget estimation processes. In the next stage and during the retrofitting studies processes, each of the abovementioned questions was answered with an acceptable accuracy. Finally, it was decided whether a typical school building should be demolished-reconstructed or retrofitted. In 2010 and based on the experiences gained from the projects, the technical certificate of school buildings was revised. This time, besides the structural specifications of each building, a proper estimation about the architectural condition and the facilities of the school buildings were made in order to better answer the aforementioned questions. Accordingly, the classification of the school buildings has been modified. In the new classification, the school buildings were fallen into one of the five types below: Satisfying schools Ordinary retrofit needed schools (whole process of study and implementation) Partial rehabilitation schools (using the typical and classified sketches and specifications) Demolish-reconstruction needed schools Schools without the sufficient price for spending money In the next stage, the school buildings are prioritized for studying and execution of demolish and reconstruction which according to the above questions, no concrete judgment can be made about these issues. So other questions should be considered and answered. Answering these questions is simpler than the previous ones. However these questions could have been answered in the execution process of the law. Earthquake risk Student population of each school Development program of the region The main goal of this selection is achieving the highest increase in students safety against earthquakes with the determined amount of budget. It is worth mentioning that this 15

22 organization has not yet come to a general plan and this issue is one of the research projects of this organization. The present challenges in planning in this realm are: 1- Presence of two parallel options: i.e. demolition-reconstruction and retrofit 2- Presence of the floating budget and having the chances of not granting the resources drug the implementation of the projects Contracting with the consultants Consultants and contractors of each country are the bases of its reclamation. The more the specialist the consultants, the better would be the results. In fact, the main parts of the projects are done in the lager and small engineering offices. So upgrading the knowledge and specialty of these offices spells upgrading the capabilities so each country s engineering. The study and design processes of each building are the result of collaboration of three consultants: Study consultant (main consultant) Geotechnical and material testing consultant Peer reviewer (Plan manger-fourth factor) In this process, the main responsibilities are on the main consultant. The Geotechnical and material testing consultant is responsible for performing experiments and test on the quality of the construction and material. And plan manager or peer reviewer controls the process of studying and design of other consultants. Selection of the proper consultant is more highlighted in the retrofitting projects than an ordinary construction project. This is because the retrofitting of a typical building is more like solving a problem that a routine engineering issue. In each building, there are unique problems which required unique solutions. These problems are not restricted to the insufficient capacity of the building; bit is also related to the limitation in the interaction with the building owners and the proper period of time for implementation of the project is very deterministic factors in decision making about the retrofitting technique. This issue is crucial when it come to the public (governmental) schools in a country. The main simple but challenging question is that how we can reach to the best conditions with the least time, effort and cost? A combination of economical, technical and engineering factor leads us to the best method and solution. Accordingly, the performance of the consultants to this organization is evaluated in annual periods. The consultants are classified into three groups: good, moderate and not satisfying. Consultants with good performances would be recommended by this organization. 16

23 3.2.3 Study and design From 2002 to 2004, an instruction for determination of retrofitting process was prepared by Technical bureau of Iran related to Strategic plans and monitoring deputy of president. This instruction which is known as Bulletin 251 in Iran classifies the retrofitting process of a building in two phases: evaluation and analysis of building vulnerability and developing the rehabilitation plan. Each of which consists of two reports. Evaluation of vulnerability of existing building The first stage of the studying phase is qualitative and quantitative evaluation of vulnerability of existing building. This stage consists of two reports which will be elaborated in the following. Preparing the qualitative report: Preparing the qualitative report of existing building is the first part of the study process of evaluation and analysis of vulnerability. In this report, the consultant studies the qualitative condition of existing building. The consultants answer to the question of whether the existing building is worth retrofitting or not; based on the present documentations. If the building is not worth retrofitting, after the approval of the technical report by peer reviewer, the documents are sent o the master for evaluation and approval. In the case of the master s approval, the study process will be ceased and the building will be enlisted in the demolish-reconstruction projects. In some special cases, the master may prefer to retrofit the building taking into account the high costs; so reports the case to the consultant for proceeding with the studying processes. A glimpse to the topics of the qualitative report according to Bulletin 251 can help understanding the nature of this report. Initial data gathering Initial evaluation of the present condition of the building Evaluation of laws and executive considerations Economic and social considerations Determination of importance of the building with determined indices Initial evaluation of seismic condition of the building an initial proposals for retrofitting method Preparation on the initial list for areas should be uncover to determine section properties and the required tests Performing geotechnical and material testing: If concrete judgments cannot be made about the capacity of the building based on the present qualitative documentations, a list of the destructive and non-destructive tests proposed by the consultant. These experiments 17

24 are to determine the quality of construction and material in the building. This stage is one of the most expensive ones in the studying process of retrofitting and leads to preparation of the buildings geotechnical and material testing report. This report contains three major actions which as follows: 1. Demolition and uncovering to determine physical section properties 2. Performing the testing for determination of strength of material 2. Performing soil testing For organizing these actions, an instruction known as Bulletin 390 which has been prepared by Technical bureau of Iran related to Strategic plans and monitoring deputy of president in This bulletin states that all f these actions should be done by a consultant titled geotechnical and material testing consultant. In this bulletin, the responsibilities of geotechnical and material testing consultant and the study consultant in retrofitting project and the procedures of preparation, handing and approval of geotechnical and material testing report is determined. For undertaking these actions, each consultant should b given the credits and certificates from Strategic plans and monitoring deputy of president in the below figure, some samples of destructive and non-destructive tests are shown. Fig 13 : samples of non-destructive tests Preparing the quantitative report: Consultant starts the quantitative evaluation of the building based on the results of geotechnical and material testing report. In this stage, a numerical model of the building is developed and the capacity of the building when subjected to an earthquake with a determined intensity is evaluated. In the case of the building not fulfilling the requirements, the second phase of the project i.e. preparation of the retrofit plan is initiated. In the following, a brief description is presented for the topic of the quantitative report. Determination of the target of rehabilitation 1 ELEMENTS MAT NUM AUG :47:57 18 X Z Y

25 Risk assessment and determination of the plan spectra Determination of descriptive information and data of the present condition Descriptive evaluation of the needs of the building to retrofit Preparation of the rehabilitation plan of the building After in-depth evaluation of the present condition of the project, it is the tine for preparation of retrofit plan. This stage of the study process consists of two reports: the first report is the initial plan preparation report and the second one is descriptive plan preparation report. Initial plan preparation: in this stage of study process, the possible methods for seismic rehabilitation of the building are evaluated. After considering the technical, executive and economical limitations and the proper cooperation with the master, the best method is selected. In this stage the study consultant is supposed to technically, executively and economically evaluate three possible retrofitting techniques and propose one of them. After approval of this proposal by the technical supervisor's project, the proposed method is sent to the next stage for deeper evaluation. In the following, the topics of the initial plan preparation report are presented: Evaluation of retrofitting methods Technical, executive and economical evaluation of initial plan of the retrofitting options Selection of the best plan in cooperation with the master with respect to the comparative technical-economical report Descriptive plan preparation: based on the selected retrofitting method in the previous stage, preparation of the descriptive plan and the related document are initiated. In this stage, the selected retrofitting method is extensively used in the studies and the executive plans and the tender's documents after the approval of the technical supervisor (plan manager), is handed to the master. In the following, the topics of this report are presented. Preparation of the descriptive plan based on the initial one Rehabilitation of the non-structural elements Preparation of the executive plan Preparation of the technical specification Economic evaluation Preparation of the time schedule for the project Preparation of the tender's documents 19

26 State Organization Peer Reviewer Approval Approval Approval Approval Provincial offices Approval Retrofitting Consultant Geotechnical and Materials consultant Qualitive Report Analyze Report Testing report retrofitting Preliminary Plan Final Retrofitting Plan Contractor Fig 14 : schematic representation of the study process of the retrofitting projects As can be seen, retrofitting process is a very time and energy-consuming one. Some of the projects in this realm last for more than two years. Limitations on the actions which necessitate the executive forces in schools for demolishing and reconstruction of some parts of the building add lots of time to projects. Although the general approach of this organization is to perform non-destructive tests, there are not sufficient technical documents for many buildings. There is no way except demolishing and restoring some parts of the buildings Selection of the contractor and implementation of the retrofitting procedures It can be said that selecting of the proper contractor and implementation the project is one of the most important stags in each retrofitting project. Although with the time of studies becoming too long, this organization in this stage faces time limitations. On the other hand most of the large cities in Iran are located in the seismic prone areas and retrofitting of the school buildings in these regions are one the main priorities; while mobilization of the students of these school buildings to other places for a while academic year is far from feasible. It is because the implementation time for the retrofitting projects is limited to the summer month in which the schools are close. Since there are numerous school buildings which are retrofitting during summer, a tiny percentage on the unfinished project can result in social dilemmas in those regions. So selection of the proper contractor for the project is very crucial. Another important issue in the implementation of retrofitting projects is coordination with the owners of the school buildings or managers for handing the buildings. In many cases, the owners observe than considerable amount of civil engineering projects are done in the summer months and in some cases they face with a lot of damages to architectural of buildings. So, there may resistance on the part of the managers to hand the buildings to the 20

27 team project. So this organization in recent years has paid special attention to the architecture and facilities of the buildings. Also a lot of meetings have been held for briefing the managers and justifying the necessity of performing retrofitting projects. 3.3 Initial problems in achieving the goals of the school buildings retrofit plan Retrofitting of buildings is a relatively new subject in structural engineering in Iran and other countries and performing such projects needs some preparations. This organization has been a pioneer in this area in country; so it has encountered numerous challenges in the past. This organization has been implementing some innovative techniques in order to overcome these challenges and finish with the retrofitting projects in the shortest period of time or achieving the goals in the 4th economical and cultural development which is explained below: Problems classification Forming of a typical civil engineering project in a vast country like Iran necessitates cooperation of different factors. These factor include planning and legislative, management and steering, studying the plan and execution. Problems and deficiencies in even one of the above mentioned factors can result in poor quality and lees productive projects. This issue is more highlighted in retrofitting projects which requires implementation of more advanced knowledge. So proving the country with the requirements and bases foe undertaking such projects is of utmost importance. law making Planning Mangement and Steering Study and Implementati on of Plan Achievemt of concstruction plan Fig 15 : factors contributing in a successful plan 21

28 In the following, each of the influential factors, the related problems and recommendations for solving them is presented Area of planning and legislative Existence of law and planning in the realm of risk reduction upstream documents in economic and cultural development each country give special opportunities to them; the opportunities which make it possible for them to out their potentials in action. However if this plan is made without considering the bases and resources, this incident can lead to a complete failure. Failure in such plans like retrofitting ones can out them in the margins in the long term. Planning for retrofitting projects should be made considering the technical and engineering capabilities of consultants and contractors and also the economic foundation of the country. Enactments of the law of demolish, reconstruction and retrofit of school buildings in Iran has been made because of a historical necessity. Earthquakes in regions throughout the country pose a threat to the next generation. On the other hand, none of the governmental buildings have been scattered in the country like schools. Existence of such a safe building scattered in the country can definitely help the decision makers in the case of emergencies. But the question is have retrofitting of more than 250 thousands classrooms in less than 5 years been made anywhere in the world? This retrofitting plane has become more doomed considering more than 126 thousands classrooms alone should be retrofitted. This organization has more than 30 years of experience in demolish-reconstruction projects and had no concerns about the results and outcome of this part of this project. The question is about the retrofitting projects. Not only was this organization concerned about the results, but also no other organizations in the country were experienced enough in this realm. Anyway this organization started its retrofitting projects with the full capacity in Although this organization has faces a lot of problems in recent years, no retreat was made in its qualitative and quantitative goals Area of mastery and plan manager area The role of the master in retrofitting and rehabilitation projects is to provide the resources, supervise, steer, making coordination among different parts of the project and solving the possible problems. In the realm of retrofitting school buildings, due to being new in the engineering community and also specialty, the role of the master of the project is more highlighted. The necessity of using the experienced, specialized staffs in the retrofitting projects in provincial offices and the central office on one hand, and the limitations on the 22

29 part of employment system of Iran, add to the complexity of the problem. However this state organization has done some works for solving this issue a easy and fast as possible. Extensive use of peer reviewers for technical control of the study process Widespread training of the engineers in local offices in retrofitting classes for better cooperation with the study consultants Review and modification of the demolish-reconstruction and retrofit school buildings list Area of study and planning area One of the most important factors is preparing plans and its implementation is the consultant companies. In the retrofitting realm, due to the lack of the experiences in seismic rehabilitation, and absence of the technical guide which acts as an interface with an instruction and the design consultants, resulted in a lot of problems which was the low quality and quantity of retrofitting projects at the beginning. In this realm, this state organization has done some actions. Establishment of the technical committee of the retrofitting of school buildings of the country for collaboration between the studies and clarifying the ambiguous reaming points Preparation of the guidelines and technical reports for retrofitting of brick school buildings Preparation of the guidelines and technical reports for bracing connections Executive area of rehabilitation plans The more serious problem, to which this state organization has encountered in reaching to the goals of the 4th development plan in the realm of retrofitting of school buildings, was to implement the plans prepared by the consultants. On one hand, since the new nature of the retrofit projects, certified contractors in this area had not been determined. On the other hand, considering the lower cost of these projects in comparison with the demolishreconstruction projects, the experienced contractors were not eager to take actions. It is noteworthy that the retrofitting projects has considerably more specifications and complexity that an equivalent demolish-reconstruction one. This fact becomes more dominant when taking into account the three month deadline for completion with the retrofitting projects. The other problem has something to do with the system of the mastery of the projects. In many cases, the school managers are not willing to hand their school for retrofitting projects; this is because they observe that some people enter their buildings in the summer 23

30 months and perform considerable amounts of engineering works; while there are no such apparent changes in the appearance of the buildings. In fact their achievement of thee actions, is only a painting, if not the local destruction to the building. In this realm, this state organization has done some actions. The fist action implemented for handing school buildings was holding widespread briefing meetings for the officials in the provincial levels. In these detailed meetings descriptions were given to them about earthquakes and the actions taken by this state organization. The other action was paying attention to the architectural issues in parallel with the strengthening of the structure. Accordingly, by renovation of the facade and buildings facilities, the managers willingness toward handing their school buildings for the retrofit projects increased. Fig 16 : a sample of the retrofitted school building The other actions which was taken in the absence of the certified contractors, was training the contractors which were willing to perform retrofitting projects. The first phase of these trainings started in 2008 in five regions in the country and the second phase was located in each province separately. Now it has been 7 years from the beginning of the retrofitting project by this state organization. In this time, Iran can claim that it knows its real needs and challenges and take actions for solving the problems and needs; based on this fact, this state organization named 2010 as the resulting year of studying process in its work calendar. 24

31 3.3.6 Answering to a real need The main problem of this state organization is providing safety of more than 250 thousands classrooms in which more than 126 thousands classroom should be retrofitted and the rest of more than 132 thousands ones should be demolished and reconstructed. If we proceed with the study and execution of the retrofitting projects with the pace we used to, and by assuming that all the financial resources will be provided for all the 126 thousands classrooms, it would last more than 50 years for this state organization to finish with all the retrofitting projects. This fact elaborates that the present route to the retrofitting school buildings should be revised. It is worth mentioning that this state organization has reached to all of his oaths and responsibilities according to the 4th development plan; however this fact has not sufficed for retrofitting of more than 250 thousands classrooms. It is now the time to take a look at the school buildings which should be retrofitted according to the law passed by the Iranian parliament. This will clarify the importance of taking new approaches in retrofitting of school buildings. 3.4 Qualitative evaluation of the school buildings which should be retrofitted It was previously explained that school buildings in Iran are classified into satisfying, retrofit needed and demolish-reconstruction needed. The number of classrooms which should be retrofitted is more than 126 thousands which are qualitatively explained in the following parts of this report. The factors which are taken into account are: The structural type of the building The earthquake intensity Year of construction Number of stories Type of roof The structural type of school building The structural type of the school building is the most important factor in determination of the rehabilitation plan. So the information about its abundance helps us in preparing classified typical retrofit partial rehabilitation- plan. In the technical certificate there are four structural types: steel, concrete, masonry and other types including wooden, stone and adobe. In the following the abundance of each structural type is presented. 25

32 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran other 1% concrete 2% steel 8% masonry 89% structural type Fig 17 : abundance of each structural type As can be seen, more than 90% of school buildings in Iran (24411) are of the same structural type. Knowing this fact vastly assistss the future planning for seismic performance improvements of these structures. Considering that the masonry school buildings are very different in abundance than the other structural types, in the following parts of this report, they are specifically explained The structural type of school building The earthquake intensity affects greatly on the performance of brick buildings. Based on the observations from the previous earthquakes, brick buildings experience total collapse during earthquake greater than 6 in magnitude. Lack of ductility is the main deficiency of this type of the building; however, the results of past researchess show that strength in these buildings is enough to provide demand. The amount of damage in a ductile buildings changes according to the earthquake intensity; while this would not be the case in brick buildings. In a typical earthquake, ductile buildings experience serious damaged if located near the epicenter of the incident and the farther the building from the epicenter, the less would be the damages. However in masonry buildings, from the total collapse of the buildings, we can observe that in some areas there is not apparent damages in them; while there is no considerable distance between these two areas. This incident is because of the behavioral nature of brick buildings. These buildings, when reached to their strength threshold, experience total or partial collapse whichh originates from lack in ductility. So it can be concluded that: The threads to the brick school buildings which are located in areas with very high and high seismic prone areas are considerably more than the ones located in moderate and low seismic prone areas. 26

33 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran So information about the scatterings of this kind of structural buildings based on the location seismicity is very crucial. In the figure below, this scattering is depicted. very high 15% low 1% moderate 17% highh 67% earthquake risk level Fig 18 : Scatterings of brick school buildings based on the location seismicity As can be seen, more than 80% of school buildings in Iran are in great danger. The gravity of the situation is more pronounced when considering in each 2.5 years, at least one earthquake with the magnitude greater than 6.5 hits these areas. In other words, the possibility of an earthquake with the magnitude greater than 6.5 in a 10-year period is about 99% Year of construction Usually in recent projects, there are more technical considerations and detailing in design and construction. The importance of this issue is highlighted when knowing the codes and instructions has been changed different periods of time. The first edition of Code 2800 was passed and enacted in 1989 and before that, no mandatory instructionss for considering the lateral force of earthquake in design of buildings had existed. (But the draft of this code was in the hand of civil engineers sine 1987) the second edition of this code with dramatic changes was passed and enacted in Althoughh fortunately, no important changes were made for masonry buildings part, there weree considerable changes in developing Design spectra and in steel buildings. The most important regulation which was considered in the first edition of the code is implementa ation of horizontal tie a the base and under the roof of one-story masonry buildings and implementation of vertical tie (besidess the horizontal ones) for two-story and one-story with high importance ones. According to the above paragraph, the school buildings whichh have been constructed in above durations (before 1989, , after 1989) have same structural deficiencies. 27

34 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran So studying the masonry school buildings in year important. of construction point of view is very % after % before % year of construction Fig 19 : scatterings of brick school buildings based on the construction year According to the figure above, more than 70% of masonry school buildings in the country have been constructed when there weree no seismic instructions. Although based on the experiences from the retrofitting projects, most of masonry school buildings which have constructed after the Islamic Revolution have horizontal ties Number of stories of masonry school buildings Increasee in the number of stories in masonry buildings plays an important role in increasing their vulnerability against earthquakes. In some cases, the increase in the number of stories can change the rehabilitation methods completely. The figure below shows the scattering of masonry school buildings based on the number of stories. two12 % three and more 2 % one 86 % number of stories Fig 20 : scattering of masonry school buildings based on the number of stories 28

35 According to the figure above, more than 85% of the masonry school buildings in the country (more than 21000) are one-story. Based on the procedure of this report, the qualitative evaluation of one-story masonry buildings is presented in the following Type of roof of one-story masonry school buildings In the technical certificate of school buildings there are more than 20 types of roof systems. Considering the importance of roof system in terms of rigidity or uniformity in retrofitting projects, these structural elements is classified into 4 groups: 1. Jack-arch slabs: the observations from previous earthquakes suggest that jack-arch roofs are problematic for rigidity and uniformity point of view. Being very common in school buildings, a separate category should be considered for them. The important issue about this kind of roof is that it is specially constructed in Iran; so there are no design and analysis criteria for them prepared by other courtiers. 2- Concrete roofs: concrete roofs are in the form of composite, Waffle slab, flat concrete slab. These roofs show no problems in terms of rigidity and uniformity, provided that they are made from concrete with acceptable quality. 3- Wooden roofs: This type of roof located in the moderate and rainy regions of Iran. Moreover, these are very common and they have serious problems in terms of rigidity and uniformity. 4- Other types of roofs: they include a large spectrum of roof systems: pre-cast, Iranit, azbest, gable, adobe These types of roofs are also problematic in terms of rigidity and uniformity. However there are special considerations and detailing when it comes to retrofitting them. Figure below shows the scattering of the above-mentioned roof systems. 29

36 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran other 5% concrete 5 % wooden 10 % jack arch 80% roof type Fig 21 : scattering of masonry school buildings based on the roof system It is noteworthy that over 80% of masonry school buildings have jack-arch roofs; so they follow the same procedures for retrofitting. The school buildings include more than 60% of retrofitting projects (16804 school buildings) Fig 22 : a sample of retrofitted masonry school building with jack-arch roof A large number of school buildings in Iran posses the same structural specifications According to these statistics. So repetition with the long, time-consuming retrofitting processs for each of these buildings does not make any sense. So in the following of the providing the safety of the educational places in Iran, development of retrofitting techniques were drawn a lot of attention. These techniques are as follows: Classification and defining structural types for school buildings and proposing unique retrofitting procedure for each type Development of the uniform criteria for numerous school buildings with the same specifications The first method could solve the problem of many framed structure. This method includes all the actions in study process; with the difference that the results of the studying will be 30

37 utilized for several school buildings. However there are a lot of masonry school buildings remained which have to be dealt with the second method. 3.5 Development of new methods for retrofitting of school buildings in Iran partial rehabilitation The results of the studies reveal that the retrofitting process in Iran is a very timeconsuming and costly one. Covering all the stages in this process for structures with close details and specifications is very rare in the world. It was because this state organization has been considered new methods and criteria for its retrofitting projects. More than two years the different methods were studied and discussed. Various reports in this realm have been published and the results finally came in the form of new instruction on the new method for retrofitting of school buildings partial rehabilitation. The utilization of this new instruction was started in 2010 on limited number of school buildings and led to satisfactory results. Applying the term of partial rehabilitation to this new approach does not mean the local rehabilitation. The main reason for choosing this term is that by retrofitting a school building according to this new approach, some minor structural deficiencies may remain in the aftermath. In this approach the time-consuming process of study and consultants approval of the technical documents are not considered. Instead, very simple and fast methods are used to evaluate the capacity of the building and upgrading it to a determined level. In development of these techniques, this organization considered four goals: 1- Reducing the time of retrofitting projects studies: since a lot of school buildings should have retrofitted according to same methods and because of the close structural details, passing all the steps in retrofitting procedure for each of them is not logical. Moreover, this will require much longer period of time to achieve our goals in retrofitting of all school buildings in 5 years. 2- Increasing the speed and quality of execution: since implementation of these instructions leads to a unique retrofitting specifications and details, this will result in fast adaptation of the contractors with the executive methods and providing them with the equipment for a repetitive process. 3- Reducing the cost of retrofitting process: the total cost of the project greatly depends on the require tome of the project, the speed of execution and the amount of necessary equipment of the contractors. So repetition with the projects details and equipment will result in considerable cost saving in the retrofitting projects. 31

38 Development of the new solutions of this organization consisted of the four method; two of them were complemented in From the two remaining, one of them is in the study and research phase and the other which was not technically and economically justified was abandoned. The methods of this organization are as follows Partial rehabilitation of school buildings by shear walls In this instruction there are some tables containing the capacity of the shear walls and the piles with known details of the reinforcements and concrete in different soils. In the following, the standard specifications have been presented. A typical engineer can simply calculate the base shear of the building and in doing so, can evaluate the required number and length of shear wall(s) for reaching the calculated base shear. In the calculation of the number and length of shear wall(s), the load-bearing capacity of the masonry walls is neglected. The roof of the buildings which should be retrofitted cording to this instruction is jack-arch and should be converted to the composite concrete one. Also specifications have been designed for the connection of the roof and the walls which leads to improvement of the in-pane and out-of-plane wall performance. In this method, 1m of the upper area of the wall is reinforced. The engineers should follow and consider the specifications in this instruction in their technical ketches. This method was successfully implemented in some of school buildings in Fig 23 : samples of retrofitted school buildings with shear walls 32

39 Partial rehabilitation of school buildings with surrounding shotcrete This method has been chosen based on the successful experiences from other countries and numerous experiments on the masonry walls. In this method, the surrounding area of the one-story brick building is shotcreted. The size of the rebar and the thickness of concrete are chosen in such a way that can fulfill the seismic demand of the buildings. In calculation of the base shear of the building, the total weight of the structure plus the brick walls are considered and load-bearing capacity of the walls is neglected. The roof of the buildings in this class is jack-arch which should be converted to composite concrete. The engineers should follow and consider the specifications in this instruction in their technical ketches. This method was successfully implemented in some of school buildings in Figure below shows some samples of this project which have been executed in summer Fig 24 : samples of retrofitted school buildings with surrounding shotcrete Partial rehabilitation of school buildings with the safe class In this method, a steel frame is constructed for each classroom regardless of the capacity of the building, the variety of construction, structural and non-structural specifications. The aim of this method is to prevent falling of the debris on the present students in the classrooms. The different parts of the steel frame is designed and manufactured in order to 33

40 easily and fast assemble the whole frame (in the sliding manner). In this way it can be guaranteed that the steel frame is become tight inside the classroom. Of the advantages of this method is fast recycling of the retrofitting material in the case of demolishreconstruction plan. However this method could not bear enough chances to compete with other methods technically and economically and was not implemented widespread. 3.6 Partial rehabilitation of school buildings with Center Core State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran has developed retrofitting techniques in the scope of increasing the accuracy and speed of study and execution of the projects. Also it has worked on the modern methods specially for the brick buildings with historical background. This issue seems important considering that ministry of education of Iran posses a lot of school buildings with more than 70 years of age. Moreover, there are numerous historic brick buildings in Iran and retrofitting them by the conventional retrofitting techniques can endanger and intrude their historical value. The center core method is one of these retrofitting methods which has been in the center of attention of This organization. Fig 25 : Alborz high school in Tehran with more than 120 years of age The center core method is one of the specialized retrofitting techniques for masonry buildings against the earthquakes and for the first time was implemented in the U.S. in 1987 for retrofitting of some masonry buildings. The first step of this method is excavating vertical holes determined diameter in the whole height of the wall and in determined distances. In the next step, the holes are filled with rebar and grout and this 34

41 will result in improvement in seismic performance of masonry walls. Since in this method no apparent damage is posed to the architecture of the building and all the rehabilitation actions are outside the building, this method can be the best and the only solution for the buildings with historical importance and the buildings for which it is desired to maintain their service and functionality. In Iran, numerous historic masonry buildings which require stabilization against earthquake can provide good opportunities for this method to be vastly implemented. With the start of the retrofitting projects, there were some proposals by some consultants to use this method in some special cases. Since there are ambiguities in the executive issues of this method and low quality workmanship of Iran which drastically affects this method, and also considering the difference between the masonry walls characteristics in Iran and other countries, although justified technically and economically, this method has been halted temporarily. So this organization has defined a project in 2001 in order to evaluate the possibility of execution of this method. This project was executed on one of the demolishing school buildings in Tehran. This was because in the case of an unexpected accident, there were no serious economical damages to the building. The main goal of this project was to finding the specialized excavation techniques in masonry walls and the necessary equipment for not posing any damages to these elements. In general there were 4 holes, with the height of 7m in a URM wall with 10 different drilling bits and 2 different machines. The modification of the drilling head was based on the damages to the wall in each excavation step. The in-depth results of this project have been published in one of the reports of This organization Evaluation of center Core Method in Brick Walls. Samples of photos and equipment of this project is presented below. 35

42 Fig 26 : samples of the drilling and drilling heads Fig 27 : samples of the equipment used in the center core project 36

43 3.7 Supporting As previously stated, retrofitting projects of the lifelines in Iran is a new one in engineering community. So, providing the bases for development and supporting in order to improve the quality and quantity of the results of these projects are very crucial. In this realm this organization is one of the pioneers constantly observe the condition of these projects throughout the country. In the following, a brief review is made on the actions of this organization for improvement in quality and quantity of the retrofitting projects nationwide Establishment of the technical committee of retrofitting of school buildings The instruction for retrofitting of buildings was published in Iran in This instruction was based on the best national and international references. However, absence of supporting instructions was resulted in different implemented methods by the consultants. Even in some cases, there were different and contrary interpretations of these instructions. It was because this organization established the technical committee of retrofitting of school buildings as the reference for answering the technical ambiguities and preparing and approval of the technical documents. The main part of this committee is its members. Selection of these members which is the most important part of the committee establishment was based on the expert work of about a month. In selection of the members, it was preferred to use individuals who have been contributed in different retrofitting projects in the past; examples like this are experts university professors, plan managers, consultant engineers and masters experts. Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the committee was defined as 10 session periods. In this manner according to the some criteria the efficiency of each period can be evaluated at the end and if necessary, some of the members can be replaced for better efficiency. This committee started its works in 2009 with the goals listed below. conclusion, selection and saving the documentations from the past years Providing a gathering for data cycling and experience transfer Preparation and approval of the technical documents Providing integrity and coordination and in retrofitting plans 37

44 For increasing the efficiency of the committee, a specialized subcommittee was established with the responsibility of discussing and evaluating the executive specifications and details which were supposed to be discussed in the main committee. Since the success of this subcommittee in converging the discussed materials in the main committee, establishment of four subcommittees has become in the center of attention of this organization. These subcommittees are as follows: Legal subcommittee Executive specifications subcommittee Calculations subcommittee Staged rehabilitation subcommittee Publishing the technical reports Researching in the realm of retrofitting of buildings is now one of the important issues in civil engineering. This topic is not limited to Iran and the results of research works in this are is obvious in the world. In this scope, this organization has been considered various research activities. The results of these researches ware used in developing the instructions and technical reports. There are 5 technical reports now published by this organization with the titles listed below. Publication of these reports has aimed in integrating the works throughout the country and explanation of the central office decisions. 1. Improvement in seismic performance of braced frames (winter 2010) 2. Cost management in seismic rehabilitation of school buildings (fall 2010) 3. Evaluation of center core method in brick buildings (summer 2010) 4. Brick building and earthquake (fall 2009) 38

45 3.7.3 Preparing and publication of technical instructions Although the reference for preparing the executive bulletins and instruction in Iran is Technical bureau in Management and Planning Organization, the executive organizations are allowed to prepare their own instructions based on their needs. Since this organization is faced with numerous buildings for retrofit, it cannot accept variety of design methods and executive plans. Although various design methods lead to engineering innovations, it also can result in problems in controlling the technical documents and quality of the projects. By establishment of the technical committee of retrofitting of school buildings, this organization started preparing the executive instructions for converging in design and execution methods. There are four executive instructions with the titles listed below: 1. Instructions for shotcrete in retrofitting of school buildings 2. Instructions for connections of shotcrete in retrofitting of brick school buildings 3. Instructions for partial rehabilitation of school buildings 4. Instructions for standard specifications of convergent bracing Establishment of information portal and electrical platform for technical documents archiving Since This organization are faced with numerous consultants and contractors, explicit informing and conveying the exact expectations of the central office from the consultants in of utmost importance. In this scope, the central office has established the information portal for the office of the retrofitting of school buildings. In this portal, the latest circulars and technical documents needed by the consultants and provincial offices are accessible. The utilized technology this portal is Sharepoint. So in this portal the option of sharing the experiences of all the members is available. This portal played an important role in sharing the experiences of the executive units and the documentation of these experiences. Moreover, This organization has established an electrical platform for technical documents archiving which had been prepared by the consultants and all the documents are archived in a well-defined procedure. 39

46 3.7.5 Holding gatherings and training courses Since retrofitting of buildings is comparatively a new industry in civil engineering in Iran and other countries, the conveyance of the new data and information and experience cycling and sharing among the contributors of this industry is very important. So this organization holds different educational workshops and seminars for the aforementioned individuals annually. 40

47 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran 3.8 A pictorial review on the conventional retrofitting methods Fig 28 : adding bracing to the existing building 41

48 Fig 29 : adding bracing to the existing building 42

49 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran Fig 30 : retrofitting of brick school building 43

50 Fig 31 : partial rehabilitation of one-story brick school building by adding shear walls 44

51 Fig 32 : partial rehabilitation of one-story brick school building by surrounding shotcrete 45

52 Fig 33 : rehabilitation of school buildings with light roof in northern parts of Iran 46

53 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran Fig 34 : lightening the building in rehabilitation project and the base retrofitting 47

54 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran جنبي Fig 35 : a sample of performing tests خدمات in school 48

55 4- A review on demolish and reconstruction of school buildings in Iran From the establishment of this organization in 1976, construction of new school buildings, development and renovation of them are of the main responsibilities of this organization. So this organization has 35 years of experience in construction the buildings. However, this organization faced very little problems in demolish and reconstruction of school buildings compared to retrofitting them. It is worth mentioning that the area of responsibilities of this organization broadened from construction of new school buildings based on growing population to all aging present school builds since the enactment of demolish and reconstruction of school buildings plan in Demolish and reconstruction of more than 136 thousands classroom was just a part of the upgrading plan of the educational places in Iran which was supposed to b completed by the end of the fourth development plan. The estimated budget for this project was 4 billion U.S. dollars. So an organized plan was a necessity for reaching to the goals of the project and fulfilling the responsibilities of this organization. 4.1 Design approaches State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran had to consider the classified types of the designs for its required places. In this approach, more reliability could be achieved about the quality in design and execution in the new educational places. From the past years, there were different designs for various educational levels in different parts of the country. However the start of demolish- reconstruction project of school buildings in Iran was coincident with the revision and enactment of the new edition of Code 2800 (Iranian Code of Practice for Seismic Resistant Design of Buildings). Besides that, new regulations were prepared based on the educational needs of the country which had not been anticipated in the previous design types of this organization. So This organization considered revisions in its previous design types, accordingly. In the meantime, new design types were created which satisfied the new educational needs and regulations in Iran. This state organization classified the country into various climate regions in order to organize the design types of the educational places. So each of the design types was dedicated to one the regions. These design types are inserted to a web-based plan archiving platform after final approval of the central office. So, all the provincial offices 49

56 have access to all the approved documents. Also by this platform, all the provincial offices can inform about the innovation and experiences of each others. Besides the design types, there are considerable number of special projects in dimensions and functionality. These projects are designed with the aid of the consultant services or the provincial offices. Fig 36 : climate zoning of Iran The design procedure is that in the first, initial studies should b performed and after preparing the first phase plans by the architectural designer, coordination meeting with the structural designers, mechanical and electrical faculties are designed for the second phase. Finally the results of the design and calculations are in the form of executive plans. 4.2 Instructions and codes Designing the buildings is done based on the standards, codes and, national regulations and the technical bulletins of deputy programming. In addition, special buildings like schools should fulfill the regulations in their special codes and bulletins requirements. 50

57 The national buildings regulations are regarded as parts of the technical documents of buildings and contain the minimum regulations for design, execution and maintenance of buildings and applying their regulations is mandatory for public and private projects. These regulations are prepared in 20 topics which deal with the official and technical regulations of different branches of design of buildings. In the following, a brief look is taken in the topics of these regulations: Topic 1: definitions Topic 2: official regulations Topic 3: fire protection of buildings Topic 4: general requirements of buildings Topic 5: construction materials and products Topic 6: exerted loads on the building Topic 7: foundation and building foundation Topic 8: design and construction of masonry buildings Topic 9: design and construction of RC buildings Topic 10: design and construction of steel Buildings Topic 11: industrial construction of buildings Topic 12: safety and work protection during execution Topic 13: design and construction of electrical facilities in buildings Topic 14: thermal facilities, air replacement and conditioning Topic 15: elevators and moving staircases Topic 16: sanitary facilities Topic 17: piping and natural gas facilities Topic 18: insulation and sound tuning Topic 19: reducing energy consumption Topic 20: signs and boards The architectural design of schools and educational places is based specially on the regulations of Bulletin 232. In this bulletin, the students concentration, required room, capacity, capitation of the area and the total area beside the table of physical programs of the educational places, training, official and supporting is presented. In addition, the regulations for location selection of the educational places, safety of the educational units and the standards of the enclosure are attached. 51

58 4.3 New approaches in construction of educational places This state organization with the past experiences from the demolish-reconstruction projects, made new approaches in construction of educational places. These approaches are classified into 5 groups which are as follows: Structure Architecture Facilities Educational equipment ( workroom-lab-computer site) Geotechnical and material testing equipment (sport spaces-prayer room) It is worth mentioning that the implementation of these new approaches in the demolishreconstruction projects does not mean their absence in the previous years of the plan initiation. However, formal enactment in the organization was to better reach to the organizational goals and to better converge the executive factors. In the following, a brief description is given for the abovementioned new approaches: Special approaches in structural design and construction of the frames of school buildings In the structural realm, new approaches include lightening and industrializing the buildings. In this scope, this state organization invited all the participants in this area for cooperating and proposals with a general call. After evaluation of the proposals in this organization, the approved methods were introduced to all the provincial offices. In the following, the methods of lightening and industrializing the buildings and their benefits in the educational places are discussed. Industrialized frame building construction As stated previously, the area of activities of This state organization is all over the country. So this organization has many projects in faraway regions. In the conventional construction methods, the farther the location of the projects is from the industrial places and cities the lower the quality of the project and the lesser the control over the process would be. For solving this problem, this state organization has considered industrializing its projects. For this 52

59 purpose, the bolt connation steel frames which made it possible to construct the whole frame in the factory were considered as the best option by the engineers and designers. Advantages: Quality control Speed of implementation Increase in construction precision Modulating the structural elements Lightening and elimination of additional structural elements Structural lightening Reducing the permanent loads (Dead loads) of the buildings not only decrease the executive costs, but also has a close relation to upgrading the safety of the building. the traditional construction methods in Iran greatly contribute to increasing the dead loads on the buildings. So it is crucial to completely revise the present construction techniques. in this scope, This state organization added construction with cold form elements (besides the traditional methods) in order to reduce the dead loads and utilized this method in many projects. In the following, a brief look is taken to the advantages of each of these methods. Advantages of cold formed structures: Reduction in dead loads of the building Great strength to weight ratio Variety of cold formed elements in form and combination Use of bolt connections Special approaches in spaces architecture The population of Iran has increased dramatically in the past decades, so providing the educational places is one of the main priorities of This state organization. It was because not enough attention was paid to architecture and the framework of the 53

60 Country Report on Retrofit Procedure of School Buildings in Islamic Republic of Iran educational places. the passing the demolish-reconstruction and retrofitting of the unsafe school buildings made an opportunity for This state organization to revise the design methods in the architectural point of view. For this purpose was prepared in this organization with the title of design of educational places (Bulletin 232) ). This bulleting contains all the issues in designing the framework of school buildings. Now observing all the requirements in this bulleting is mandatory in school designing Special approaches in facilities Cheap energy was the main reason of the masters' unwillingness for spending any money on reduction in energy consumption. The evaluation of the technical office of the organization showed, althoughh with the cheap energy, investmentt in the reduction in energy consumption will be economical. So from the initiation of the project social attentionn was given to this issue. School s engine rooms were equipped with the intelligent systems and the layers of the windows glassing were doubled and also the walls were insulated. From the start of the objective subsidies plan and the releasing prices the methods for reduction in energy consumptionn were accelerated. Another importantt action of This state organization was eliminating the oil heaters from all schools in the country. With respect to the possible dangers of this kind of eaters, this organization has replaced all the oil heaters with the modern technologies in accordance with the climate conditions in 5-year project Special approaches in schools educational equipment Utilizing proper educational equipment has a deep effect on reaching the educational goals. Schools are the places where students learn the techniques of life besides the new knowledge. Getting to know these techniques is very important in high school education. This goal is not usually reached in the classroom space; since the activity options of each student is very limited in this space. So students cannot outcrop their capabilities and strengthen their innovations. There are numerous students who have learned these 54

61 techniques in workshops and laboratories. In these spaces, students learn how to interact and cooperate with each other to reach to a specific goal. Daring to solve the complicated problems and the art of making technology from knowledge are taught in these places. A school which is equipped with modern labs, proper computer site and related workshops with adequate equipment will be an attractive and refreshing environment for the students. During the execution of demolishreconstruction project of school buildings, equipping these buildings with labs and modern workshops has been placed in a high priority. The importance of this issue is that this state organization has dedicated 12% of its budget to educational equipment of schools Marginal buildings Consideration of library, Indoor and outdoor sport courts, constructing prayer room besides the educational places has been the priorities of this state organization in the demolish-reconstruction project. It can be said that this organization does not give any schools to ministry of education without prayer room. Moreover, there are more than 2600 sport spaces constructed by this organization. These places include 1450 multipurpose sport saloons, 1150 outdoor sport courts, more than 50 swimming pools in area larger than 2200 square meters. However in populated cities, consideration of indoor sport courts was limited in some cases. In these areas, consideration of at least one sport saloon in each educational district was made. In addition, based on the agreement between State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization and the sport organization of Iran, construction of all sport places in cities are made beside the educational places. In this manner, the equipment and facilities of sport organization of Iran are accessible to the students and this organization can vastly distinguish the sport potentials among students. 55

62 4.4 Supporting Supporting the provincial offices in order to improve the quality and quantity of the design levels of the projects is one the main responsibilities of the central office (technical office of this organization. In this approach, this office always considered research and publishing, education and broadcasting, holding local and national seminars. In the following each of these actions are described Research and publishing Design and calculations in demolish-reconstruction projects sometimes face difficulties which can be overcome by mastery of the problem, using new methods in design and implantation and revision in some technical regulations. For this purpose, the technical office of this organization has translated and published the journals and technical documents and sometimes consulted with the university professors. The results of these actions are in the form of instructions, circulars and regulations for special design cases, bylaw and technical certificate and also technical specifications (connection specifications ) Holding gatherings, workshops and conferences The framework of educational places is of the most effective factors in progressing in educational goals. So this state organization holds annual conference titled conference on Iranian school-iranian architecture. This conference which has been held successfully in five times, made considerable effects on improving the quality of educational places in Iran. In these conferences, all the designers of the provincial offices of the organization, the capable consultants inside and outside the country, university students, pioneers and professions in the realm of architecture are invited through general announcement in order to show off their latest achievements in this area. Also the some designs are selected by a workgroup and their designers are appreciated by gifts. 56

63 4.1 A review on the demolished-reconstructed schools Fig 37 : photos of erecting the steel frame 57

64 Fig 38 : photos of the outdoor view of some demolished-reconstructed schools 58

65 Fig 39 : photos of the indoor view of some demolished-reconstructed schools 59

66 Fig 40 : photos of educational equipment of some Iranian schools 60

67 Fig 41 : photos of sport equipment and prayer room of some Iranian schools 61

68 5- Technical certificate of educational places in Iran Regarding the need for a database of education placed data and information like location, structural type, architecture and facilities, student population, present availabilities, the initial design of the database was made 2003 and the necessary statistics of about 85% of the educational places throughout the country was derived. The project of this kind was indeed unique one in Iran and the related data and information from it could dramatically made changes in planning and upgrading the safety of educational places. 5.1 The need for modification to Technical certificate of 2003 Based on the experiences from 5 years of execution of demolish-reconstruction and retrofitting of school buildings in Iran, the Technical certificate of 2003 was revised and modified. The new certificate is better than its predecessor in different aspects. Expansion of the data fields, the method of data gathering and archiving are on the important ones. In the following, a brief review on the Technical certificate of 2003 is made and the necessity of revising it is elaborated. Rapid evaluation of the building The certificate which was filled in by the technicians in 2003 had an item about the condition of the building in the stability point of view. The decision about this condition was made by rapid eye screening of the building by the technician; so it is obvious the situation of the building was solely dependent on the personal judgment of the technician. It was because This state organization was to design the rapid evaluation forms of school buildings and during a research project, and by using the experiences from different parts of Iran in retrofitting projects finally made this form. Revision of the school buildings classification Based on the experiences from 5 years, the central office has successfully developed retrofitting techniques in school buildings. Besides that, the total cost of retrofitting projects has continually decreased. So revision of the school buildings classification was necessary for this office. In the new classification in the school building certificate, This state organization decided to classify the school buildings into 5 types instead of 3 types: Satisfying schools Ordinary retrofit needed schools (whole process of study and implementation) Partial rehabilitation schools (using the typical and classified sketches and specifications) 62

69 Demolish-reconstruction needed schools Schools without the sufficient price for spending money This new classification helps greatly provide and distribute available financial resources. Revision in certificate forms The project of technical certificate which was initiated in 2003 was the first experience of this kind of The Islamic Republic of Iran. Although great attention had been dedicated in designing the forms, during the execution of the central office plans, this office was in desperate need of some data and information for further planning which had not been considered in the forms. In the past years, revision in the forms was in center of attention of This state organization. The new forms were designed in order to cover a large variety of this organization and other one s needs. Coordination with the operational systems of ministry of education The ministry of education of Iran owns several operational systems for its staffs and students in order to better plan and manage its own duties. In the form designed in 2003, perfect coordination of the technical certificate with the other operational systems of the ministry of education did not achieve. Absence of this coordination was of the major problems in the ministry of education planning which was completely solved by designing and implementing the new technical certificate. The new certificate has been designed to make it possible to share the data and information with other operational systems of the ministry of education. After 7 years of technical certificate data in 2003 One of the most important issues relating to the technical certificate of 2003 was it was designed and implemented offline; so it was impossible to update its information. However, the central office has continually engaged with the demolish-reconstruction and retrofit projects. More than 100 thousands classrooms have been demolished and reconstructed and more than 10 thousands ones were retrofitted after 7 years of implementation of the first technical certificate,. Start of the fifth economic, social and cultural development of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2011 and the necessity of updating the previous plans of the central office were making a comprehensive revision on the technical certificated of 2003 a crucial task. The electronic platform of the new certificate was designed in such a way to be able to connect to other operational systems of this state organization for constantly updating the present data and information in the system. 63

70 Updating of this data is the results of the executive actions of the organization and without the need of directly inserting the data to the system. 5.2 Project of technical certificate in 2010 Finally in 2010 and based on the command of the high-rank officials of the ministry, the second and the main phase of the technical certificate of project was initiated. It was intended to revise the data, preparation for planning organizing the educational places in the country with the new approach. According to the responsibilities of this state organization, the execution of this project was defined as one of its duties. In this project, this state organization should inspect more than 100 thousands educational places in the country. In each place, there were more than 360 items to be checked in the forms and after approval of the supervisors of the projects, inserted in the web-based electronic platform. The importance of revision to the technical certificate and the amount or works was obvious to everyone involved in the project. So he planning of the project was made to achieve the maximum possible success. This kind of management was unique in its kind and was one of the successful experiences of this state organization. It was because before implementation of each part of executive actions, a brief evaluation of the work was made and the short-term planning was made accordingly. In the beginning, the project was divided into different phases and the success of each one was observed completely. Phase 1: establishment of a system on the central and provincial offices for project execution With the start of the revision project, the executive chart and organizing the project was immediately started. In this scope, one of the managers of the central office was selected as the project manager of the country and simultaneously, 30 other provincial managers were selected by him. Then in the central staff, the project management office was established and immediately started organizing the project. The secretariat as he most important part of the project was created with the target of distributing and controlling the technical forms. In several meetings, the procedure of organizing the forms before data gathering and the executive responsibilities of the provincial secretariat was elaborated. For better coordination of the executive works of the project, besides establishment of the steering staff in the central office, 30 provincial staffs including the personnel contributing 64

71 to the project in provincial offices and the ministry of education offices were established or regional executive works. Phase 2 data gathering and data controlling in paper forms Foe execution of the project, about 700 data gathering teams in provincial offices were formed and about persons in the form of 1,500,000 man-hours was dedicated to this project. The data gathering forms were distributed among the teams and after the work, they were recollected. Considering the vast amount of data and the necessity for attention to the work and the reliability of the gathered data, the main responsibility of the teams was controlling at least 10% of tall the gathered data. The advanced supervision on the project progression was done by the supervising teams from the central office. The result of this project was to constantly monitoring the quality of data. Fig 42 : data gathering and data controlling in paper forms Phase 3: inserting the data in the electronic platform Before starting the project, in order to save, archive and constantly updating the data, the electronic platform of the technical certificate of the educational places had been designed. After data gathering and controlling, the data should be carefully inserted to the platform. In this stage, the platform was equipped with the self-controlling mechanisms in order to in the case of human errors in inserting the data, the system gives warnings. Moreover, the inserted data was constantly controlled and revised by the central office and if there were any mistakes, the related province was informed. 65

72 Fig 43 : inserting the data to technical certificate platform Phase 4: filtering and final approval of the data After inserting the data to the platform, although the data inserting process was constantly monitored, a deadline was given to the provinces to prepare evaluative reports form the inserter data and control them and make final approval. 5.3 A review on the general goals of the technical certificate Establishing the technical certificate system and gathering all the data related to the educational places Derivation of the data necessary for planning for construction of the educational places Organizing the educational places and accessing to the proper information for better utilizing the educational offices Preparing the bases for conservation and maintenance of buildings and places by on-time major and minor fixations Mechanization of the data about the places under the authority of ministry of education of The Islamic Republic of Iran (in the form of certificate portal) for better utilization of the data for future planning Planning for reconstruction and retrofitting of unstable or nonresistant buildings Preparation of installation of a metal plaque containing the unique certificate number on each building Development of an organized process of locating the new educational places and proper allocation of financial resources with respect to student population and the location of the educational places Organizing school buildings in order to reach to internal environment standard Organizing school buildings in order to reach to facilities standard Preparing and publishing the annual statistics report 66

73 6- Utilizing IT in State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization of Iran After invention of writing, book and printing, the fourth informational revolution i.e. Information Technology made dramatic changes in saving, processing methods and accessing to the information and databases. Thanks to this new technology, accessing to the more up-to-date and reliable information became possible and gradually some concepts like knowledge management were born. The average cost of data processing from 1960 to 2000 reduced to less than 0.01%. Also due to this technology, accessing to the information became apart from the physical limitations. So it became possible to access the information from any location. Now we can see that the information and databases are regarded as one of the precious organizational sources and one of the advantages in competition and production tools. Regarding the growing importance widespread use of IT, special attention has been given to optimized use of this new technology in Iran. In this scope This state organization, alongside the other organizations, has made some plans in order to better utilize this new technology. Generally the actions of this organization in this realm can be classified into two parts: 1. Main actions: This consists of the main responsibilities of the organization. In This state organization, this responsibility is construction and development of educational rooms, considering the technical and cultural criterion. 2. Supporting actions: actions for easing and providing resources for the main actions. Examples of this part are financial management, staff, supplies... In utilizing the IT in many organizations, the supporting actions have been given a lot of attention and work. In This state organization, like the other organizations, utilizing IT had been limited to these actions. For this purpose, various software platforms were installed in order to facilitate the supporting actions. Among the capabilities of this software are accounting, storage, credits, staff, wages and automation. In the scope of developing the utilization of IT in recent years, IT was gradually applied to the main actions in the organization. So new projects like project management system and school buildings certificate has been defined and successfully utilized. Nowadays This state organization extensively uses different platforms for managing and controlling its actions which are as follows. 1- Project management platform 67

74 2- Room technical certificate platform 3- Plan archiving platform 4- Public contribution platform 5- Central portal of this state organization based on the Sharepoint Technology 6- Official automation system of the organization In the following a brief description of the important systems of this state organization is presented. 6.1 Project management platform One of the main concerns of this state organization in recent years has been having a reliable and up-to-date database of the present executive and financial conditions of its projects throughout the country. so there was a need for a system capable of managing the projects data and information. In recent years, numerous efforts have been made in this state organization for utilizing the project management system. The results of these efforts became in the form of a comprehensive, integrated project management system throughout the country since The goal and range of the project The main goal of this project is to design and install a system for mechanization of executive civil engineering actions in the operating level for engineers and mid-level managers in different provinces. Also in staff stage, developing of a database from the executive actions in the system for facilitating the decision making processes and to better staff and steering planning. in the operation range of this system is the al the provinces. All the provincial offices of the organization register all the profiles of their projects from start to the end in this platform. The system requires all the offices to register all the information of their projects and if they do not, no financial supplies will be granted to their projects; so all their actions can be traced in this platform. The goals which are described below are specially desired by the designers and clients of this system. 1- Providing the bases for the managers to access to reliable information about the executive actions in organizational levels (province and organization) in the shortest period of time. 68

75 2- Control and supervision of the projects in operating (TPS) and managerial (MIS) levels. 3- Standardizing the concepts and forms in offices of State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization in order to correct the methods and approaches and prevent different personal preferences in performing projects. 4- Mechanization of the actions and process like documents investigation, issuance of payment draft, determination of physical progress of the projects, control of the tome schedule of the projects, projects payments Increasing accuracy and speed 6- Clarifying with the actions 7- increasing the satisfaction of clients (contractors, ministry of education offices, supervising organizations like Management and Planning Organization, governors...) 8- Feasibility of performance evaluation of the provincial offices by the central office of the organization 9- Acceleration in the data exchange and facilitating the data cycles. project management platform features The system has unique features and advantages which the most important ones are as follows: This system is web-based and is created as a central and integrated form. so accessing to the latest information in every place and time is possible for users ns managers. Feasibility of registration and management of civil engineering credits Registration of all the contracts and the information of all the contractors Feasibility of registration and management of information of the physical progression of the projects Feasibility of registration and printing of payment drafts electronically Receiving the managerial reports: percentage of allocation and budget absorption, physical progression of the projects, the handed and finished projects, comparison of provincial performances in budget absorption 69

76 Fig 44 : project management platform State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization 6.2 The technical certificate of the educational bases of Iran The need for having a database of the quality and quantity of the educational and training offices has been a crucial need of the planner in the country. Considering this need, State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization took the responsibility of educational bases statistics and in 2004, undertook a project for data gathering and completion with the technical database of the schools nationwide. The results of this project are the database system of almost all the educational bases throughout the country. The technical certificate of school buildings has been modified in 2007 and its connection to the Bakfa system of the ministry of education has been changed. The Bakfa system of the ministry of education is the system in which all the personal and educational information of each student is has been stored. The features of this system besides the area of this system made it possible for the ministry of education that at each time, how many educational places are located in each region, and with the number of its staffs and students. 6.3 Plan archiving system One of the most important needs of State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization is to properly archive its technical plans and managing them via internet. Through this system, the engineers of the organization from all over the country can use and synchronize the plans and estimations of different projects. 70

77 Fig 45 : Plan archiving platform The goal of implementation of the platform: The goal of this project was to electronically archiving all the designed plans for the educational and training places in the country and providing the database for easing and accelerating the data transfer and communication issues. In the following, we take a look on the operational goals and the advantages of this system. 1. Reinforce knowledge in designing the educational places and proper utilization of the present experiences 2. Feasibility of management and steering the organization s actions and in the provinces based on the central office goals. 3. Feasibility of utilizing the knowledge by the public 4. Feasibility of systematic utilization of the plans information in other operational and informational platforms like project management and technical certificate of the space platforms. Some of the features and capabilities of the platform: 1. Availability of the latest information for the users in the platform 2. Web-based and online access to the platform in anytime, anywhere 3. Increase in the durability coefficient of the plans and Feasibility of the data saving and utilizing for several years 4. Integration of the utilization procedure and access to the plans information 5. Feasibility of inserting the new and revised plans, updating the plans information and archiving the previous editions of the plans in the shortest period of time 6. Feasibility of searching the plans regarding all the available information 7. Reporting from the plans and information based on the statistical data 71

78 8. Feasibility of plans classification based on different factors like climate, educational level 6.4 Public contributions system One of the most important strategies of This state organization is to communicate and enlist the charity contributors for helping in the school construction purposes. In this scope, a ceremony titled Charity School Builders is held annually in the center of all the provinces in which the charity contributors are determined, acknowledged and new pledges from the charity contributors are accepted. So the need for a database for the charity contributors and the process of their contributions has been always felt. In this scope, a platform was established with the purpose listed below. Inserting the information about the charity school builders Inserting the charity contributors pledges Inserting the made agreements with the charity contributors Connection with the project management system Feasibility of tracing the contributors pledges Feasibility of receiving various statistical reports Fig 46 : Iranian charity school builders platform 6.5 The organization portal based on SharePoint technology One of the most important goals for choosing SharePoint technology, in addition to easing the interaction and organizational sharing, integrating the present systems in a common base. In fact one of the goals which have been given attention in this year was to integrate 72

79 the various systems of this state organization. Also by connection the software systems, more informational Synergism and reaching to the goals of information-based management can be achieved. As building a uniform hardware network is necessary for operating systems, making a uniform software network for integrating systems is crucial. One of the proper systems for software integrating is Microsoft Share point. Fig 47 : central portal of the organization based on sharepoint technology 6.6 Official automation platform Official automation platform of this state organization was established uniformly in the country in The area of use of this system in this organization is very vast; as in many offices, paper documents has been eliminated and replaced by this system. The unique advantages of this system are: feasibility of registration, cycling, tracing and documenting all the sent, received and internal correspondences Instant access to the correspondences histories Exchange contractions between the organization and its provincial offices electronically and instantly By the final phase of this project in summer 2007, electrical connection between the central office and all the provincial offices was completed and since then, there were no paper work sent or received with the exception of special cases in which the original document is required. 73

80 7- Public contribution in school building construction in Iran Besides the constructed school buildings by the Islamic Republic of Iran, this work has been in the center of attention as a charity by the Iranian people in such a manner than in some periods, the school buildings construction by the public has been more than the governmental works in this realm. According to some of the officials, more than 30% of school building throughout the country is the product of charity works. With a glimpse at the pledges of the charity school builders in recent years, it is obvious that by passing the demolish-reconstruction law in 2007, the number of oaths has been increased. Million US Dollar (1,000,000$) Fig 48 : oaths of the charity school builders 7.1 A review on the history of public contribution in school building construction The culture of dedication and doing charity works in different ways has a long history in Iran. After Islamic Revolution, Iranian people according to their favors in participating in social activities and considering the problem and limitations in having proper schools originated from bursting student population and widespread education and lacking proper resources and facilities, turned to ministry of education for giving help. Endowment of land facilitates and construction of small school was of their contributions. For receiving the public donations and advertising charity actions, some units named Public determination of schools construction were born in provinces and the ministry of education. This state organization which was responsible for school building construction from the governmental budget modified its organization chart in order to deal with the 74

81 need for control the charity constructions. By modifying the organization chart in 1997, a unit was created named Office of people s financial participation. This office was for receiving the charity donations working with the Programming and resource office for receiving governmental budget under supervision of Partnership and planning Deputy. From that time, this office has continued its work with some difficulties. In the following, an introduction to the activities of this office for organizing and receiving the public charity donations is made. 7.2 Creating the charity construction groups For organizing the public contribution to school building construction, the best management method was by people themselves. Giving the management and supervision on receiving and spending the charity financial resources could help increasing the reliability from the public and their contribution in school buildings construction. So establishment of public-based organization named Charity School Builders in the country has been drawn attention. By the passing the statue of this unit by presence of 30 reliable charity workers determined by ministry of educating and State Organization of School Renovation, Development and Mobilization in 1999 in Mashhad, Charity School Builders started its works. This unit gradually expanded its offices in all the provinces and cities throughout the country. Now this unit has its own local offices in each province of Iran and also in more than 425 cities has its own representations. Also for providing initiatives for charity contributions in school buildings construction, three offices outside the borers have been established. 7.3 Expansion of public contributions culture in school buildings construction For expansion of public contribution to construction of school building and educational places, glorification of the social position of the charity contributors and introducing them to the community has been drawn attention in the Charity School Builders unit and this state organization. In this scope, the public contribution office has been holding provincial or national ceremonies, printing books about the biography of the charity contributors In the following, a brief description about these actions is presented. 75

82 Holding provincial ceremonies for tribute of charity contributors Ceremony for charity contributors held in each April is intended to appreciate the actions of the charity contributors in the past year and knowing and guiding the new interested people for being active in this area. These ceremonies are held initially in the city level in a short period of time. Then all the charity contributors of the province gather at one place and hold another ceremony. There 12 provincial ceremonies ever held and in the first one alone, 17 million US dollars has been raised and in the last one there has been pledged to 740 million US dollars to be fundraised. Establishment of fairs for showing off the charity contributors actions in school buildings construction with the presence of charity contributors, the officials province and its cities and with the distinguished guests speeches, and by mentioning the charity contributors initiatives, giving souvenir, introduction of successful students and graduates of the schools which have been constructed by charity contributions, performing art works and announcing the charity contributors pledges are of the actions in these ceremonies. Holding national ceremonies for tribute of charity contributors These gatherings are held after start of the academic year in the country with the This state organization as the host and by invitation of the selected charity contributors from the country in Tehran or one of the provinces. The main goals of these ceremonies are tribute and glorification of the charity contributors and with the presence of the high-ranked officials. There are 12 of this ceremony has been held. 76