Earthquake-resistant Construction Regulations
Introduction
The Colombian Earthquake Resistant Construction Regulations (NSR-10) is the Colombian regulation in charge of regulating the conditions that constructions must have in order for the structural response to an earthquake to be favorable. It was promulgated by Decree 926 of March 19, 2010, which was sanctioned by then-president Álvaro Uribe. Subsequent to decree 926 of 2010, modifications have been introduced in decrees 2525 of July 13, 2010, 092 of January 17, 2011, 340 of February 13, 2012 and 945 of June 5, 2017.
The standard was subjected to evaluation for three years, until it obtained approval from the ministries of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development, Transportation and the Interior. One of the most relevant points of this version is the new seismicity map prepared by the National Seismological Network attached to Ingeominas, which allows for more accurate identification of seismic threat zones. This will allow variations in structural designs, depending on whether the area is high, intermediate or low. To make this map, around 22,000 additional events were recorded between 1995 and 2009 (to the 13,000 that created the NSR-98 version) which allowed a better estimate to be made.
Therefore, it is worth highlighting and clarifying that this standard is made by Colombian entities and its use for other regions is not specified.