When the earthquake struck in Nepal, in April, some 130,000 houses were reportedly destroyed. Something similar happened in 2009 in the Italian city of L’Aquila, which had large parts of its beautiful historical center devastated and in

Haiti and Chile in 2010.

You may be tempted to ask yourself: how could that happen? Sure enough, when mother Nature shows all of the fury, there are few things we little humans can do; but, nowadays, it’s possible to design new buildings with anti-seismic

devices, such as isolation systems and dampers that can successfully withstand the vast majority of earthquakes.

The rub is, for old, heritage structures, like those that characterized L’Aquila, or in developing countries, these kind of solutions can prove too expensive, or impractical.

So, what could be done in those cases, to stop the bloodbath or at least limit the damages? Researchers from the University of Brighton (UK) believe they have found a possible solution, though further studies will be needed.
Using Big Data In A Crisis: Nepal Earthquake - Forbes