Safer Schools Rapid Diagnostics in Mongolia

Safer Schools Rapid Diagnostics in Mongolia involved conducting a critical hazard risk assessment focused on earthquake, landslide and avalanche, and flooding risks in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia. Such an assessment was essential in the face of demographic change—for instance, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization in Ulaanbataar City that approximately doubled the population, to 1.3 million, in the past 10 years. Investment in the maintenance of existing school buildings and construction of new ones had failed to keep pace with increasing demand, resulting in a shortage of classrooms in the city. 

Activities supported by the World Bank

• Evaluation of hazards in Ulaanbataar City, including a review of existing data to ascertain their frequency and intensity

• A rapid visual assessment (RVA) of 12 school buildings, including hazard, performance, exposure, and vulnerability assessment, to determine preliminary risk mitigation strategies, such as school retrofitting

Main outputs

• Detailed report on hazard assessment based on desktop study of existing information, field visits, and meetings with key stakeholders, with the following findings:

             1. 300 new school buildings are needed in the city in addition to the existing 300 schools under the supervision of the
                 Ministry of Education and Science 

             2. The existing school buildings, 30 percent of which are over 40 years old, are in poor repair as a result of a lack of
                 maintenance. The oldest 75 percent of schools were designed with little or no consideration of seismic performance,
                 and the vulnerability of the aging building stock is of concern 

• Preliminary estimates based on these findings, which suggest 50 to 80 percent of school buildings are in need of retrofitting to address seismic vulnerabilities