Prof. Dr. Md. Jahangir Alam is a Professor and former Vice Chancellor of CUET, Bangladesh. His research interests are: Structural Engineering, Earthquake Engineering, Disaster & Environmental Engineering Education. His biographical record is included in WHOs WHO in the World-2001, Outstanding People in the 21st Century and WHOs WHO in ASIA-2006.

The book outlines the non-engineered rural housings which are spontaneously and informally constructed by local masons in rural areas in traditional manner without any intervention by architects and civil engineers. Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to seismic activity. While country has developed sophisticated building code, the implementation at the rural level has been more of an exception than the rule. There are evidences of structural failure of such seismically vulnerable non-engineered rural houses during moderate earthquakes in Bangladesh. Most of the loss of life in past earthquakes in Nepal and India has also occurred due to the collapse of such non-engineered houses, which were not initially engineered to be earthquake resistant. In view of the continued use of such houses in Bangladesh, it is essential to introduce earthquake resistant planning and design features in their construction. The primary target groups for this book are students and researchers in the field of disaster risk reduction, civil engineering, architecture, urban and regional planning, disaster & environmental engineering. Another target group comprises practitioners and policy makers.