Many more people are coming to live in earthquake-prone areas, especially urban ones. Many such areas contain low-rise, low-cost housing, while little money is available to retrofit the buildings to avoid total collapse and thus potentially save lives. The lack of money, especially in developing countries, is exacerbated by difficulties with administration, implementation and public awareness.

The future of modern earthquake engineering will come to be dominated by new kinds of measuring technologies, new materials developed especially for low-rise, low-cost buildings,...