First World Congress of International Consortium on Geo-disaster Reduction (1st ICGdR World Congress)

Recent strong shaking in southern Tibet exposed the fragility of plateau settlements where traditional earthen–timber dwellings remain common and emergency support is constrained by altitude, distance, and cold-season conditions. This presentation uses evidence from the 2025 Tingri earthquake to examine how physical impact and social response jointly shaped life-safety outcomes in remote high-altitude communities.
      Rapid field reconnaissance was conducted from four to eighteen days after the event, before original damage traces and early response information were substantially altered. The investigation combined earthquake-geological observations, dwelling-damage surveys, questionnaire responses, semi-structured interviews, fatality-location information, and spatial hazard data. These materials were organized into site-level indicators describing near-fault effects, ground shaking, observed dwelling damage, human behavioral response and relative fatality intensity.
      The findings indicate that fatality concentration was strongly conditioned by near-fault effects and severe dwelling damage. However, physical exposure alone did not fully account for the spatial variation in life-safety outcomes. Differences in warning perception, protective action, self-rescue, mutual aid, and post-earthquake support provided additional explanatory information within the case dataset. Sites with more effective behavioral and community response tended to show lower fatality intensity under otherwise comparable hazard and damage conditions.
      The study highlights the value of rapid first-hand reconnaissance for understanding earthquake consequences in remote plateau regions. It also suggests that seismic resilience in traditional settlements should be strengthened through safer housing, locally adapted risk communication, preparedness training, mutual-aid capacity, and continuity of emergency support.
 

Field evidence,Fatality,Human behavior,Tingri earthquake