Abstract
In April 2016, over a hundred greenhouses and numbers of bench systems in an area around the Kumamoto region were damaged by the Kumamoto Earthquake, which was a crustal earthquake. We surveyed a venlo-type greenhouse, four steel frame greenhouses, two reinforced pipe-framed greenhouses and bench systems inside those greenhouses damaged by the earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture. For the greenhouse structure, a seismic force and a ground fi ssure caused a leaning of columns and an unequal displacement of foundations. For the case of a heavy snow fall in 2014, rafters were bent and the roofs of the greenhouses were collapsed by the snow load which exceeded a design load. In the Kumamoto case, remarkable deformations were exclusively shown around the structure under the eave. There were few deformation around the roof structure above the eave. However, the liquefaction of the ground led to a harmful deformation of the valley gutters and ridge pipes and compelled farmers to cease horticulture. The structure of bench systems without bracing and fi rm connections are weaker and were observed to be more susceptible to damage from the seismic forces than greenhouses structures.
