Overview of Codes of Practice for Earthen Construction Around the World

In this work we propose an overview of the codes in use for earthen construction around the world. The study consists of analysing codes of practice from different continents, with a focus on some countries from each continent / region. In Africa, we take examples of codes of practice in South Africa and analyse the main features as well as the differences in applicability from one region to the other and effects of weather conditions on the design parameters. The recommendations from European codes of practice are reviewed by considering the differences between different groups of countries, and the codes from the American continent studied according to the national and regional recommendations. The third group consists of a general bibliography of the technical documents on earthen construction in Asia and Australia, with discussion of their components. Comparisons of the main features of different codes follows and appropriate conclusions are drawn.