Improved Parameters for Lightning Protection System Designs for Buildings in Zambia

Studies indicate that 90% of buildings in Sub-Saharan Africa are not protected against lightning strikes. The literature shows that mass casualty events due to the lightning phenomenon also occur while people are inside buildings, and Zambia is no exception. The causes for these misfortunes are lack of proper lightning protection systems. Lightning protection of buildings is specific to a geographical location and thus it requires studies to be done in Zambia and help establish local standards. The flash densities shown in published literature are usually based on total lightning for each country. This paper presents improved parameters for the lightning protection system designs for buildings in Zambia by accessing lightning stroke data for 2016 to 2021 from the Global Lightning Dataset (GLD360) network that is owned and operated by Vaisala Inc. The data were loaded into Surfer Golden software query. Thereafter, the dataset for longitude was assigned to the X-coordinate, latitude to the Y-coordinate, and lightning current was assigned to the Z-coordinate. The Gridding method produced a heat map that was exported to ArcGIS software. The Geometric interval method was then used to determine lightning stroke densities by province. The results shed more light on the new parameters that need to be used for lightning protection designs of buildings in Zambia. This will help contribute to the lightning safety of these structures.