Engineering Commons^™

Instrumental Intensity Scales For Geohazards, Steven Kramer, Sarah B. Upsall

Geohazards

The relationship between ground motion characteristics and geohazard-related earthquake damage was investigated for slope instability, lateral spreading, settlement, and buried pipeline damage, and the results used to develop two instrumental intensity scales. The scales are based on three velocity-related ground motion parameters that reflect the amplitude, frequency content, and duration of a ground motion. The scales provide intensity values that are strongly correlated to potential damage – one scale expresses intensity on a 0-10 scale and the other in terms of an apparent earthquake magnitude. The former is expected to be particularly useful for rapid identification of potential damaged areas …

Expected Earthquake Losses To Buildings In Istanbul And Implications For The Performance Of The Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool, E. Durukal, M. Erdik, K. Sesetyan

Geohazards

The city of Istanbul will likely experience substantial direct and indirect losses as a result of a future large earthquake. This paper reports on the expected building losses in the city in terms of probable maximum and average annualized losses and discussed the results from the perspective of the compulsory earthquake insurance scheme operational in the country.

Probabilistic Seismic Loss Estimation For Eskisehir, Turkey, M. S. Yucemen, N. Y. Ozturk, A. Deniz

Geohazards

Stochastic methods are utilized for the assessment of seismic hazard for the Eskisehir region. A comprehensive earthquake catalog, in which earthquakes in different scales are converted to a common scale, is compiled. Seismic source zones near the region with revised boundaries and various attenuation relationships are employed. Uncertainties related to the seismicity parameters and different assumptions are taken into consideration by using the logic tree procedure. Seismic hazard maps in terms of peak ground acceleration and MSK intensity, corresponding to a return period of 475 years are developed for Eskisehir. At the end of the study, the expected earthquake damage …

Landslide Hazard In El Salvador, Carlos Eduardo Rodriguez, A. T. Torres, E. A. León

Geohazards

The destructive seismic events of January 13 (ML: 7.6) and February 13 (ML: 6.1) 2001 in El Salvador, with origin in the subduction area and the volcanic chain, respectively, provide an ideal scenario to analyse the factors that define the landslide hazard in this country. In this paper we analysed the events in terms of strong-motion and precedent climatic condition and their relation with the landslides induced; establishing a great opportunity to compare some hazard assessment methods as those proposed by Mora and Vahrson (1994) and Rodríguez (2001) which define the hazard in terms of the interaction between triggering agents …

Simulation Of Socio-Economic Impacts Due To Seismic Damage Of Tehran Water Network, Reza Rasti, Farshad Vazinram

Geohazards

In recent years, the massive losses caused due to big earthquakes in urban areas. These cause significant casualties and losses. The economic losses exceed several billions dollars per year. The loss may be categorized in two types of direct and indirect loss. Direct economic losses occur just during the earthquakes or immediately after them. Indirect losses are resulted from direct losses. These losses are obtained in Tehran due to damage of Water Network. A scenario earthquake that would severely damage the city is assumed. The acceleration and velocities are determined in Tehran GIS map. The vulnerability coefficient for pipe via …

A Capacity Spectrum Method For Seismic Risk Assessment, Sergio Molina, Conrad D. Lindholm

Geohazards

Although earthquakes and the associated damage occur in a fundamentally deterministic way, the processes are so complex that our prediction scenarios are basically uncertain approximations. In the first attempts to model hazard and risk, point estimates based on empirical data were used, however, for quite some time the more advanced seismic hazard modelling has been based on models in which the variability/uncertainty of the input parameters are consistently carried through the computations so that the results are probabilistically combined to give a median value and confidence levels that reflect on the input parameter uncertainty. For seismic damage scenarios the first …

Earthquake-Induced Landslides In Colombia, Carlos Eduardo Rodriguez

Geohazards

Landslides due to earthquakes in Colombia have been historically reported since 1530 when ground cracking, soil movements and liquefaction events were induced by an earthquake which magnitude has not been defined. Since then more than thirty earthquakes have been identified to have produced landslides in the country, in some cases consequences related to landslides have been more significant than those due to direct effects of the earthquake itself.

The author has compiled a database of landslides induced by earthquakes in Colombia from which relationships between earthquake magnitude and landslide characteristics have been explored. It has been found that residual and …

Integrating Physical Accessibility Of Emergency Establishments Into Earthquake Risk Assessment, Kivanc Ertugay, Sebnem Duzgun

Geohazards

Human being has always been in a continual struggle with disasters. They are mostly sudden and unexpected and cause irreversible damages to human life and property. Disasters are facts of life, but it is always possible to decrease the effects of disasters by preparedness. In disaster case, accessibility is one of the most vital and important components of disaster preparedness and mean the difference between loosing a life or saving a life. That is why emergency accessibility, regardless if it is measured in time, distance, population or any other cost, is the most important variable that decision makers must consider …

Integrated Natural Disaster Risk Assessment: The Socio-Economic Dimension Of Earthquake Risk In The Urban Area, Sibel Kalaycioglu, Helga Rittersberger-Tilic, Kezban Celik, Fatime Günes

Geohazards

Understanding and formulation of risk of a natural disaster requires consideration of every aspect of risk, which can be handled by development of integrated approaches. In such integrated approaches, several discipline’s views are incorporated into risk assessment to see the whole picture. Hence, the risk which can be experienced before and / or after a natural disaster should be a common concern for both natural and social disciplines and should be handled through a interdisciplinary approach. A field research was conducted with 1500 households, selected through stratified random sampling, using the database obtained from the Eskisehir Greater Metropolitan Municipality. Interviews …

Urban Earthquake Risk, Mustafa Erdik

Geohazards

The impact of earthquakes in urban areas is a complex problem compounded by multi-hazard and consequential risk issues, enormous inventory of vulnerable physical elements and the attendant socio-economic problems. A review of our state-of-knowledge and applications on the assessment of urban earthquake risk is provided. Rational urban risk predictions and expected losses from major earthquakes in the future serve the basis and also provide strong reasons for the proactive risk mitigation activities.

3d Visualization For Urban Earthquake Risk, S. Kemec, S. Duzgun

Geohazards

Visualization is the graphical presentation of information, with the goal of improving the viewer’s understanding of the information contents. As today’s world is getting richer in information, visualization of the information is important for effective communication and decision making. In this study, generation of a 3D city model in CAD environment and its use in a spatial decision support system for earthquake risk in an urban area is presented. As CAD products’ quality is more enhanced than the other tools the 3D city model is generated in CAD environment. In CAD environment, a 2D building foot print vector layer is …

Studies Of The Gaviota Slide Offshore Southern California, Mark Zumberge, Jeff Babcock, Hugh H. Banon, John Blum, C. D. Chadwell, Jeff Dingler, Neal Driscoll, Gerald D'Spain, Philippe Jeanjean, Graham Kent, Graham Openshaw, John Orcutt

Geohazards

We are engaged in a study of a seafloor landslide off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. A large scar there remains from the Goleta slide, a well studied feature (1.51 km3 of failed material) that likely failed several thousand years ago. A smaller neighboring feature, the Gaviota slide (0.02 km3 of failed material), was probably triggered during the 1812 Santa Barbara earthquake. Our investigations started in 2004 with a chirp sonar survey. The survey revealed a relationship between a “crack” in the sediment propagating from the Gaviota slide’s headwall and a thrust fault clearly seen in the subsurface layers. …

Evaluation Of Liquefaction Susceptibility For Microzonation And Urban Planning, Atilla Ansal, Gokce Tonuk

Geohazards

Various procedures were developed to evaluate liquefaction susceptibility of soil layers for implementing engineering remediation measures. The approach that has gained wide acceptance within the framework of urban planning is to establish microzonation maps with respect to liquefaction susceptibility to mitigate possible earthquake damage related to liquefaction. In this context, microzonation maps were produced recently for six municipalities in Turkey as a part of a major Pilot Project. Two variables are required for the assessment of liquefaction resistance of sandy soil layers; the seismic demand expressed in terms of cyclic stress ratio, CSR; and the capacity of the soil layers …

Seismic Hazards For Lifelines, Farshad Vazinram, Reza Rasti

Geohazards

The response of lifelines against earthquakes and seismic hazard effects on them are studied in this paper. As lifelines pass through wide areas, it may be affected by many seismic hazards. These hazards are such as ground rupture, fault movement, landslides and large deformation due to liquefaction. Based on the experiences from past earthquakes, damages to the lifelines with attention to damaged parts are classified and illustrated. This classification is based on the damages of body, joints, facilities and serviceability. Since the buried lifelines are filled with some materials with almost same unit weight of soil, their seismic response characteristics …