Seismic Ground Motion in Large Urban Areas

✍ Scribed by A. Harbi, S. Maouche, A. Ayadi, D. Benouar (auth.), Giuliano F. Panza, Ivanka Paskaleva, Concettina Nunziata (eds.)

• Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 353
• Series: Pageoph Topical Volumes
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The accelerated, and often uncontrolled, growth of the cities has contributed to the ecological transformation of their immediate surroundings. Factors contributing to the urban vulnerability include: lowering or rising of the water table, subsidence, loss of bearing capacity of soil foundations and instability of slopes. Recent catastrophic earthquakes highlight the poor understanding by decision makers of seismic related risk, as well as the tendency of some builders to use the cheapest designs and construction materials to increase short-term economic returns on their investment.

Losses from earthquakes will continue to increase if we do not shift towards proactive solution. Disaster reduction is both an issue for consideration in the sustainable development agenda and a cross-cutting issue relating to the social, economic, environmental and humanitarian sectors. As location is the key factor, which determines the level of risk associated with a hazard, land-use plans and mapping should be used as tools to identify the most suitable usage for vulnerable areas.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-948
Seismicity and Tectonic Structures in the Site of Algiers and its Surroundings: A Step Towards Microzonation....Pages 949-967
Seismicity of Morocco for the Period 1987–1994....Pages 969-982
The Nile Valley of Egypt: A Major Active Graben that Magnifies Seismic Waves....Pages 983-1002
Seismicity and Seismic Hazard in Alexandria (Egypt) and its Surroundings....Pages 1003-1019
Linear Amplification of Horizontal Strong Ground Motion in Zagreb (Croatia) for a Realistic Range of Scaled Point Sources....Pages 1021-1040
Ground Motion Zoning of Santiago de Cuba: An Approach by SH Waves Modelling....Pages 1041-1059
Duration Magnitude Scale and Site Residuals for Northern Morocco....Pages 1061-1080
Using Active Faults and Seismicity for the Strong Motion Modeling in the Eastern Rif (Northern Morocco)....Pages 1081-1091
Realistic Modeling of Seismic Wave Ground Motion in Beijing City....Pages 1093-1106
Estimation of Site Effects in Beijing City....Pages 1107-1123
Microzonation of Bucharest: State-of-the-Art....Pages 1125-1147
Deterministic Approach for the Seismic Microzonation of Bucharest....Pages 1149-1164
Site-specific Microzonation Study in Delhi Metropolitan City by 2-D Modelling of SH and P-SV Waves....Pages 1165-1184
PART I: Theoretical Site Response Estimation for Microzoning Purposes....Pages 1185-1203
PART II: Comparison of Theoretical and Experimental Estimations of Site Effects....Pages 1205-1219
Deterministic Earthquake Scenarios for the City of Sofia....Pages 1221-1237
Seismic Ground Motion in Napoli for the 1980 Irpinia Earthquake....Pages 1239-1264
Expert Assessment of the Displacements Provoked by Seismic Events: Case Study for the Sofia Metropolitan Area....Pages 1265-1283
Seismic Characterization of Neapolitan Soils....Pages 1285-1300

✦ Subjects

Geophysics/Geodesy