Seismic Ground Motion In Large Urban Areas

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.

COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology, allowing the coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level. Part of COST was COST Action C26Urban Habitat Constructions Under Catastrophic Events which started in 2006 and held its final conference in Naples, Italy, on 16-18 September 201

Earthquakes and Sustainable Infrastructure: Neodeterministic (NDSHA) Approach Guarantees Prevention Rather Than Cure communicates in one comprehensive volume the state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on earthquakes and related risks. Earthquakes occur in a seemingly random way and, in some cases, it is possible to trace seismicity back to the concept of deterministic chaos. Therefore, seismicity can be explained by a deterministic mechanism that arises as a result of various convection movements in the Earth’s mantle, expressed in the modern movement of lithospheric plates fueled by tidal forces. Consequently, to move from a perspective focused on the response to emergencies to a new perspective based on prevention and sustainability, it is necessary to follow this neodeterministic approach (NDSHA) to guarantee prevention, saving lives and infrastructure. This book describes in a complete and consistent way an effective explanation to complex structures, systems, and components, and prescribes solutions to practical challenges. It reflects the scientific novelty and promises a feasible, workable, theoretical and applicative attitude. Earthquakes and Sustainable Infrastructure serves a “commentary role” for developers and designers of critical infrastructure and unique installations. Commentary-like roles follow standard, where there is no standard. Mega-installations embody/potentiate risks; nonetheless, lack a comprehensive classic standard. Every compound is unique, one of its kind, and differs from others even of similar function. There is no justification to elaborate a common standard for unique entities. On the other hand, these specific installations, for example, NPPs, Naval Ports, Suez Canal, HazMat production sites, and nuclear waste deposits, impose security and safety challenges to people and the environment. The book offers a benchmark for entrepreneurs, designers, constructors, and operators on how to compile diverse relevant information on site-effects and integrate it into the best-educated guess to keep safe and secure, people and environment. The authors are eager to convey the entire information and explanations to our readers, without missing either accurate information or explanations. That is achieved by “miniaturization,” as much is possible, not minimization. So far, the neodeterministic method has been successfully applied in numerous metropolitan areas and regions such as Delhi (India), Beijing (China), Naples (Italy), Algiers (Algeria), Cairo (Egypt), Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), Thessaloniki (Greece), South-East Asia (2004), Tohoku, Japan (2011), Albania (2019), Bangladesh, Iran, Sumatra, Ecuador, and elsewhere. Earthquakes and Sustainable Infrastructure includes case studies from these areas, as well as suggested applications to other seismically active areas around the globe. NDSHA approaches confirm/validate that science is looming to warn. Concurrently, leaders and practitioners have to learn to use rectified science in favor of peoples' safety. State-of-the-art science does have the know-how to reduce casualties and structural damage from potential catastrophes to a bearable incident. The only book to cover earthquake prediction and preparation from a neo-deterministic (NDSHA) approach Includes case studies from metropolitan areas where the neo-deterministic method has been successfully applied Editors and authors include top experts in academia, disaster prevention, and preparedness management

In many past and recent earthquakes it has been shown that the local conditions and, in particular, the local geology have a great influence on the observed seismic ground motion and, consequently, on the damage distribution in housing, industrial stock, and life-lines. Seismic microzoning is the usual procedure to have these local effects taken into account for engineering design and land-use planning, being a useful tool for earthquake risk mitigation. This volume presents a collection of papers mainly originated from a workshop on Seismic Microzoning, organized during the 23rd General Assembly of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) in Nice, France in April 1998. The workshop dealt with various geophysical tools for analysing the effects of the local soils of subsurface geology on seismic ground motion, namely the methods using experimental data such as microtremors, and the theoretical/numerical 1-D and 2-D modelling methods. Additional contributions discussing techniques for characterising soil properties, microzoning applications to several urban areas, and others were added to the volume to broaden this important topic.

Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering for Protection and Development of Environment and Constructions contains invited, keynote and theme lectures and regular papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (Rome, Italy, 17-20 June 2019. The contributions deal with recent developments and advancements as well as case histories, field monitoring, experimental characterization, physical and analytical modelling, and applications related to the variety of environmental phenomena induced by earthquakes in soils and their effects on engineered systems interacting with them. The book is divided in the sections below: Invited papers Keynote papers Theme lectures Special Session on Large Scale Testing Special Session on Liquefact Projects Special Session on Lessons learned from recent earthquakes Special Session on the Central Italy earthquake Regular papers Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering for Protection and Development of Environment and Constructions provides a significant up-to-date collection of recent experiences and developments, and aims at engineers, geologists and seismologists, consultants, public and private contractors, local national and international authorities, and to all those involved in research and practice related to Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering.

requiring the adaptation of probabilistic maps to design ground motions; and (d) the generalization of design parameters to locations where there is little seismic history. Maximum displacements, velocities, and, based on the European Build ing Code EC8, design ground acceleration maps have thus been produced by ZivCic et al. for Slovenia, Marku§ic et al. for Croatia, Bus et al. for Hungary, and Radulian et al. for Romania. The last two contributions in the volume are dedicated to studies of local site effects that could affect the microzonation of large urban areas. Moldoveanu et al. employed a technique based on the modal summation and finite dif ferences to calculate the expected ground motion in the capital city of Bucha rest due to large intermediate-depth Vrancea earthquakes. Their results outline that the presence of alluvial sediments and the possible variation of event scenario require the use of all three components of motion for a reliable determination of the seismic input. The study of Marmureanu et al. , more limited in scope, offers a laboratory analysis of the attenuation effects for sur face layers. The authors confirm that seismic attenuation in sedimentary layers is a function of the strain levels induced by large earthquakes, and find that the quality factor is nearly constant over a relatively wide frequency range, between 7 and 100 Hz.

The study of earthquakes combines science, technology and expertise in infrastructure and engineering in an effort to minimize human and material losses when their occurrence is inevitable. This book is devoted to various aspects of earthquake research and analysis, from theoretical advances to practical applications. Different sections are dedicated to ground motion studies and seismic site characterization, with regard to mitigation of the risk from earthquake and ensuring the safety of the buildings under earthquake loading. The ultimate goal of the book is to encourage discussions and future research to improve hazard assessments, dissemination of earthquake engineering data and, ultimately, the seismic provisions of building codes.