A Plea for People Centered Perspectives on Seismic Risk Evaluation

Abstract

The issue of seismic risk in Bucharest, a 1.7 mil people Capital, is very much ignored, considering the scale and the urgency. Seismic risk assessment needs to focus also on human losses, rather than on physical aspects like location, construction materials, etc. “How many people live in seismic risk housing?” is a question not even the municipality can give a recent evidence based answer to. The paper presents the results of ALERT—seismic risk mitigation project, started in Bucharest in February 2016. ALERT is based on an online data crowdsourcing platform regarding seismic risk housing (with particular focus on the number, needs and problems of their inhabitants). The Alert poll results, as of September 2017 indicate the severity of the problem. More than 8000 dwellers were counted in 80% of the highest seismic risk buildings (Seismic Risk Class I) and it is expected that by the end of the research the 10,000 people threshold will be long exceeded. The paper is intended to highlight insights on ownership, occupancy and management of these buildings. The conclusion argues the need for a more human centric approach of seismic risk assessment to complement the engineering and geological perspectives.