Actions, diagnosis and territorial management of the disaster in the city of Lorca after the earthquake of May 11, 2011

Abstract

The Lorca earthquake of May 11, 2011 was the first earthquake with deaths in Spain in the past 40 years. Management of the process and the mechanisms for damage assessment in the city are a topic which, to date, has a scarce tradition in Spanish engineering. The city of Lorca is located in an environment of certain seismic vulnerability due to the presence of the Alhama fault, so the possibility of another earthquake cannot be ruled out. Therefore, the actions to be undertaken in the urban regeneration must be based on integral tools, such as seismic microzonation, and must affect certain fields of knowledge, such as territorial management and urban planning. This paper presents new techniques for aftershock management and damage assessment, with the experience acquired in the 2011 earthquake, and analyzes the proposals that are currently being developed in the city of Lorca from the territorial point of view.