Abstract
Santorini Island, located in the Southern Aegean Sea, is prone to tsunamis due to its proximity to the Hellenic subduction zone, which is one of the major tsunamigenic areas. Characteristic events, such as those of 365 A.D. and 1303 A.D. greatly affected the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, causing significant loss of life and construction damage. Tsunami disaster risk is nowadays significantly higher due to the increased exposure of the buildings as a result of the economic and touristic growth of the Aegean Islands. This study focuses on the eastern coast of Santorini, since its morphology and human presence amplify the necessity to assess its building vulnerability. After conducting an exposure analysis at the settlements of the eastern coast, Kamari poses the highest physical, social and economic relative exposure to any potential natural hazard. The main objective of this research is to quantify the building stock’s vulnerability to tsunami hazard. For this purpose, a “worst-case run-up scenario” was developed. Considering the history of tsunamis in the Aegean Sea, an extreme sea-level rise after a 10 m a.s.l. tsunami run-up, caused by an earthquake with Mw~8.5, was assumed. The relative vulnerability of the buildings in Kamari was calculated via the application of the Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment (PTVA-4) analytic model. The results indicate that 423 buildings are within the inundation zone, 58% of which are characterized as highly and very highly vulnerable to tsunamis, revealing the problematic characteristics of the building stock, offering important information to the decision-makers to mitigate a possible future tsunami impact.
Highlights
Tsunamis are extreme waves that are triggered by other natural hazards, such as earthquakes, submarine or coastal landslides and volcanic activity
The objective of this study focuses on the assessment of the building stock vulnerability to tsunamis for the coastal settlement of Kamari, Santorini, by applying the Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment (PTVA-4) model [36]
This study focuses on the coastal settlement of Kamari at the eastern coast of Santorini
Summary
Tsunamis are extreme waves that are triggered by other natural hazards, such as earthquakes, submarine or coastal landslides and volcanic activity. Greece is one among the countries most prone to tsunamis, due to its location within the broader geodynamic setting of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The main mechanisms that create tsunamis are considered to be either the surface deformation of the seabed by the activation of a fault, or the triggering of a submarine landslide after an earthquake or volcanic activity [21]. Characteristic extreme tsunami wave events, such as the 365 A.D. and 1303 A.D. ones, which followed the two earthquakes with magnitudes of Mw=8.3 and Mw = 8.0, respectively, and with an estimated 9 m a.s.l. run-up, greatly affected the coasts of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea [7,21,26,27,28,29,30]. Aside from earthquake-originated sea waves, tsunamis caused by submarine landslides, triggered mainly by seismic events, can affect the Aegean Sea coasts, producing extensive run-up. As a systematic approach, it aids in reducing the effects of an upcoming disaster and helps in reshaping public policies and plans by improving building codes, building use regulations and land use management
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