Main Features of the New Methodology for Seismic Risk Assessment of Armenian Cities

Abstract

A new methodology for assessment seismic risk of the territory cities of Armenia with a population of up to 50 000 people was developed. The methodology assesses the most important components of the city’s seismic risk: damage of buildings, engineering and transport infrastructure, human and material losses, the risk of some secondary consequences of an earthquake, etc. The methodology widely uses statistical data on the consequences of the 1988 Spitak earthquake and analysis of the causes of these consequences. This article presents the main features of this methodology, which increase the reliability of the evaluation results of especially poorly constructed buildings. A large place is also given to the factual data on the vulnerability of buildings and lifelines, which can be useful in assessing seismic risk in the territories of cities of Armenia and other countries. Examples of evaluating the various risk components obtained as a result of applying the developed technique are presented.