Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania
Abstract Recent seismic events show that urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to seismic damage, which leads to unprecedented levels of risk. Cities are complex systems and as such their analysis requires a good understanding of the interactions between space and the socioeconomic variables chara...
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doaj-4acbfbdcf2ba4e9792ccefc2665755dd2020-11-24T21:04:43ZengSpringerOpenInternational Journal of Disaster Risk Science2095-00552192-63952017-06-018218219510.1007/s13753-017-0132-yVulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, RomaniaIuliana Armaş0Dragos Toma-Danila1Radu Ionescu2Alexandru Gavriş3Department of Geomorphology-Pedology-Geomatics, Faculty of Geography, University of BucharestDepartment of Geomorphology-Pedology-Geomatics, Faculty of Geography, University of BucharestDepartment of Geomorphology-Pedology-Geomatics, Faculty of Geography, University of BucharestDepartment of Tourism and Geography, Bucharest University of Economic StudiesAbstract Recent seismic events show that urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to seismic damage, which leads to unprecedented levels of risk. Cities are complex systems and as such their analysis requires a good understanding of the interactions between space and the socioeconomic variables characteristic of the inhabitants of urban space. There is a clear need to develop and test detailed models that describe the behavior of these interactions under seismic impact. This article develops an overall vulnerability index to seismic hazard based on a spatial approach applied to Bucharest, Romania, the most earthquake-prone capital in the European Union. The methodology relies on: (1) spatial post-processed socioeconomic data from the 2011 Romanian census through multicriteria analysis; and (2) analytical methods (the Improved Displacement Coefficient Method and custom-defined vulnerability functions) for estimating damage patterns, incorporated in a GIS environment. We computed vulnerability indices for the 128 census tracts of the city. Model sensitivity assessment tested the robustness of spatially identified patterns of building vulnerability in the face of uncertainty in model inputs. The results show that useful seismic vulnerability indices can be obtained through interdisciplinary approaches that enhance less detailed datasets, which leads lead to better targeted mitigation efforts.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-017-0132-yBucharestRomaniaSeismic loss estimationSeismic riskSpatial multicriteria analysisVulnerability index |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Iuliana Armaş Dragos Toma-Danila Radu Ionescu Alexandru Gavriş |
spellingShingle |
Iuliana Armaş Dragos Toma-Danila Radu Ionescu Alexandru Gavriş Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania International Journal of Disaster Risk Science Bucharest Romania Seismic loss estimation Seismic risk Spatial multicriteria analysis Vulnerability index |
author_facet |
Iuliana Armaş Dragos Toma-Danila Radu Ionescu Alexandru Gavriş |
author_sort |
Iuliana Armaş |
title |
Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania |
title_short |
Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania |
title_full |
Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania |
title_fullStr |
Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vulnerability to Earthquake Hazard: Bucharest Case Study, Romania |
title_sort |
vulnerability to earthquake hazard: bucharest case study, romania |
publisher |
SpringerOpen |
series |
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science |
issn |
2095-0055 2192-6395 |
publishDate |
2017-06-01 |
description |
Abstract Recent seismic events show that urban areas are increasingly vulnerable to seismic damage, which leads to unprecedented levels of risk. Cities are complex systems and as such their analysis requires a good understanding of the interactions between space and the socioeconomic variables characteristic of the inhabitants of urban space. There is a clear need to develop and test detailed models that describe the behavior of these interactions under seismic impact. This article develops an overall vulnerability index to seismic hazard based on a spatial approach applied to Bucharest, Romania, the most earthquake-prone capital in the European Union. The methodology relies on: (1) spatial post-processed socioeconomic data from the 2011 Romanian census through multicriteria analysis; and (2) analytical methods (the Improved Displacement Coefficient Method and custom-defined vulnerability functions) for estimating damage patterns, incorporated in a GIS environment. We computed vulnerability indices for the 128 census tracts of the city. Model sensitivity assessment tested the robustness of spatially identified patterns of building vulnerability in the face of uncertainty in model inputs. The results show that useful seismic vulnerability indices can be obtained through interdisciplinary approaches that enhance less detailed datasets, which leads lead to better targeted mitigation efforts. |
topic |
Bucharest Romania Seismic loss estimation Seismic risk Spatial multicriteria analysis Vulnerability index |
url |
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13753-017-0132-y |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT iulianaarmas vulnerabilitytoearthquakehazardbucharestcasestudyromania AT dragostomadanila vulnerabilitytoearthquakehazardbucharestcasestudyromania AT raduionescu vulnerabilitytoearthquakehazardbucharestcasestudyromania AT alexandrugavris vulnerabilitytoearthquakehazardbucharestcasestudyromania |
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1716770087346634752 |