Status: this preprint has been withdrawn by the authors.
Understanding Spatial Variations in Earthquake Vulnerabilities of Residential Neighborhoods of Mymensingh City, Bangladesh: An AHP-GIS Integrated Index-based Approach
Md. Shaharier Alamand Shamim Mahabubul Haque
Abstract. Mymensingh city is highly earthquake vulnerable due to its geological setting, existence of three faults, viz., Dauki Fault, Madhupur Blind Fault and Sylhet-Assam Fault in its close vicinity, and liquefaction susceptible soil type. Recently an attempt has been made to assess earthquake risk of the city by Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme II, of Government of Bangladesh using FEMA developed HAZUS tool which requires usage of enormous resources and expertise. Poorly resourced city planning authorities of developing countries are seldom equipped with such financial and human resources, and as a result, the inclusion of earthquake risk analysis, more specifically, information regarding spatial variations of earthquake risk is very often found missing in their physical planning exercises. This paper aims to assess the spatial variation of earthquake vulnerability of residential neighbourhoods of Mymensingh city, employing an index-based low cost approach which could provide a reasonably accurate result with minimum resource and expertise requirements. Analytical Hierarchy Process and Weighted Linear Combination are combined with a Geographical Information System to prepare a composite index considering 23 different parameters, stemming from geological, structural, socio-economic and systematic dimensions of earthquake vulnerability. The findings of the reseach show that out of 241 residential neighbourhoods of Mymensingh city, 51 are observed to be highly vulnerable, while, 123 and 67 are medium and low vulnerable respectively. Besides, the spatial distribution of earthquake vulnerable neighbouhoods in Mymensingh City, observed in the current study has also been compared with spatial distributions observed in two similar previous studies and observed found to be reasonably close. This justifies the validity of the current low cost approach for wider application in cities of resource starved developing countries.
This preprint has been withdrawn.
Received: 20 Jul 2019 – Discussion started: 08 Oct 2019
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The city of Mymensingh is highly earthquake vulnerable due to its geological setting, proximity to three faults. It is crucial to assess the seismic vulnerability for taking the judicious risk reduction measures for the city. This paper assesses the spatial variation of seismic vulnerability of residential neighbourhoods of Mymensingh city, employing an index-based low cost approach which could provide a reasonably accurate result with minimum resource and expertise requirements.
The city of Mymensingh is highly earthquake vulnerable due to its geological setting, proximity...
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