In the second podcast of NepaliEngineer we discuss the possibility of seismic microzonation. The question was to prepare a map so that a person can know the seismicity of the place while purchasing or building a structure. We discuss the possibility of having such a map by the government. In the course of the preparation for the podcast, I had collected various hazard maps and concluded:
- although the hazard maps are good for research purpose, they don’t serve as a guideline when making land purchases for residential purpose.
- there is no consistency between different hazard maps prepared by different authorities (see the papers below).
- these maps can not be reliable during earthquake.
In the podcast, I discuss about the difficulty in producing a reliable earthquake hazard map useful for land use management.
Some other documentations I found in a quick search include:
- Preliminary Study For Evaluation Of Earthquake Risk To The Historical Structures In Kathmandu Valley (Nepal); by Sudhir R. Shrestha, Madan B. Karkee, Carlos H. Cuadra, Juan C. Tokeshi, and S. N. Miller; at World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, August 1-6, 2004 (download link, pdf)
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