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)
- Earthquake Risk of Kathmandu Valley, a presentation of National Society for Earthquake Engineering (undated) (download link, pdf)
- Soil Liquefaction Potential in Kathmandu Valley; by M. Subedi, K. Sharma, B. Upadhayay, R.K. Poudel and P. Khadka; in International Journal of Landslide and Environment (2013), 1(1), 91-92.
- Liquefaction Hazard Mapping; by Manish H. Sharma and C.H. Solanki; in International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET),January- February (2013)
- Liquefaction Potential Analysis of Kathmandu Valley; by Ramesh Neupane and Kiichi Suzuki (download here, pdf)
- A Quick Report on the 2015 Gorkha (Nepal) Earthquake and its Geo-Engineering Aspects; by Omer Aydan and Resat Ulusay, 2015 (Download here, pdf)
Structural Engineer RR Parajuli suggested the following liquefaction hazard map prepared by OCHA in 2008 based on the data of 1993.
UNOCHA Had also prepared liquefaction hazard map in 1993 , we need in detail @SRA525 @AnandNepal @friendycalls pic.twitter.com/BdJOMzCSD6
— R R Parajuli (@rrp447) May 21, 2015