Enhancing and Developing Seismic Risk Assessment for Cities of Myanmar (TAUNGOO, BAGO, PYAY, SAGAING)

Description: 

''Developing countries typically suffer far greater than developed countries as a result of earthquakes. Poor socioeconomic conditions often lead to poorly constructed homes that are vulnerable to damage during earthquakes. Our country, Myanmar is a developing country and one of the multi-hazard prone areas around the world according to its geographical situation. Myanmar lies on one of the world’s two main earthquake belts and many of the urban centers are along the Sagaing fault running North –South of the country. The Sagaing fault is the most prominent active fault in Myanmar which extends from north of Lake Indawgyi southward along the Ayeyarwaddy River north of Mandalay and along the eastern margin of the BagoYoma to the Andaman Sea (Hazard Profile of Myanmar, Sato, 2009). According to a recent study, on relocation of historical earthquakes since 1918 along the Sagiang Fault, there exist two seismic gaps: one between 19.2°N and 21.5°N in central Myanmar, and another south of 16.6°N in the Andaman Sea. Considering the length of the first seismic gap (∼260 km), a future earthquake of up to M ∼7.9 is expected to occur in central Myanmar (Nobuo Hurukawa and PhyoMaungMaung, 2011). Rapid and unplanned urbanization in Myanmar is increasing the vulnerability of future disasters especially for earthquake. Besides, over the past three decades, urbanization in Myanmar has been rapidly increasing. In most cities throughout the country, this urbanization took place minimal consideration of building codes, sound construction, and urban planning practices. As a result, many of Myanmar’s urban cities developed in the proximity of active seismic sources and are at risk of experiencing major earthquake events. Seismic risk cannot be eliminated, but it can be effectively analyzed and possibly reduced by using proper tools and models to produce reliable and meaningful estimates of the seismic risk facing a community, and exposure. Considering the majority of the building stock in both urban and rural areas comprising of non-engineered structures such as made of Timber, Brick Nogging, Brick Masonry and reinforced Reinforced Concrete, there is an increasing concern on the potential damage to urban areas such as Yangon, Bago, Taungoo and Sagaing, Meikhtila, Taunggyi along the Sagaing fault. Therefore, this paper tends to estimate the damage and casualties, to develop seismic risk and related assessment of building structures (Public, Private, and Pagodas) for the maximum estimated seismic scenarios in Taungoo City. The study findings will lead to develop comprehensive risk reduction programs addressing the specific vulnerabilities as well as guide the future development in the cities along with UN-Habitat’s Myanmar Comprehensive Disaster Risk Reduction Programme and also with broader DRRWG activities and those of Government...''

Source/publisher: 

HABITAT (United Nations Centre for Human Settlements)

Date of Publication: 

2016-09-05

Date of entry: 

2019-07-15

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

Category: 

Geographic coverage: 

    • TAUNGOO-BAGO-PYAY-SAGAING

Countries: 

Myanmar

Language: 

English

Local URL: 

Format: 

pdf pdf pdf pdf

Size: 

4 MB 4.49 MB 1.43 MB 2.59 MB

Resource Type: 

text

Text quality: 

    • Good

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