Issues in Urban Earthquake Risk

Urban seismic risk is growing worldwide and is increasingly a problem of developing countries. This book focuses on recent urban earthquake safety developments around the world. In particular it provides approaches and procedures for the creation of earthquake damage scenarios (EDS). The articles aim to stimulate anyone – scientist, engineer, government official, business leader, international aid provider – considering an EDS project for a city, and list some of the questions that should be asked, suggest methods of answering them. They also describe some advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. Two articles are on how the above strategies fared in a pilot EDS project nearing completion in Quito, Ecuador. Finally, authors from other earthquake-threatened cities in developed and developing countries attempt to summarize the earthquake safety of their cities. In the context of their particular social, economic, political, and technical settings, they discuss needs and approaches to reducing earthquake risk.