Location
New York, New York
Date
17 Apr 2004, 10:30am - 12:30pm
Abstract
The eastern section of the Mediterranean Sea is a seismic zone falling on the boundaries of the Eurasian, African, and Arabian tectonics plates. The Greater Beirut Area, in Lebanon, witnessed major seismic historic events. After a ten years reconstruction effort mainly concentrated in downtown Beirut, the country is deeply indebted. In spite of this effort, many residential building will not withstand any seismic event particularly those built in geologically hazardous sectors. A seismic risk analysis for the Greater Beirut Area containing half of the Lebanese population is performed. This investigation shows that several sectors in the Greater Beirut Area, such as Beirut Sea Front, present a considerable risk of liquefaction, sometimes exceeding 80 % probability for a return period of 50 years. Whereas the quality of reconstruction improved, several obvious gaps remain in the geotechnical and seismic evaluations of constructions. Nevertheless, modern seismically designed buildings are yet scarce while the majority of buildings are old traditionally constructed structures without any seismic provisions and poor quality building material. Mapping of results is a key tool for urban planners, engineers and insurance industry, concerned by risk assessment of natural disasters. There is a need for them to act as a pressure group and attempt to urge local authorities to accelerate the implementation of a modern seismic building code in the near future in order to reduce risk of failure.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
5th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2004 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Harb, Jacques and Pico, Laurence, "Liquefaction Risk Assessment and Implications on Urban Planning in the Greater Beirut Area" (2004). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 23.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/5icchge/session03/23
Liquefaction Risk Assessment and Implications on Urban Planning in the Greater Beirut Area
New York, New York
The eastern section of the Mediterranean Sea is a seismic zone falling on the boundaries of the Eurasian, African, and Arabian tectonics plates. The Greater Beirut Area, in Lebanon, witnessed major seismic historic events. After a ten years reconstruction effort mainly concentrated in downtown Beirut, the country is deeply indebted. In spite of this effort, many residential building will not withstand any seismic event particularly those built in geologically hazardous sectors. A seismic risk analysis for the Greater Beirut Area containing half of the Lebanese population is performed. This investigation shows that several sectors in the Greater Beirut Area, such as Beirut Sea Front, present a considerable risk of liquefaction, sometimes exceeding 80 % probability for a return period of 50 years. Whereas the quality of reconstruction improved, several obvious gaps remain in the geotechnical and seismic evaluations of constructions. Nevertheless, modern seismically designed buildings are yet scarce while the majority of buildings are old traditionally constructed structures without any seismic provisions and poor quality building material. Mapping of results is a key tool for urban planners, engineers and insurance industry, concerned by risk assessment of natural disasters. There is a need for them to act as a pressure group and attempt to urge local authorities to accelerate the implementation of a modern seismic building code in the near future in order to reduce risk of failure.
