Evaluation of seismic risks for it prevention and mitigation and urban seismic vulnerability -

From the research project description:

In our country [Argentina], knowledge about seismic problems is partial and fragmented. Despite the importanceof this environmental constraint, which affects approximately two thirds of the national territory, the threat has been studied comprehensively and there is a significant gap in determining the seismic vulnerability of settlements.
Although there is a norm INPRES-CIRSOC 103 describing seismic requirements for the construction of the buildings, there are highly vulnerable urban areas. This is due, on the onehand, to the existence of buildings built with previous standards, now obsolete, with little or no maintenance. On the other hand, large part of the population cannot settle in housing offered by government agencies or build with the advice of construction professionals. Therefore they build their habitat with the resources that are at their disposal, on the plots in inadequate areas and without any anticipation of the earthquake.
Therefore, it is a real challenge to define theoretical guidelines to address the problem in all its complexity and to generate new methodological tools for assessing vulnerabilities, based on aholistic conception of risk. Hence, the project aims to develop tools (models, methodologies and techniques) for the assessment of urban seismic vulnerability, based on a deepening of the conceptualization of its components. The theme will be focused multidisciplinary, addressing the various physical-environmental, technological and social aspects that determine it, as well as their interrelations, in order to achieve comprehensive diagnostics.
The methodological approach involves the construction of a model that enables the diagnosis and assessment of threats and vulnerabilities, determining the damage states of the building and collateral losses, based on the construction of scenarios that rescue both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the aspects associated with them. The dynamic relationship between threat andvulnerability will be analysed, taking into account how natural and social processes influence both. Priority will be given to the use of variables that can be spatialized to enable the implementation of policy, planning and urban development instruments aimed at reducing vulnerability, as away of strengthening the construction of aculture of prevention.
The city of San Juan will be taken as a case study, proposing guidelines and strategies for territorial reorganization, human resettlement, recovery, environmental control, etc. It is anticipated that the results will be applicable to the study of the vulnerability of the different urban centres of the Argentine Republic exposed to this threat.
The results will be transferred to the nationalagencies and the Government of the Province of San Juan, linked to the theme. Provision is alsomade for the dissemination of the knowledge generated, both in the scientific and academic fields.

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The project presented in the 2011 UNSJ call for proposals, which ended in 2012, allowed for a deeper study of the seismic vulnerability of the city of San Juan, in some of the areas identified as the most vulnerable in previous work carried out by the project team. Surveys were carried out to adjust and verify the existing data, which were carried out in coordination with the DGyC, the DPDU and some municipal governments. The existing physical-spatial database was updated and adjusted, andmethodological tools for determining social vulnerability were designed in greater depth, updating the data essential for the study of socio-economic aspects, starting from the 2010 census.
The broadening of the objectives of the originally formulated project, carried out during the current year, included:
- The survey of another residential unit: Villa SanDamian;

- Adjustment and completion of the GIS forcriticalareas in terms of physical and socialvulnerability;

- Transfer and dissemination of thematerial and resultsgenerated by the project tomunicipal governments, the Provincial HousingInstitute (IPV) and the Department ofUrbanPlanning and Development (DPDU);

-Dissemination and presentation of the theoreticalandmethodological results obtained in national andinternational scientific forums;

- Publication ofresults inspecialized journals.