Earthquake vulnerability and seismic risk assessment of urban areas in high seismic regions: application to Chania City, Crete Island, Greece

• Published in: Natural hazards (Dordrecht) Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 395 - 412
• Main Authors: Sarris, A, Loupasakis, C, Soupios, P, Trigkas, V, Vallianatos, F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Dordrecht : Springer Netherlands 01.08.2010; Springer Netherlands; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Chania; Civil Engineering; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Earthquake vulnerability; Earthquakes; Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics; Environmental Management; Exact sciences and technology; Geographic information systems; Geophysics/Geodesy; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; GIS; Hydrogeology; Natural Hazards; Natural hazards: prediction, damages, etc; Original Paper; Risk assessment; Seismic activity; Seismic risk; Seismology; Urban areas; Crete; Greece; Southern Europe; Europe; Greece, Kriti; Earthquake vulnerability; GIS; Seismic risk; Crete; Chania; risk assessment; models; maps; islands; geographic information systems; urban areas; earthquakes; seismic risk
• ISSN: 1573-0840; 0921-030X; 1573-0840
• DOI: 10.1007/s11069-009-9475-z

The earthquake vulnerability and the seismic risk assessment for the urban center of Chania in the island of Crete is approached through the development of a GIS-based application that takes into consideration the structural and geological domain of the region. Considering a localized model, the various structural and geomorphologic attributes of the region were assigned specific weights of significance that allowed the creation of a modular application that was tested for the city of Chania, and it was verified based on the recent seismic activity of the area. The proposed risk map and model can become a significant tool for confronting crises resulting from future earthquake incidences.