Earthquake vulnerability assessment of the built environment in the city of Srinagar, Kashmir Himalaya, using a geographic information system

Abstract

The study investigates the earthquake vulnerability of buildings in Srinagar, an urban city in the Kashmir Himalaya, India. The city, covering an area of around 246 km2 and divided into 69 municipal wards, is situated in the tectonically active and densely populated mountain ecosystem. Given the haphazard development and high earthquake vulnerability of the city, it is critical to assess the vulnerability of the built environment to inform policy-making for developing effective earthquake risk reduction strategies. Integrating various parameters in a geographic information system (GIS) using the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) approaches, the ward-wise vulnerability of the buildings revealed that a total of ∼ 17 km2 area (∼ 7 % area; 23 wards) has very high to high vulnerability, moderate vulnerability affects ∼ 69 km2 of the city area (28 % area; 19 wards), and ∼ 160 km2 area (∼ 65 % area; 27 wards) has vulnerability ranging from very low to low. Overall, the downtown wards are most vulnerable to earthquake damage due to the high risk of pounding, high building density, and narrower roads with little or no open spaces. The modern uptown wards, on the other hand, have lower earthquake vulnerability due to the relatively wider roads and low building density. To build a safe and resilient city for its 1.5 million citizens, the knowledge generated in this study would inform action plans for developing earthquake risk reduction measures, which should include strict implementation of the building codes, retrofitting of the vulnerable buildings, and creating a disaster consciousness among its citizenry.