City-level maps to help cut quake damage

Roorkee, January 2

Scientists at IIT-Kharagpur are developing detailed city-level maps that can help identify areas likely to experience the maximum damage in the event of an earthquake.

The research will help state governments quickly identify areas with high hazard risk and send in rescue and relief teams when a disaster strikes, without losing precious time manually surveying the affected region.

“Saving time during a disaster is important, because time is life,” said Prof Sankar Kumar Nath from IIT- Kharagpur, West Bengal.

Nath presented his research at the 16th Symposium on Earthquake Engineering organised at IIT-Roorkee, Uttarakhand, in collaboration with the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology. Seismic microzoning is a technique that involves mapping different factors such as plate tectonics, soil quality, ground motion equations, topography, type of buildings etc to understand which areas within a city may get most affected by an earthquake. It also takes into account secondary hazards such as the landslides or floods that may be triggered by quakes. — PTI