Recommendations on Implementing Results of Seismic Microzonation in Bangladesh Based on Experiences from South America

Authors

  • Michael Schmitz Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, Germany. Venezuelan Foundation for Seismological Research (FUNVISIS), Caracas, Venezuela. Central University of Venezuela (UCV), Caracas, Venezuela. Simón Bolívar University (USB), Department of Earth Sciences, Caracas, Venezuela. Author
  • Julio J. Hernandez Consultant in Structural and Earthquake Engineering, Venezuela Author
  • Andreas Günther Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, Germany Author
  • Werner Buchert Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Hannover, Germany Author
  • Mohammad Feruj Alam Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB), Dhaka, Bangladesh Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.64862/

Keywords:

Seismic microzonation, Municipal ordinances, Seismic hazard, Site effects, South America, Bangladesh

Abstract

Seismic microzonation studies have been carried out in different cities in northern South America, and we present the experiences of the implementation of their results in local seismic building codes aimed at seismic risk mitigation. In Bangladesh, ongoing German-Bangladesh cooperation projects have been dedicated generating Geo-Information for Climate-Change Resilient Urbanization, specifically geomorphological and surface data related to subsidence and flooding, geotechnical and geophysical data for foundation sustainability and the estimation of site effects (e.g. Günther et al., 2015). The datasets will be available for different project cities in Bangladesh and one of the challenges is ensuring local authorities and stakeholders use this information for reducing risks.

References

Alcaldía de Bogotá. (2010). Decreto No. 523 de 16 de diciembre de 2010: Por el cual se adopta la Microzonificación Sísmica de Bogotá D.C. http://www.habitatbogota.gov.co/transparencia/normativa/decretos/decreto-523-2010

Ansal, A. (Ed.). (2004). Recent advances in earthquake geotechnical engineering and microzonation (Vol. 1). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Bard, P. (1999). Microtremor measurements: A tool for site effect estimation. In K. Irikura, K. Kudo, H. Okada, and T. Sasatani (Eds.), The effects of surface geology on seismic motion (Vol. 3, pp. 1251–1279).

BNBC. (2020). Bangladesh National Building Code. Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Ministry of Housing and Public Works.

Bramerini, F., Castenetto, S., Naso, G., and the SM Working Group. (2015). Guidelines for seismic microzonation. Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces of Italy, Civil Protection Department.

Günther, A., Asaduzzaman, A., Bahls, R., Ludwig, R., Kamal, M. A., and Faruqa, N. N. (2015). Geo-information for sustainable urban development of Greater Dhaka City, Bangladesh. EGU General Assembly, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 17, EGU2015-8793.

Schmitz, M., Hernández, J. J., Rocabado, V., Domínguez, J., Morales, C., Valleé, M., García, K., Sánchez‑Rojas, J., Singer, A., Oropeza, J., Coronel D., Flores, A., and the Caracas Seismic Microzoning Project Working Group. (2020). The Caracas, Venezuela, seismic microzoning project: Methodology, results and implementation for seismic risk reduction. Progress in Disaster Science, 5, 100060. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2019.100060

Schmitz, M., Yepes, H., Hernández, J. J., Yegres, L., Singer, A., Rodríguez, L. M., Marcial, D., Sánchez‑Rojas, J., García, K., Rocabado, V., Palacios, P. B., Marrero, J. M., Osorio, I., Parra, J., Jiménez, E., Cárdenas, D., Realpe, G. (2025). Principal results of the Portoviejo (Ecuador) seismic microzonation project and importance for seismic hazard mitigation. Natural Hazards, 121, 21891‑21910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-025-07669-3

Seyhan, E., and Stewart, J. P. (2014). Semi-empirical nonlinear site amplification from NGA-West2 data and simulations. Earthquake Spectra, 30 (3), 1241–1256. https://doi.org/10.1193/063013EQS181M

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Published

2025-11-27

How to Cite

Recommendations on Implementing Results of Seismic Microzonation in Bangladesh Based on Experiences from South America. (2025). Asian Journal of Engineering Geology, 2(Sp Issue), 175-176. https://doi.org/10.64862/

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