Earthquake In Bhutan Essay

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3 Research Area 3.1 Earthquake History of Bhutan In accordance to the Seismic Hazard map of Bhutan, Phuentsholing city fall under the zone four which is at great risk during the earthquakes. A major earthquake of magnitude 6.1 occurred in Narang, eastern part of Bhutan taking life of 10 people and damaging schools and monasteries. Bhutan has experienced many earthquakes of which most of the epicenter were located in neighboring countries. The detected earthquakes were not equally distributed across the country. Most events were along a line connecting Phuentsholing with Samtse and reaching Gangtok (Sikkim). 3.2 Background Phuentsholing is located in southern part of Bhutan which lies in the Himalayan region. Himalayan region lies in active fault zone where it is …show more content…

HAZUS is a risk assessment software developed by Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in 1997. It uses ArcGIS as a supporting GIS software for usage. What is HAZUS- MH? 1) It provides a platform of risk assessment for various hazards. 2) It calculates direct and indirect losses and suggests mitigation measures. 3) Identifies and visualizes hazards and vulnerabilities This model requires an exhaustive data like general building stock, occupancy type, utilities. for database creation. General building stock inventory is formed by using census tract characteristics as the unit for grouping of buildings. Also the methodology helps to find damage probabilities under various ground shaking conditions as shown in Figure 3.1. Building types in HAZUS are basically classified into five frames such as unreinforced concrete frame, reinforced concrete frame, concrete frame, steel frame and wood frame (B.Gulati, 2006). Figure3.2 shows the flow chart for HAZUS

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