Abstract:
The impact of earthquakes in urban areas is a complex problem compounded by multi-hazard and consequential risk issues, enormous inventory of vulnerable physical elements and the attendant socio-economic problems. An approach for assessment of urban earthquake risk is presented. Rational urban risk predictions and expected losses from major earthquakes in the future serve the basis and also provide strong reasons for the pro-active risk mitigation activities. The proposed approach is based on a combination of numerical values for the determined levels of consequences in the three considered areas (social consequences, material consequences, economic losses).