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Seismic hazard and vulnerability scenario of Kathmandu, Nepal, and adjacent region

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Abstract

The main objective of the current study is to estimate the seismic vulnerability of buildings in Kathmandu valley through fragility curves. Since the ground motion records are limited for the April 25, 2015, Nepal earthquake, a MATLAB code is written to generate the artificial ground motion records considering each mandal as a site location. Earlier written MATLAB code has been modified with a correction function to obtain synthetic accelerograms at each station. A spatial seismic hazard distribution is plotted through Geographical Information System (GIS) software. Seismic fragility curves are drawn to estimate the damage of buildings. From the results, it is observed that around 22% of buildings experienced an intensity of VI on the MMI scale at Bageswari mandal. A few buildings have experienced an intensity of VII in Thankot, Seuchatar, Satikhel, Mahadevathan, Indrayani, Chhaimale, and Balambu. Around 10% of buildings collapsed completely in Jitpurphedi and Ramkot mandals of Kathmandu district. The findings from the study will assist the structural engineers, town planners, insurance industry, disaster management authorities for understanding the seismic risk and mitigation measures for the study region.

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source: USGS)

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source: National Seismological Centre, NSC, Nepal). The red color dot indicates the main shock of the 2015 Nepal earthquake

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source: NSC, Nepal)

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Source: Centre for Engineering Strong Motion Data, USA)

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(source: [11])

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, IIIT Hyderabad, for carrying out this work. Though the partial data of the paper have been presented earlier, the authors improved the analysis in the current version of the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Neelima Patnala

    Present address: Civil Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500 032, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rajeev Gandhi Memorial College of Engineering and Technology, Nandyal, 518 501, India

    Rajaram Chenna

  2. Civil Engineering, Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500 032, India

    Pradeep Kumar Ramancharla

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Appendix

Appendix

Mandals located in Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, and Lalitpur districts experience different levels of simulated PGA of the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

figure a
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Chenna, R., Patnala, N. & Ramancharla, P. Seismic hazard and vulnerability scenario of Kathmandu, Nepal, and adjacent region. Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. 7, 274 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-022-00862-4

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