Revelations of the 1980 El Asnam (Algeria) Earthquake

Several cities around the world are shaken by violent earthquakes causing serious human and material fatalities. Confronted to this seismic risk, the solution is to adopt a risk management process annexing the knowledge of seismic hazard and the assessment of vulnerability of the exposed elements to risk. This book deals with the seismic risk and more precisely with the seismic vulnerability of the existing buildings at urban scale. The book is written in a logic which guides the reader from general cases to a specific one, which is that of Chlef city in Algeria. It compensates for the lack of studies concerning seismic vulnerability at urban scale dedicated to this city. The reader finds through an application a complete explanation of the methodology to be adopted in this type of assessment. Even if the subject deals with a specific case, this book offers an overview on seismic risk and on urban scale existing seismic vulnerability methods. It can be of great interest to civil engineering students and engineers as well as urban planners and researchers. Buildings parks managers, civil protection and elected officials can also find workable data among its lines.