An Overview on the Seismic Microzonation and Site Effect Studies in Central Asia

During the past centuries, many cities in Central Asia have suffered significant damages caused by earthquakes. A crucial step towards preparedness for future events, the definition of the optimal engineering designs for civil structures and the mitigation of earthquake risks involves the accomplishment of site response studies. To accurately identify local variations of the site response at different locations within the cities, earthquakes recorded by seismic networks as well as measurements of the seismic noise can be used for estimating the resonance frequencies and for evaluating the expected level of ground motion at each site. Additionally, the measurements can help identifying site specific features like more-dimensional resonances and directional effects. This information can be complemented with array measurements of ambient seismic noise in order to estimate local shear-wave velocity profiles, an essential parameter for evaluating the dynamic properties of soil, and to characterize the corresponding sediment layers at each site. The present study gives an overview on the progressive development of the seismic zonation studies in the frame of EMCA carried out in several cities in Central Asia.