EARTHQUAKE VULNERABILITY AND RISK FOR NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA

摘要

This paper presents the most thorough investigation ever conducted in Australia with regards to earthquake vulnerability and risk. The focus of the study is the Newcastle region, which experienced a magnitude 5.6 earthquake in 1989 resulting in almost $1 billion of insured damage. Key features of the vulnerability analysis are the development of a detailed database of building inventory and the development of building parameters that describe the vulnerability of Australian types of construction. The understanding of building vulnerability within Newcastle, combined with a probabilistic model of the regional seismicity, as presented in the companion paper, are used to perform a detailed earthquake risk assessment of the Newcastle region. The methodology has been tested against insurance and local council damage data from the 1989 event and reasonable correlation is found. The risk in Newcastle has been calculated to be low, compared to regions of high seismicity. However, a greater risk has been determined than is implied by current Australian earthquake loading codes. This paper presents the results of work in progress.