Engineering geological evaluation of reconstruction sites following the Wenchuan earthquake

摘要

Site selection and risk assessment are extremely important aspects of the post-earthquake reconstruction of damaged towns. The main principles applied in this process were the towns located on/adjacent to the fault with a fragile geology would be relocated; heavily damaged towns some distance from the fault but without landslides/ debris flows/significant slope movement would be reconstructed at their original location following strict construction codes. During the process of post-earthquake reconstruction, particular attention should be paid to hidden geological hazards, the variety and interdependency of risk-inducing factors and to long-term safety, etc. The paper discusses the site selection process for the reconstruction of Beichuan City, Qingchuan City and Muyu Town.