IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i13p5273-d377931.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Parametric Study of Local Site Response for Bedrock Ground Motion to Earthquake in Phuentsholing, Bhutan

Author

Listed:
  • Karma Tempa

    (Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Royal University of Bhutan, Phuentsholing 21101, Bhutan)

  • Raju Sarkar

    (Department of Civil Engineering, Delhi Technological University, Shahbad Daulatpur, Delhi 110042, India
    Center for Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Development Studies, Royal University of Bhutan, Phuentsholing 21101, Bhutan)

  • Abhirup Dikshit

    (Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial Information Systems (CAMGIS), University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia)

  • Biswajeet Pradhan

    (Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial Information Systems (CAMGIS), University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
    Department of Energy and Mineral Resources Engineering, Sejong University, Choongmu-gwan, 209 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05006, Korea)

  • Armando Lucio Simonelli

    (Department of Civil Engineering, University of Sannio, 82100 Benevento, Italy)

  • Saroj Acharya

    (Center for Disaster Risk Reduction and Community Development Studies, Royal University of Bhutan, Phuentsholing 21101, Bhutan)

  • Abdullah M. Alamri

    (Department of Geology & Geophysics, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

Earthquakes, when it comes to natural calamities, are characteristically devastating and pose serious threats to buildings in urban areas. Out of multiple seismic regions in the Himalayas, Bhutan Himalaya is one that reigns prominent. Bhutan has seen several moderate-sized earthquakes in the past century and various recent works show that a major earthquake like the 2015 Nepal earthquake is impending. The southwestern city of Bhutan, Phuentsholing is one of the most populated regions in the country and the present study aims to explore the area using geophysical methods (Multispectral Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW)) for understanding possibilities pertaining to infrastructural development. The work involved a geophysical study on eight different sites in the study region which fall under the local area plan of Phuentsholing City. The geophysical study helps to discern shear wave velocity which indicates the soil profile of a region along with possible seismic hazard during an earthquake event, essential for understanding the withstanding power of the infrastructure foundation. The acquired shear wave velocity by MASW indicates visco-elastic soil profile down to a depth of 22.2 m, and it ranged from 350 to 600 m/s. A site response analysis to understand the correlation of bedrock rigidness to the corresponding depth was conducted using EERA (Equivalent-linear Earthquake Site Response Analysis) software. The amplification factors are presented for each site and maximum amplification factors are highlighted. These results have led to a clear indication of how the bedrock characteristics influence the surface ground motion parameters for the corresponding structure period. The results infer that the future constructional activity in the city should not be limited to two- to five-story buildings as per present practice. Apart from it, a parametric study was initiated to uncover whatever effects rigid bedrock has upon hazard parameters for various depths of soil profile up to 30 m, 40 m, 60 m, 80 m, 100 m, 120 m, 140 m, 160 m, 180 m and 200 m from the ground surface. The overriding purpose of doing said parametric study is centered upon helping the stack holders who can use the data for future development. Such a study is the first of its kind for the Bhutan region, which suffers from the unavailability of national seismic code, and this is a preliminary step towards achieving it.

Suggested Citation

  • Karma Tempa & Raju Sarkar & Abhirup Dikshit & Biswajeet Pradhan & Armando Lucio Simonelli & Saroj Acharya & Abdullah M. Alamri, 2020. "Parametric Study of Local Site Response for Bedrock Ground Motion to Earthquake in Phuentsholing, Bhutan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-22, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:13:p:5273-:d:377931
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/13/5273/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/13/5273/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaustav Chatterjee & Deepankar Choudhury, 2013. "Variations in shear wave velocity and soil site class in Kolkata city using regression and sensitivity analysis," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 69(3), pages 2057-2082, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jahnabi Basu & Bhargavi Podili & S. T. G. Raghukanth & D. Srinagesh, 2023. "Ground motion parameters for the 2015 Nepal Earthquake and its aftershocks," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 116(2), pages 2091-2134, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Reshma Raskar Phule & Deepankar Choudhury, 2017. "Seismic reliability-based analysis and GIS mapping of cyclic mobility of clayey soils of Mumbai city, India," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(1), pages 139-169, January.
    2. Weichao Yang & De Hu & Xuelian Jiang & Xuebo Dun & Bingtao Hou & Chuanxing Zheng & Caixia Chen & Rong Zhuang, 2022. "Framework for Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Disasters and Influencing Factors: Exploratory Study of Tianjin, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-23, August.
    3. Md. Zillur Rahman & A. S. M. Maksud Kamal & Sumi Siddiqua, 2018. "Near-surface shear wave velocity estimation and V s 30 mapping for Dhaka City, Bangladesh," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 92(3), pages 1687-1715, July.
    4. Saikat Kuili & Ravi S. Jakka, 2023. "Reliable assessment of seismic site class using stochastic approaches," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 118(3), pages 2419-2458, September.
    5. Sarika Desai & Deepankar Choudhury, 2014. "Spatial variation of probabilistic seismic hazard for Mumbai and surrounding region," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 71(3), pages 1873-1898, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:13:p:5273-:d:377931. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.