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GHZ-02 Geohazards and risk studies under glabal environmental change
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Geohazards map and assessment of some Balkan countries
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Betim Muco, General Dynamics (United States)
Georgi Alexiev, Institute of Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)
Shyqyri Aliaj, Seismological Institute of Albania (Albania)
Zenun Elezi, Seismological Center (Albania)
Bogdan Grecu, National Institute for Earth Physics (Romania)
Neculai Mandrescu, National Institute for Earth Physics (Romania)
Zoran Milutinovic, Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (Macedonia, Fyrom)
Mircea Radulian, National Institute for Earth Physics (Romania)
Boyko Ranguelov, Geophysical Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Science (Bulgaria)
Defrim Shkupi, Albanian Association of Engineering Geology and Geoenvironment (Albania)
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The main purpose of a composite geohazard map is to gather together in one map the different hazard-related information for a study area to convey a complete picture of the natural hazards of varying magnitude, frequency, and area of effect. This is an advantage of geographic information systems which gives the possibility to assimilate different layers of geographic or hazard data (for example topography, seismic hazard, landslides etc.) and to correlate these with each other.
The assessment of geological hazard is a topic with significant interest for the Balkans. During the last decade of 20th century mostly of the countries in the region have embarked on the road of a hasty transitory period from totalitarian regimes to democracy. Development of free market economy has given rise to uncontrolled movement of people, fast construction of housing and facilities and unproportioned accumulation of population around and in big cities.
Besides Greece, an old member of European Union, and two newcomers in the organization, Romania and Bulgaria, the other countries are all hoping to enter the Union as faster as they can. Many different pre-admission or member country programs of European Community offer a lot of joint and cross-border projects for constructing road infrastructure and facilities. As development accelerates in the Balkans and given on intensive geohazard elements that this territory exhibits, it becomes increasingly important to understand, study and map these elements for being aware of the damage to the total environment these hazards might cause. The geohazard map and assessment of some Balkan countries has been carried out through two scientific meetings in Ohrid, Macedonia and Tirana, Albania during 2007. The map is compiled in Albanian Geological Survey, Tirana, Albania in the scale 1:1,000,000. As a base map we used the topographic map produced by by VGI, formerly Yugoslavia mapping authorities. As a seismic layer in our map we used the values of peak ground acceleration (PGA) obtained from Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP). Two catalogues were constructed: the first one which contains the crustal earthquakes (hypocentral depth 70 km and down) and the second one which contains intermediate earthquakes (hypocentral depth 70 km and up).
This work is largely based on previous studies and investigations by earth scientists and specialists of each country comprised in this territory. In this respect, the map we constructed should be considered as a preliminary composite geohazard map with the possibility to be enriched and added with other new elements and data in the future.
This project has been funded under the grant OPP-024 from US Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF).
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