Historical seismicity in Azuay and seismic microzonification of basin soils

This project deals with two fundamental aspects of the province and the city of Cuenca as territories exposed to seismic threat and disaster risk. The first, the historical seismicity of the province of Azuay, constitutes a determining input for the models of seismic threat in the Austro of the country. The microzonification of soils of the city of Cuenca constitutes a basic instrument for both the territorial planning of the city and for the seismic design of civil works. As for the historical seismicity of Azuay, the objective is to better characterize the historical earthquakes that occurred in the province, in order to provide relevant information to a current discussion, within the framework of the update of the Ecuadorian Construction Standard, on the level of seismic threat in the Austro of the country. Several experts consider that the level of seismic threat in Austro should increase. There is no consensus on the amount of that increase. A study of the historical earthquakes that occurred/senses in Azuay would be an important contribution to specify this amount. As for the seismic microzonification of the soils, the only study dates back twenty years ago. The study that is proposed incorporates the methodological and instrumentation advances achieved, and includes the application of the Nakamura method and the MASW prospecting method. Being a mandatory component of PDOT and Pugs for Cuenca (public policy to reduce disaster risk), its realization is urgent.

2nd UNIVERSITY COMPETITION FOR RESEARCH-LINKAGE PROJECTS