Building Vulnerability Assessment and Social Appraisal of Retrofit in Lalmatia, Dhaka

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the earthquake vulnerable countries in the world. Since Bangladesh is close to the boarder of two active plates  (in the west side the Indian plate and in the east and north and east side the Eurasian plate), the country is invariably at risk of an earthquake that may be harmful and could kill people in an instant. With the increasing rate of earthquake, people’s natural tendency  to be afraid because experts consider them what is going to be occurred to them as warning. In this study the AHP- Analytical  Hierarchy process and Multi Criterion Analysis process is used to identify the earthquake vulnerability for Lalmatia study area. The AHP  method is used here to assign the weight of vulnerability factors from the expert’s opinion. In our study the weigh for six  earthquake vulnerable factors were fixed and by this AHP method and the priority of vulnerable aspects were also identified by this  method. This research reveals that 5 buildings are very high vulnerable to retrofit in the first step plan and 13 buildings are high  vulnerable to retrofit in the second step plan. About 298 buildings are less vulnerable to retrofit. The retrofitting of structural  components shouldn't be conducted for only an individual component or groups of components. The good performance of the entire  structural system must be ensured. Retrofitting strategy was determined based on the results of technical assessment. The result and  method of this study may be used to recognize the earthquake vulnerability in Lalmatia and also to take planning and mitigation  measures against earthquake in Dhaka City.