EVALUATION OF SEISMIC RISK AND THEIR CONSIDERATION AMONG THE STRATEGIES OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT

In the Argentina Republic country almost 30% of its surface is located in high seismicity areas. These areas are concentrated on the center-west and north-west regions of the country. In particular, strong and highly destructive earthquakes have happened in the center-west region, where they have constituted true regional disasters. Nevertheless the importance of this determining factor, the quantity of highly destructive earthquakes that have whipped the territory and the huge area subject to this threat, the seismicity has only been studied in global form. The INPRES-CIRSOC 103code [1] classified the territory in five areas, of growing seismic hazard. Seismic micro-zonification has only been made in Mendoza and San Juan provinces, in which potential sources of seismic activity and its impacts have been evaluated. In relation to potential vulnerability of the existent constructions, some studies have been made in these two provinces and it has a first estimation of the percentage of seismoresistant and non seismoresistant structures in the north-west Argentinean territory (Salta and Jujuy provinces). In the rest of the country, an important lack of knowledge exists of the seismic vulnerability of structures and in relation to holistic risk estimation. The report that here is presented, exposes partial results of a project of the “Instituto Regional de Planeamiento y Hábitat (IRPHa)” of the National University of San Juan, Argentina. It consists in the development of a Territorial Management Plan for Zonda Department, of San Juan's province. It is part of the program, “Strategic Plan for Department Development” that conjugated simultaneous actions of government entities as the Federal Council of Investments, the Government of the County and the San Juan University. The main objective of this plan is the integral evaluation of seismic risk in this county, deepening the topics of the hazard, the vulnerability and the response capacity, aspects that the Territorial Management Plan, with its planning instruments, administration and control, approaches in prioritized form. It will allow the establishment of political, regulations, actions and measures that will be implemented starting allow the establishment of political, regulations, actions and measures that will be implemented starting from an order of intervention priorities, reconciling the interests of the population, the environment, and the economy. It is the only way to guarantee an appropriate management of the risk. In the used methodology, has been considered in a very important way the space visualization of the risk, identifying their different levels through the determination of areas of different valuation, projecting analyses and evaluations of the same one in cartographic form, in such a way that they are the input for the design and application of mitigation programs. The Geographical Information Systems (GIS) were used like an analysis tool, given their capacity for space correlation of a limitless number of layers, with derived synthesis products of their combination, what allows an appropriate methodological boarding to such a versatile a multicriterial concept as the risk is. This has allowed the simulation of social, economic, spatial and environmental scenarios, in which can be observed alternative to diverse action or decision courses.