Geostatistical Seismic Analysis and Hazard Assessment; United Arab Emirates

Abstract

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Assessing and analyzing the spatial distribution of earthquake events aids in identifying the presence of clustering and reveals hot and cold spots across the study area. Combining the spatial analysis of earthquake events with other geographical and geophysical parameters leads to more understanding of the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and the demographics of the affected population. This study will use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to examine the spatiotemporal occurrence of earthquake events throughout the Arabian plate and their effect on the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Spatial pattern analysis techniques, including Moran I and Getis–Ord Gi*, were applied to 115 years of earthquakes (1900–2015) that have occurred throughout the Arabian plate. The directional distribution (standard deviational ellipse) of earthquake magnitudes was analyzed to determine the spatial characteristics and the directional tendency of the earthquakes throughout the Arabian plate. Afterword, geophysical parameters of UAE, specifically Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), fault line distance, slope, soil type, and geology were ranked, weighted based on its contribution and combined using an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify and locate seismic hazard zones. The resulted Seismic Hazard Zonation Map (SHZM) was classified to five hazard zones ranging from very high to very low. It has been found that Fujairah city sited in the “very High” zone, Sharjah and Dubai cities located from “High” to moderate zones while Abu Dhabi city stands relatively far from seismic hot spots and major faults and placed in the low seismic hazard zone. The results of this study could help improve urban planning and emergency mitigation strategies in UAE.</p>

Geospatial Multicriteria Analysis for Earthquake Risk Assessment: Case Study of Fujairah City in the UAE

“…After validating the ranking technique, the weights were assigned in ArcGIS by utilizing the weighted overlay tool to prepare the output. The seismic hazard map of the UAE was reclassified into five zones: very high, high, moderate, low, and very low (Figure 4) [38].…”

“…Primary risk assessment is narrowed down to the eastern part of the Fujairah Emirate, covering the densely populated cities of Fujairah, Kalba, Al Aqdah, Hail, Al The current study utilized historical earthquake data to determine the risk-prone zones in UAE. An earthquake catalogue that contains the date, time, latitude, longitude, and magnitude was used as reference; it covers 13,156 events from 1900 to 2015 [36,38]. It includes the entire Arabian Plate and its neighbouring territories, i.e., every significant hazard for the Arabian Plate [38,39].…”

“…An earthquake catalogue that contains the date, time, latitude, longitude, and magnitude was used as reference; it covers 13,156 events from 1900 to 2015 [36,38]. It includes the entire Arabian Plate and its neighbouring territories, i.e., every significant hazard for the Arabian Plate [38,39]. Table 2 lists historical earthquake events and some of their associated attributes [38].…”

“…It includes the entire Arabian Plate and its neighbouring territories, i.e., every significant hazard for the Arabian Plate [38,39]. Table 2 lists historical earthquake events and some of their associated attributes [38].…”

Mekansal istatistiklerin bir uygulaması: Simule edilmiş fay düzlemine ilişkin jeodezik noktaların mekansal analizi

“…Menekşe and Tağıl (2016) detected clusters of earthquakes in Turkey for the 2005-2015 earthquakes data with the event of magnitude larger from four by using spatial statistics [10]. Al-Dogom et al (2018) applied spatial pattern analysis to examine the spatiotemporal occurrence of earthquake throughout the Arabian plate and their effect on the United Arab Emirates [11].…”