Earthquake Damage Assessment Using GIS Author: Aymen Aly Solyman 129 SHOUBRA STREET - CAIRO - EGYPT Phone: 00202-4305804
On Monday, October 12, 1992, at 13:09:56.3 UT, Cairo and northeastern Egypt experienced a rare, damaging earthquake. The earthquake, which measured (Mb = 5.9), was centered near the village of Dahshure, about 20 km south of Cairo. This earthquake caused extensive nonstructural and moderate structural damage. According to official sources, the City of Cairo and the neighboring towns suffered 556 deaths and 6,500 injuries as a result of this earthquake. About 350 building structures collapsed (mainly old reinforced masonry buildings) and 8,000 were damaged. An estimated 3,500 adobe-type buildings in the surrounding villages also collapsed. It was estimated that monetary losses directly attributable to this earthquake were about $300 million. Using geographic information systems to assess the damage after the earthquake allowed integration of different types of data layers. Most of these data layers had geographic distribution. |