New seismic hazard assessment presented in DM seminar

Khalid Mohammed Saleh, Director of Building Department at Dubai Municipality said the seminar forms part of the civic body's initiative to offer a continuous learning environment for the local architects and consultant engineers.

"While the UAE is relatively safe from seismic activity due to the nature of its soil, there is a growing national emphasis on seismic risk assessment and seismic design requirements for new structures. Dubai Municipality will continuously adapt new procedures and align its efforts with industry leaders like Hyder Consulting to bring the best of new solutions to the construction industry," Saleh said.

Introducing the assessment at the seminar, Angus McFarlane, Technical Director of Building Structures at Hyder Consulting Middle East, said: "The new assessment uses a simple and transparent procedure, in combination with conservative assumptions. The assessment was checked against three independent site-specific seismic studies and an excellent correlation is achieved. This suggests that the estimate of seismic hazard presented here is reliable and conservative. The assessment indicates that the seismic hazard in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain is significantly below UBC97 Zone 2A - only parts of Kuwait approach Zone 2A."

He noted that being at the forefront of structural engineering research, Hyder Consulting Middle East tested the new assessment against three independent site-specific seismic studies using a simple and transparent procedure, to achieve a reliable and conservative estimate of seismic hazards in the region. "We are planning to extend our cooperation with Dubai Municipality to raise awareness among professionals with innovative industry approaches," he said.

With over 30 years of design expertise in high-rise and ultra-tall buildings, high-strength concrete, seismic analysis, structural dynamics and soil-structure interaction, McFarlane's projects include the Burj Dubai Tower, the Emirates Towers and the Burj Al Arab, the three tallest buildings in the Middle East. He recently presented a paper in Bahrain on seismic hazard in the Arabian Gulf.

The seminar also featured another industry expert, Grahame Bunce, Technical Director of Geotechnics at Hyder Consulting, who also presented to over 100 industry professionals his views on geotechnical hazards in the region.

Seismic engineering is one of the most rapidly evolving disciplines in the civil/structural engineering profession. Based on a study held in 2005 by geologists at the UAE University, three fault zones have been identified in the UAE while the source of the major concern in the country is the seismic activity in the Zagros earthquake belt in western Iran.