The Republic of Georgia is situated between the Russian Federation in the North and the Republic of Turkey as well as the Republic of Armenia in the South, From the east it is bounded by Azerbaijan and form the west by Black See. Georgia is highly vulnerable to various natural hazards, the most dangerous and devastating of which is high seismic activity. Many devastating earthquakes took place in the last decade. The latest strongest earthquake here was in Racha 1991with death more then 100 and direct losses for residential houses and infrastructure damages in order of 10 billion rubles (as of 1991, approximately 5.5 billion USD) (Gugeshashvili et al., 1996).  Such strong earthquakes are likely to be expected in the future, which can lead to large casualties and significant losses in the economy of country. Increase of population in cities and urbanization in seismic-prone zones causes increase of infrastructure such as: buildings, roads, bridges, pipelines, electric power stations, dams and communication systems. This in turn increases the likelihood of seismic and other natural disasters. A good example of this is Tbilisi, where the average earthquake that took place in 2002 caused a significant  social and economic loses.

By the index of disaster risk obtained by UNDP, Georgia relates to the countries with medium and high level risk. So the natural disasters in Georgia have to be considered as a standing negative factor in the development process of the country.

Seismic risk is estimated by the level of seismic hazard; by seismic resistance of dwelling houses and building constructions; by the population density; by the frequency of earthquakes (per day); by the probability of fires; by the pollution of atmosphere with toxic materials; by the leakage of gas and other explosive materials; by landslide; by the damage of dams, important governmental and other offices, by destroyed communications and many other factors.

So the main goal of Seismology, Seismic Hazard and Disaster Risk sector is investigation of seismicity, seismic  hazard and risk. For this we need deep knowledge of earth crust structures, seismotectonic process, seismic response, building structures and their sites behaviour during seismic loads and so on.

 

Main directions:

 

  • Development of Strong motion network;
  • Seismic hazard assessment
  • Development of ground motion prediction models;
  • Probabilistic assessment of seismic hazards in terms of peak ground displacement, velocity acceleration and spectral acceleration, macroseismic Intensity at MSK64 scale;
  • Disaggregation of seismic hazards;
  • Developing earthquake scenarios;
  • Disaster Risk assessment;
  • Creation inventory map of element at risk;
  • Estimation vulnerability of element at risk;
  • Multiple risk assessment;
  • Engineering seismology;
  • Site investigation by geophysical survey (Seismic prospectingand ambient noise)
  • Investigation of historical earthquake, Macroseismic intensity and engineering analysis
  • Seismic Microzonation
  • Earthquake engineering;
  • Model analysis of buildings and structures (according to natural periods and forms);
  • Determination of vibration levels (according to sanitary, technological, construction and other standards); Assessment of damage of buildings and structures (in case of natural and technogenous catastrophes);
  • Selection of the accelerograms package for buildings and structures (taking into consideration simultaneous exploitation of the building area and structures);
  • Elaboration of design elastic reaction spectra for unique and high buildings and structures;
  • Engineering analysis of earthquake consequences;
  • Engineering-geotechnical tasks (landslides, karsts and etc.);
  • Engineering geology;

Field works

  • Observations on engineering-geological processes of the study area;
  • Bore holes and pits;
  • Standard dynamic and static penetration (SPT);
  • Field sieving of soils;
  • Electric conductivity (resistivity) of soils profile and vertical electric sounding;
  • Determination of soil water discharge and filtration;

Laboratory works (Determination of physical-mechanical properties of soils)

  • Soil shear test;
  • Soil compression test;
  • Determination of physical properties of soils
  • Rock uniaxial compression test (UCS);
  • Determination of longitudinal and transverse velocities in soil samples;
  • Determination of chemical properties of soils (saltiness and corrosion);
  • Determination of soil water properties (saltiness and corrosion).

Cameral works

  • Analysis of the results obtained by field and laboratory works;
  • Compilation of a report;
  • Conclusions and recommendations;
  • Compilation of the engineering-geological map of the study territory.