Location:  Salamiyah, Syria

Date of Start and Completion: December 2023 – Ongoing

Clients: Aga Khan Agency for Habitat

Project Description:

The purpose of consultancy for Microzonation Studies is to provide expert guidance and advice for organizations, communities, and governments on the risk of earthquakes and other geotechnical hazards such as liquefaction and landslide potential, subsidence, amplification, etc.

Provided services:

• Situational Analysis and Diagnosis of the Current Planning

– Reviewing, and preparing a report for the way forward approach to document the current planning system, its legislative foundation, process, approach, practice, evolution, implementation, enforcement, and outputs, document the approach and content of the current town plans and specific plans, assessing gaps in the planning process and identifying potential shortcomings and conflicts in plan development and implementation, collection and updating of resource maps.

– Preparing a comprehensive report on the outcomes of the geotechnical and geological studies reflecting the results and the way forward options. Limitations, list of results, and confidence percentage of results will be defined for each option.

• A comprehensive study on a city-wide investigation for microzonation purposes including:

– Reviewing existing reports and records that include available related studies.

– Developing probabilistic and deterministic seismic hazard (PSHA / DSHA) maps.

– Based on PSHA/DSHA and topographical maps, geotechnical, geophysical, and hydrogeological investigations inputs and data, site characterization will be carried out, which will result in 2D and 3D subsurface profiling, bedrock maps, subsurface soil deposit models, 3D borehole models, In-situ lab test results, VS/VS30 maps and (N1)60, their relations and understanding their uncertainties.

– Developing seismic microzonation that provides detailed maps of site classification, spatial variation of bedrock as well as surface amplification, liquefaction, and landslide.

• Risk sensitive land use planning (RSLUP) and resiliency program
• Multi-hazard and risk map analysis including:

– Vulnerability Analysis of critical facilities

– Vulnerability Analysis of road network

– Vulnerability Analysis of the current zoning map

– Exposure analysis in terms of multi-hazard

• Exposure analysis to the hazards and multi-hazards including:

– Natural hazards and safety studies

– Seismic hazard analysis

– Liquefaction and amplification hazard analysis

– Flood and subsidence hazard analysis

– Integrated exposure map

• Mainstreaming DRR into the planning system including:

– Integrated analysis and identification of gaps in the planning system

– Legislation foundation of DRR and its relation to the planning system

– Institutional and financial arrangement

– Planning and DRR integration

– Training and knowledge

– Participation

– Monitoring

• Development of RSLUP strategy and action plans including:

– Developing the vision and strategies of RSLUP in Salamiyah City

– Developing the RSLUP action plans in Salamiyah City

• Development of Urban expansion model including:

– Determination of indicators and land suitability criteria in Salamiyeh

– Applying restrictions such as hazard zones, topography, environmentally sensitive areas, etc.

– Scoring indicators and criteria based on experts’ opinions

– Standardization and integration of spatial layers

– Proposing different alternatives for the city expansion and choosing the best locations.

• Development of an RSLUP guidebook including:

– Introduction and situational analysis

– Identification of entry points and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into land use planning of the Salamiyah urban area as well as defining the strategic framework for RSLUP

– Training and Capacity Building for risk-sensitive planning for four main parts

• GIS processing of analyzed factor maps and data

– Introducing the classification of spatial data in different datasets

– Production of raster data related to various hazards and production of zoning maps related to multi-hazard

– Preparation of the geodatabase model based on the latest information received from the different datasets

– Defining a data dictionary of spatial data, including vector and raster data

• At the end of the project, Capacity Building Development will be implemented by:

– 2 Workshops for the AKAH Team to provide technical guidance in the development of Microzonation and RSLUP.

– 1 Workshop for Government Entities to provide a basic understanding of RSLUP and Development perceptions.

– 2 Virtual Seminars on field activities and Geotechnical and Geological studies.