Author(s)

S. Sah

Abstract

Over the years, most of the urban complexes in India have undergone a phenomenal growth for various reasons and so has their vulnerability towards different hazards. Microzonation is thus a principal component of pre disaster mitigation efforts. Unless a detailed plot level microzonation is carried out for the city, it is not possible to prescribe detailed development guidelines and planning norms that will take into consideration the vulnerability of that land. The methodology adopted here is to analyze the results of field reconnaissance surveys and soil borehole details and soil topography surveys, report on the very preliminary stages of the planning of towns/townships /institutional campuses and compare them against the priority index of various types of buildings that these sites constitute in order to have the following: 1. To provide the most appropriate soil conditions for the lifeline structures. 2. To prevent the project from decelerating in doing the above. 3. To reduce the negative effects of defunct urban planning in India because of outdated and ineffective development control regulations. 4. To facilitate the process of microzonation of the cities as a whole. 5. To facilitate strategic long term planning and to add to the pre-disaster mitigation efforts. 6. To help to reduce to a minimum the effects of construction on soil. The urban planning framework in India has disappointingly not kept pace with the growth of cities, nor with the various changes that have come about in the way that planning is understood. The procedure that the research is trying to accomplish shall help to facilitate disaster mitigation efforts in India. The process involves more analytical work of the reports which is on general reports available for all major projects like strategic long term plans for the towns/townships/institutional campuses. Therefore, there shall not be much of a fiscal issue in doing so. The ultimate goal of the research is to define the

Keywords

geotechnical, seismic, reconnaissance, microzonation, priority index, architecture, urban planning, townships