Location based prioritization of surigao municipalities using Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Earthquakes can cause losses in billions of dollars and thousands of lives yearly. It is necessary to evaluate the earthquake hazards to mitigate these losses. One of the forms in assessing the hazards of earthquakes is by utilizing the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA). Many studies on seismic hazards have been conducted such as the faults, sources of earthquakes, and ground shaking, the data garnered were transformed and updated into a medium that will serve as a guide to reduce the risk from the said hazards. Most of these guides are in a form of maps using obtained hazard results in terms of exceedance rate curves. These assessments may be used as basis for seismic provisions in building codes and for risk models for structures especially for perilous cities. With the importance of roads and bridges in rescue and relief operations after an earthquake, in the study, Surigao Municipalities were prioritized using Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Municipalities were classified qualitatively according to Low, Medium and High Priority. The recent February 10, 2017 Surigao earthquake was used to validate the prioritization.