ABSTRACT

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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal 03.07.2007
ABSTRACT
Over the past few years, the people around the
world have become much more aware of disasters
and the need for risk preparedness. The success
of responding to a disaster though lies in
preparedness. The authorities and the community
need to be prepared in respect to reduction of
risk as well as immediate response to a disaster.
Kathmandu Valley Source (Lirung, 2007)
Core Area of Bhaktapur Source (Weise, 2006)
Kathmandu Valley The Kathmandu Valley is especi
ally prone to disaster caused by earthquake due
to its geophysical formation. Various studies
show that a major earthquake similar to the one
in 1934 would destroy between 60 and 70 of all
buildings and infrastructure within the valley,
leading to tens of thousand of fatalities and
hundreds of thousands of injured. It also suffers
from flooding during monsoon time. The increasing
urban population, the lack of adequate
infrastructure such as energy and water supply or
sewage, non-adequate modern buildings or
traditional ones in bad shape and a lack of
awareness are major problems which have to be
solved in an integrated approach.
Situation after reconstruction
Situation after (1934) earthquake
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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
Risk management was often historically viewed as
an ility affordability or a nice to have but
today it is not only below the state of the art,
but more importantly, below the level needed.
(Conrow H Edmund, 2003) Urbanization
is the growing trend and is accelerating
throughout the world. This has created dense
population, insufficient infrastructure,
environmental pollution, health problem, risk to
heritage, etc. As a result it has tremendously
increased the amount of impact in case of
unavoidable disaster which includes not only the
direct impact like loss of human life, housing,
infrastructure, but also the indirect such as
utility service, transport, labour, supplies,
market which strongly interrupt the development
process of the country. Moreover the impact of
disaster is more in developing countries than in
developed countries. It has been said that people
in developing countries are four times as likely
to die in a natural disaster as people in the
developed world (Kreimer, 2003). Therefore steps
should be taken to mitigate negative impact from
hazard and preparedness for disaster that cannot
be prevented. This pre-disaster management or
per-disaster mitigation approach is referred to
as risk management. Nepal has been affected by
various natural disasters like earthquake,
landslides, flood, fire etc. Since it lies
between Tibetan plate and Indian plate, it is
especially prone to earthquake. (see Fig 1 and
Fig 2) Kathmandu Valley, which comprises of
capital Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur, is
prone to earthquakes owing to its geophysical
formation. The valley was once a big lake in
ancient times. Thus, it has fluvial clay soil/
black cotton soil which has characteristics to
magnify the seismic wave and prone to
liquefaction (NSC, 2007). In addition, Kathmandu
valley is facing tremendous pressures on its
population and infrastructures due to haphazard
and rapid urbanisation. This has resulted into
several other negative impacts such as poor
earthquake resilience modern buildings,
insufficient maintenance of traditional buildings
and lack of awareness or preparedness to urban
risks.
INTRODUCTION
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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
It is very likely that Kathmandu valley will be
seriously affected in case of any impending
disaster such as earthquake. It appears that a
medium size earthquake would result into a major
disaster taking thousands of life and loss of
assets. Various studies show that a major
earthquake similar to the one in 1934 would
destroy 60 to 70 of all buildings and
infrastructure within the valley, leading to tens
of thousands of fatalities and hundreds of
thousands of injured (NSC, 2007). Therefore,
there is an urgent need of preparedness for the
disaster to reduce vulnerability and losses
arising from a possible earthquake.
The semester project titled Urban Risk Management
will focus on the study of one municipality
within the Kathmandu Valley, namely Bhaktapur,
which is also known as the City of Culture,
The Living Heritage, Gem of Nepal and the
World Heritage site as recognised by the UNESCO.
It is like an open museum where the visitors can
feel the ancient environment, culture, tradition,
art and crafts (AMAA Inc, 1998). Unfortunately,
the city is not able to hold the recent pressures
of rapid urbanization that the earthquake
disasters, if possibly happen will be more
complicated and intensified in their hazards and
impacts. As evident in the present scenario,
where the city is ageing with its compact
settlement planning since the ancient times, the
vulnerability and risks to earthquake will be
much more than estimated or approximated so far.
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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
EXPECTED RESULT
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Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
PROJECT PROGRESS MATRIX
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PROJECT HOMEPAGE
Semester Project 2007/2008 URBAN RISK MANAGEMENT
Case Study Kathmandu Valley, Nepal
PROJECT HOMEPAGE