Geo-statistical Seismic analysis, and Vulnerability Assessment

Assessing and analyzing the spatial distribution of earthquake events aids in identifying the presence of clustering and reveals hot and cold spots across the study area. Combining the spatial analysis of earthquake events with other geographical and geophysical parameters leads to more understanding of the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and the demographics of the affected population. Where vulnerability investigation and assessment are important for earthquake crises limitation and mitigation. This research used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to examine the spatiotemporal occurrence of earthquake events throughout the Arabian plate and their effect on the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Spatial pattern analysis techniques, including Moran I and Getis–Ord Gi*, were applied to 115 years of earthquakes (1900-2015) that have occurred throughout the Arabian plate. The directional distribution (standard deviational ellipse) of earthquake magnitudes was analyzed to determine the spatial characteristics and the directional tendency of the earthquakes throughout the Arabian plate. Afterword, geophysical parameters of UAE, specifically Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), fault line distance, slope, soil type, and geology were ranked, weighted based on its contribution and combined using an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify and locate seismic hazard zones. The resulted Seismic Hazard Zonation Map (SHZM) was classified to five hazard zones ranging from very high to very low.