Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Abstract: The survey presents the results of the distributed among the PECO countries and their experts a questionnaire on the seismic risk mapping. This problem is considered as the common hazard in several PECO countries. The main aim of the questionnaire is to establish the state of the art of the risk mapping process on the earthquakes. The results after the processing procedure of the collected data are presented. They are illustrated by many tables and other information tools. They show very similar picture of the abilities of the different countries to map the seismic risk. The second part considers the seismic vulnerability and the risk mapping. The problem has several peculiarities in comparison with some other hazards also displayed in the same questionnaire:- the vulnerability of the different structures to the earthquakes- the vulnerability of population to the effects of the earthquakes- the risk mapping as a combination of the hazard mapping and the vulnerable elements. Most of the countries are well prepared for these activities (i.e. base maps exist), but almost no one is using GIS technology for this mapping. The main aim of this survey is to make conclusions and some suggestions to the EC policy makers for the homogenization and legislation to be applied for all PECO countries. Most of the investigated countries mentioned that they would like to play positive role in such process. *PECO is the EC acronym of the new member states and the candidate countries for the EU