Seismic vulnerability assessment of medical facilities: a GIS based application for Chittagong, Bangladesh

Medical facilities are one of the most important lifelines that need to remain functional during and after an earthquake. Bangladesh is a multi-hazard prone country located in the southern part of Asia where a significant number of natural disasters are recorded each year. The second largest city and economic hub, Chittagong, is located in the south-eastern part of the country, falls in the seismically moderate zone as per Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC 2017) with a seismic zoning coefficient of 0.28g based on 2 percent probability of exceedance in 50 years. Most of the buildings were built before implementation of seismic code practiced in Bangladesh. Based on growing need for developing disaster risk plan, seismic performance is evaluated for existing important medical facilities by applying simple visual risk assessment procedure. The structural database is developed through field survey and result of seismic performance is presented in Geographic Information System (GIS)