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The civic body set to construct website to deliver project services to strategic partners in Abu Dhabi Emirate
Abu Dhabi City Municipality - The Abu Dhabi City Municipality (ADM) has fully completed all phases of the Seismic Risks Monitoring and Management Project by constructing a state-of-the-art monitoring network at world-class-standards comprising 50 observation stations.
HE Musabbah Mubarak Al Murar, Acting General Manager of Abu Dhabi City Municipality, said: "This project is undertaken as part of the endeavours of the Municipal System in Abu Dhabi to build a comprehensive Seismic Risks Monitoring and Management System, and maintain the integrity of the infrastructure of installations.
"Despite the lack of a historical record of quakes in the UAE, the type of unique installations which have started to mushroom in the Emirate, such as modern high rises, warranted further concentration on the seismic impacts. These installations and buildings are vulnerable to potential risks of potentially violent tremors from seismic sources nearby or far afield.
The Seismic Risks Monitoring System aims at safeguarding the existing & future urbanization for inhabitants and vital utilities in Abu Dhabi Emirate against seismic risks, and building an integrated system that helps chalking out legislations, policies, and standards for developing areas, and issuing building permits in such a way to avoid the potential seismic risks," explained Al Murar.
Engineer Khalfan Al Nuaimi, Acting Executive Director of Town Planning Sector at the Abu Dhabi City Municipality, reported that the project would deliver services to a host of strategic partners in Abu Dhabi Emirate such as:
· Supporting the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology by offering additional information gathered from newly built observation stations in the Emirate.
· Supporting the General HQ of Abu Dhabi Police by offering real-time seismic information.
· Supporting the Department of Municipal Affairs & Municipalities by information related to seismic risk maps in order to update the seismic-resistant Building Code, besides offering instant information about seismic risks posed to buildings, installations and infrastructure lines (water & electricity) in case of a tremor hitting the UAE.
· Supporting the United Arab Emirates University by constructing an alternative center for the Seismic Risks Monitoring and Management System at the campus for training, development and grooming of Emirati cadres.
Since activated, the Monitoring of Seismic Risks Project has brought by several positives such as the construction of a seismic monitoring system comprising a network of 50 stations for observing violent movements, in addition to 4 broad-band stations to support the national seismic monitoring network, a system for monitoring key installations (7 buildings in the Emirate), two data centers at the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology, the United Arab Emirates University, and 5 centers for displaying information.
The project included a system for assessing seismic risks the deliverables of which will be shared by five government entities namely the Abu Dhabi City Municipality, Western Region Municipality, Al Ain City Municipality, General HQ of Abu Dhabi Police, and the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology. The system generates seismic intensity maps whenever a tremor has an impact on the country. The systems assesses seismic risks to the infrastructure (water & electricity lines) in case of an earthquake, generates seismic risk maps; which will form the basis for preparing seismic-resistant Building Code, and setting a site comprising seismic risk map transactions in support of the seismic-resistant Building Code.
The Municipality noted that the Seismic Risks Control Project is braced for further improvement and update involving considering a proposal for constructing a website to deliver services to a variety of external bodies in the Emirate. The Municipality is also mulling a number of ideas for enhancing the efficiency of the system by preparing a response plan in case of strong tremors impacting a number of key and iconic buildings in Abu Dhabi such as Capital Jet, Sky Tower, ADNOC Tower, Trust Tower, and the Central Market, to supplement the Building Control System; which had been completed.
It is noteworthy that the Abu Dhabi City Municipality has clinched the first position in the 14th European Earthquake Engineering Conference 2010 Award in recognition of the excellent standing of Abu Dhabi System for Seismic Risk Monitoring and Management Project contributed by the Municipality as a leading & pioneering project in this line of industry. The Municipality had delivered a paper in the 14th European Earthquake Engineering Conference held in Macedonia entitled: Seismic Risk Monitoring and Management System in Abu Dhabi Emirate.
In June 2011, the Abu Dhabi City Municipality held the 2nd workshop about the Seismic Risk Monitoring and Management System where several global, regional and Arab entities took part in addition to quake and seismic engineering experts in a number of government departments in Abu Dhabi Emirate. The paper reviewed its pioneering risk-monitoring project.
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© Press Release 2015
