Gis Geoprocessing System Development For Seismic Microzonation Assessment: A Case Study Of Beni Suef, Egypt

The study of earthquakes and seismic ground motion at Beni Suef metropolitan area, Egypt is an exciting field with significant social consequences including potential catastrophic loss of life, disruption of people’s lives and loss of income. This paper presents the results of a study on the spatial-temporal seismic hazard assessment in Beni Suef metropolitan area. A Geographical Information System (GIS) technology based geoprocessing system development is established to assess three-dimensional (3D) fault layers and the seismic hazard maps for specified seismic source faults. By adapting the methodology of the National Seismic Hazard Maps for Japan, GIS-based seismic hazard assessment tool is developed and applied to simulate the ground motion of the October 12, 1992 Dahshour earthquake with magnitude 5.9 and the October 11, 1999 southeast Beni Suef with magnitude: 4.9. Site amplification factor of GIS layer model has been constructed by 800-meter grid scale for part of Beni Suef metropolitan area in which digital grid data of shear velocity are available from USGS’s website. Moreover, geophysical, topographical, geological data and satellite images were collected, processed, and integrated into a spatial database using GIS and image processing techniques. Because some numerical parameters of fault are not clearly recognized in the study area, sequence of assessment analysis scenario has been performed rigorously. The distribution map of peak velocity on the engineering bedrock, peak velocity on the ground surface and seismic intensity on the ground surface in the vicinity of the Beni Suef metropolitan area are simulated sequence to describe an important source parameter to affect characteristics of calculated seismic ground motions.