DEVELOPMENT OF EARTHQUAKE OBSERVATION NETWORK IN AND AROUND ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN

This paper presents the purpose and progress of the project “Improvement of the Earthquake Monitoring System in and around The Ashgabat City in Turkmenistan” funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency since 2017. Turkmenistan is located in the south-west of the Central Asia region. Due to orogenic activity located close to the borderwith Iran, many earthquakes have occurred, especially in 1948 Ashgabat city suffered severe damage. Up to now, many buildings and infrastructures have been constructed following economic activities. If the same scale earthquake hit the capital city again, we can estimate much more damage of human and economic losses. The Government of Turkmenistan announced the strategy for implementation of seismic hazard estimation for the national and provisional level up to 2030. Under these circumstances, the Government of Turkmenistan requested Japan to provide technology transfer project on improvement of earthquake monitoring system and seismic hazard assessment based on geophysical surveys on the ground condition. The Project had started in July, 2017 and continues to January, 2021 targeting areas in and around Ashgabat City. Counterpart Organizations is Institute of Seismology and Atmospheric Physics, Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan, with related organizations such as Seismic Resistance of Construction Institute, Ministry of Construction, Head Department of Civil Defense, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Communication, Ashgabat City Municipality. Overall goal in the project is that reliable information on earthquakes in Turkmenistan is timely disseminated to relevant organizations to be utilized for emergency response, and earthquake hazard assessment is conducted for the whole Ashgabat City. Project purpose is the capacity for earthquake observation and earthquake hazard assessment in the project area are improved. Four activities will be conducted to achieve project purpose as shown in table below.

کلیدواژه ها:

Turkmenistan ، Earthquake observation ، Hazard assessment ، Disaster management