Tsunami hazard assessment in the coastal area of Rabat and Salé, Morocco

Abstract

Abstract. In the framework of the three-year SCHEMA European project (www.schemaproject.org), we present a generic methodology developed to produce tsunami building vulnerability and impact maps. We apply this methodology to the Moroccan coast. This study focuses on the Bouregreg Valley which is at the junction between Rabat (administrative capital), and Salé. Both present large populations and new infrastructure development. Using a combination of numerical modelling, field surveys, Earth Observation and GIS data, the risk has been evaluated for this vulnerable area.Two tsunami scenarios were studied to estimate a realistic range of hazards on this coast: a worst-case scenario based on the historical Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and a moderate scenario based on the Horseshoe earthquake of 28 February 1969. For each scenario, numerical models allowed the production of tsunami hazard maps (maximum inundation extent and maximum inundation depths). Moreover, the modelling results of these two scenarios were compared with the historical data available.A companion paper to this article (Atillah et al., 2011) presents the following steps of the methodology, namely the elaboration of building damage maps by crossing layers of building vulnerability and the so-inferred inundation depths.

Tsunami hazard and buildings vulnerability along the Northern Atlantic coast of Morocco –the 1755-like tsunami in Asilah test-site

“…030963), a new approach to assess tsunami vulnerability through deriving fragility functions and damage curves for the European-Mediterranean coastal buildings. This methodology was applied to assess the expected buildings tsunami damage in the SCHEMA test-sites Renou et al 2011;Valencia et al 2011). Alternative GIS-multi-criteria-based methods were also proposed to qualitatively estimate the expected tsunami damage and the corresponding vulnerability level for coastal buildings under tsunami impact (Papathoma et al 2003;Omira et al 2010).…”

Tsunami vulnerability and damage assessment in the coastal area of Rabat and Salé, Morocco

“…This study, a companion paper to Renou et al (2011), focuses on the application of a GIS-based method to assess building vulnerability and damage in the event of a tsunami affecting the coastal area of Rabat and Salé, Morocco. This approach, designed within the framework of the European SCHEMA project (www.schemaproject.org) is based on the combination of hazard results from numerical modelling of the worst case tsunami scenario (inundation depth) based on the historical Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and the Portugal earthquake of 1969, together with vulnerability building types derived from Earth Observation data, field surveys and GIS data.…”

Recent high-energy marine events in the sediments of Lagoa de Óbidos and Martinhal (Portugal): recognition, age and likely causes

“…Approximately, sixty km further north, the tsunami probably caused a jump in the inlet position and overwashed the barrier of the Aveiro lagoon (Corrochano et al, 2000). Even if the historical sources can overestimate the run-up, numerical modelling for the 1755 tsunami wave(s) in the coastal reach depicted in Figures 1 and 2 points to an open sea maximum water elevation of 1 to 3 m and a deflection towards the east (Renou et al, 2011). For the same event, modelling calculates a main wave height, depending on the tidal level, of between 7.0 and 4.3 m reaching Figueira da Foz, a coastal village about 80 km north of the Lagoa deÓbidos (Ribeiro et al, 2011), and 9 to 4 m in Oeiras, 80 km to the south (Baptista et al, 2011).…”