Friday, January 27 2012

A TEN-YEAR Trinidad and Tobago Micro-Zonation Studies Project will be undertaken to determine the extent of this country’s vulnerability to earthquakes and other seismic activities, especially in heavily populated communities and key economic areas.

Sheryl-Anne Haynes, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, in an address on Wednesday at the project’s sensitisation workshop at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus, said all data indicates that TT’s geological setting makes the threat of an earthquake “significant” and hence the need for such studies.

The $11-million project, which is being conducted by the Seismic Research Unit of UWI, St Augustine Campus, is funded by the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development through the Town and Country Planning Division (TCPD).

The project’s first phase will include acquiring specialised equipment, training in the use of the equipment and production of a micro-zonation map based on data collected from 130 sites.

The second phase will involve collecting data and mapping ten major development areas throughout the country. The areas are Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, Westmoorings, Curepe-Tunapuna, Chaguaramas, Point Lisas, St Joseph and Point Fortin in Trinidad and Scarborough and Lowlands in Tobago.

Current information on seismic risks, Haynes said, relies on existing geological maps which fail to show the detail and extent of vulnerability. Increased urban development and increased population density, together with increased vulnerability to seismic activity, she said, were the basis for TCPD to collaborate with the Seismic Research Unit to develop the Micro-zonation Database Programme.

Its main objective, she said is to create an information repository detailing seismic risks for all areas of TT to allow for land use plans, which would be informed by hazard assessments.