An Investigation on Borojerd as a Vulnerable Area against Earthquake: A Case Study of Borojerd Houses

Iran is one of the countries which is always struck by quake and its location on Himalayan-Alpine belt has enhanced this condition such that in the previous century it has experienced more than 130 quakes with magnitude 7.5 in Richter scale. This phenomenon is not destructive in itself but lack of structures’ tolerance against forces caused by quake devastates and ruins them for different reasons. Iran is one of the ten natural disaster-prone countries and it is known as the sixth earthquake stricken country which causes high death toll. Based on this, urban security has great importance in this land. In this regard, this study has used a survey and analytical method based on qualitative and quantitative characteristics of Borojerd houses with the aim of identifying the amount of vulnerability using national statistics and random sampling. The results of this study indicated that seismic risk is high in Borojerd and confirmed low level of material resistance and high density of families in houses and lack of facilities and important services like hospitals, fire-fighting and rescue centers in critical situation.