Dubai Seismic Network
(DSN)
Dubai Municipality established a broadband seismological network in Dubai Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE), since June 2006. The main center is located in Survey Department, Dubai Municipality main office. The network consists of 4 remote seismic stations that observe local and regional seismic activity that may have an effect on Dubai city. Each station consists of a 6-channel high resolution, Internet Provider (IP) aware digitizer (Q330), a broad-band seismometer (STS-2) and a force balance accelerometer (ES-T). ANTELOPE software is used for data acquisition and analysis. The network is completely based on TCP/IP communication which allows reliable data acquisition and control communication back to the remote sites. The system exchange real time data with the neighboring networks in the Gulf region, which increase the scope of the network.
The system monitor the local and regional earthquakes which may have an effect on UAE and especially on Dubai Emirate. The earthquake information system provides strong support to the governmental organizations, Police and Civil defense in case of any felt earthquake in the region. Ongoing public awareness program for earthquakes and safety instructions is one of the Municipality contributions to the community services to reduce the earthquake hazard.
On April, 2012 Dubai Municipality installed 5 strong motion stations located closer to Dubai urban areas. The locations of these stations are selected to cover most of the urban area and to reflect the ground motion response for different soils beneath Dubai urban area. The shake maps for the earthquakes are generated according to their magnitudes (local events ML > 3 and regional events mb> 5) are executed on real time after the occurrence of the events by less than 5 minutes and published on Geodesy & Hydrographic Survey Section, Survey Department, Dubai Municipality Website.
By 2015-2018 Dubai Municipality had installed 4 Smart Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHM) on the strategic and high rise buildings; Burj Khlaifa, Rashid Tower (DWTC), Dubai Police Forensic Science and Criminology Building and Dubai Municipality main building. These SHM systems monitor continuously the dynamic behavior of these structures and in case of an earthquake or strong wind storm, they provide the building managers automatically with a SAFE report with Green, Yellow, Red structure status light. These alerting colors are determined based on a detailed performance study of the building under different shaking levels. These reports will be used by onsite managers to take immediate decision on evacuation and/or safe re-entry. All of these smart SHM systems are supported by a robust two-way communication between the building mangers and the people who reside, work, and live inside these buildings that will experience earthquake situations in the future.
A smart application called DB-safe (Oasisplus for Dubai) became available on mobile phones for the equipped strategic buildings residents and the public. These system can support them with information about what to do before, during and after the earthquake and can instruct them on how business continuity can be maintained, to be advised how safety can be best applied. Dubai Municipality performed these strategic projects to take all necessary measures for ensuring the safety of Dubai residents and minimize the negative impacts, fear and stopping of the work in case of any felt earthquakes.
Activities:
1 – Monitoring local and regional earthquakes including artificial events and publishing all earthquake parameters on
internet and smart application for Public.
2 – Alerting Governmental organization and Decision Makers on Dubai Emirate with any felt or effective earthquake parameters using SMS, emails and smart application.
3 – Supporting the emergency plans on Dubai Emirate for any felt or effective earthquake.
4 – Evaluation of the seismic hazard and risk for Dubai Emirate.
5 – Seismic data base establishment.
6 – Follow up Educational work plan about earthquake safety rules for Dubai Emirate Residence.
7 – Collaboration with the Gulf countries and international centers to exchange real-time data to calculate and publishing the Gulf Area earthquake accurate parameters.
8 – Provide planner and structural engineers with the seismological results and participate with them to prepare the building code for Dubai for earthquake resistant design.
The DSN has the following key features
Maintaining real-time continuous monitoring of earthquake occurrences and water level on a 24-hour basis throughout the year.
Issuance of information, advisory, notice, early warning and warning on the occurrence of earthquake and water level live on web and alerts through SMS and emails.
Projects:
1 – Installation of Dubai Seismic Network (2006).
2 – Seismic Hazard assessment for Dubai (2008).
3 – Seismic microzoning studies for Dubai Emirates urban Areas (2008).
Dominant Site Frequencies | Geotechnical borehole and liquefaction analysis
4 – Establishment of seismic and wind design code for Dubai (2009).
7 – Installation of BK and DWTC structural health monitoring systems (2014-2015).
8 – Installation of Dubai Municipality, Dubai Police Forensic Science and Criminology Building and DB-Safe application (2017-2018).
Publications:
– Y. Almarzooqi, H. Fashir, E. Alkhatibi and A. Megahed (2006)
Installation of Dubai Seismological Network, GSF3, Muscat, Oman. (Abstract).
– E. Alkhatibi, Y. AlMarzooqi, A. S. Megahed, F. Mathias and A. Mallalah (2007)
Priliminary seismicity of United Arab Emirates deduced from Dubai Seismic Network, GSF 4, Kuwait, 2007. (Abstract)
– AlMarzooqi, Y., Megahed, A., Al Khatibi, E. and Safak, E. (2008)
Engineering characteristics of earthquakes recorded in Dubai, GSF5, Sana’a, Yemen, 2008. (Abstract)
– Y. Al Marzooqi, K.M. Abou Elenean, A.S. Megahed, I. El-Hussain, A.J. Rodgers, E. Al Khatibi (2008)
Source parameters of March 10 and September 13, 2007, United Arab Emirates earthquakes. Tectonophysics, Vol. 460, Iss. 1-4, 124-133.
– E. Alkhatibi, K.M. Abou Elenean, A.S. Megahed and I. El-Hussain (2014)
Improved Characterization of Local Seismicity Using the Dubai Seismic Network, United Arab Emirates, Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, Vol. 90, 34-44.
– E. Alkhatibi and K.M. Abou Elenean (2018)
Dubai Smart Seismic Network, 10th Gulf Seismic Forum, 19-22 March 2018, Muscat, Oman (Abstract).
Shakemap:
Dubai Municipality installed 5 strong motion stations located closer to Dubai urban areas. The locations of these stations are selected to cover most of the urban area and to reflect the ground motion response for different soils beneath Dubai urban area.
The shake maps for the earthquakes are generated according to their magnitudes (local events ML > 3 and regional events mb> 5) are executed on real time after the occurrence of the events by less than 5 minutes and published on Geodesy & Hydrographic Survey Section, Survey Department, Dubai Municipality.
This project is a part from DM promotion to the disaster countermeasure of Dubai City for emergency response, loss estimation, and for public information through the media.
Useful Information and Links:
– Earthquake safety Instructions (What to do in case of Any earthquake).
– Dubai Smart Seismic Systems.
– Dubai Seismic Network booklet (Arabic version).
– DB-safe App Video.
– DB-Safe Public Manual.
– Dubai Seismic Network Yearly earthquake Bulletin (2019).
– Recent local and regional seismicity maps recorded by DSN.
