Assessment of Structural Damages due to the Earthquakes in Puerto Rico Occurred on January 2020

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive classification and documentation of the failures in buildings that occurred in Puerto Rico in January 2020 as a result of the southern earthquakes, determine the causes of those failures, and develop general recommendations that decrease the propensity of these failures to occur The methods that were used consisted in first to decide how to structure the documentation, second search for images and information on the failures induced by the earthquake in Puerto Rico Then develop a comprehensive report classifying and documenting failures, and finally implement a Google Map layer with the geolocation of case studies complemented with representative images The benefits of this research are providing a documentation of failures and damages that could be used to improve the design and construction processes, the availability of a GIS tool with geolocation of the case studies, with images and descriptions, that could be used as a study, research and planning tool that could be extended for damages caused by other natural disasters, such as hurricanes