Valuation of health facilities' seismic vulnerability. Case of study: National Cardiology Hospital, Mexico City, Mexico.
Abstract
Hospitals are one of the critical infrastructures that must remain operating after the occurrence of a large earthquake. The 1985 Mexico earthquake (Ms= 8.1) generated economic losses estimated in 2.7% of Mexicós GDP and had major impact to the local hospital's infrastructure. Here, we develop a methodology to estimate the probable economic impact to hospitals due to earthquakes. Our model has three steps: (1) designing a theoretical framework to estimate the economic representation of seismic vulnerability (TFER) considering the structural, non-structural, functional, and administrative-organizational vulnerabilities; (2) incorporating the possible losses of the hospital in the TFER; and (3) demonstrating the cost-benefit on the investment that is required to reduce vulnerability levels. The TFER was developed considering international standards of economic losses in health facilities due to the impact of earthquakes. This tool identifies the cost of building a new hospital by considering the cost of a new hospital bed that depends on the services and medical attention provided by the health institution. The methodology was applied to the National Cardiology Hospital in Mexico City. In previous studies, this facility was classified with levels of vulnerability between moderate and very high. Our results indicate that the investment required to mitigate the expected seismic damage is 63% less of the expected economic losses. Therefore, the money invested in mitigation measures to reduce vulnerability of health facilities decreases the percentage of economic risk.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMNH51A..04R
- Keywords:
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- 4306 Multihazards;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4333 Disaster risk analysis and assessment;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4336 Economic impacts of disasters;
- NATURAL HAZARDSDE: 4352 Interaction between science and disaster management authorities;
- NATURAL HAZARDS