Urban seismic risk is growing worldwide and is, increasingly, a problem of developing countries. In 1950, one in four of the people living in the world's fifty largest cities was earthquake-threatened, while in the year 2000, about one in two will be. Further, ofthose people living in earthquake-threatened cities in 1950, about two in three were located in developing countries, while in the year 2000, about nine in ten will be. Unless urban seismic safety is improved, particularly in developing countries, future earthquakes will have ever more disastrous social and economic consequences. In...

Summarises the currently available seismic and engineering data pertaining to the seismic hazard of the capitals of the Central Asian republics. The conclusion is that the risk to residents of these cities is extremely high. There is a roughly 40% probability that an earthquake will occur near one of the Central Asian republic's capitals within the next 20 years. Such an event will produce ground shaking in the affected city equal to the maximum ground shaking experienced in Armenia and Sakhalin, i.e. MSK IX. The event will cause tens of thousands of fatalities and at least 100,000 serious...