Antonio Aretxabala PHOTO: Manuel Castells

Four researchers have defended the need to study and plan the growth of cities to prevent them from settling on seismic risk areas, especially based on the case of Lorca. This was expressed on the occasion of the roundtable 'Urban configurations and catastrophes: the unbalanced interaction between human beings and their environment', held at the University of Navarra's Master's Degree Center in Madrid, in the framework of Science Week. The activity was promoted by Antonio Aretxabala, geologist and director technician of the laboratory of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra.

Aretxabala emphasized that cities have not been configured with risk in mind, and many, such as Lorca, were built in areas that were not suitable for building. For this reason, he pointed out the need to submit urban plans to an environmental assessment and to the preparation of reports on issues such as the existence of water resources.

For his part, geologist and CSIC scientist Miguel Doblas commented that"there is a cause-effect relationship between water and earthquakes, which may or may not be associated with human activity". From agreement with his theory of hydroseismicity, he argued that water acts as a lubricant between faults and that its absence (by extraction for irrigation) creates compact masses that can easily crack if subjected to stress, as happened, according to him, in the earthquake in the city of Lorca.

The CSIC scientist asserted that the recent flooding in this area of Murcia could lead to a new earthquake in a short period of time, because as the aquifer "swells" new stress is added to the fault. Doblas also highlighted the lack of attention in Spain to anthropogenic, man-made seismicity.

The effects of nature
On the other hand, the architect and historian Miguel Fortea, professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of Extremadura, raised how the effects of nature affect historical heritage and stressed that it is necessary to repair damaged buildings with the same materials with which they were built at the time.

According to Fortea, the churches most affected by the Lorca earthquake were those that had been previously repaired with reinforced concrete, less plastic than the original Structures and a "harmful" weight in itself.

rules and regulations seismic resistant
Finally, Venezuelan architect Teresa Guevara spoke about'Contemporary urban configurations in seismic zones', degree scroll of the book she presented. In her exhibition she talked about how the rules and regulations seismic resistant can minimize the risks of earthquakes in cities.

"Earthquakes cannot be avoided, but their effect on the population can," stressed Guevara, an international consultant and member of the network for the design of "adaptable" cities in the face of earthquakes, which promotes the reduction of the vulnerability of urban centers and the design by performance or according to the Building. In 2050," he said, " the majority of the planet's population will be urban and will live in a model of capitalist or 'productive' cities as a symbol of progress, with taller and taller towers and 'singular' buildings that can become a hazard".

According to him, "the contemporary city is a 'product' that is difficult to manage because it adds up all the modifications it has undergone throughout history and responds randomly to an earthquake, not as a whole". "The permissive urban planning is a variable to take into account in risk areas, the danger is not in the earthquakes, but in the buildings that man builds", he added.

- Interview in Aragón Radio