Luis Diego Dávila Migoya defended last Friday, September 29, his doctoral thesis , 'Tradition and modernity: seismic vulnerability in Guatemala City. Application to risk scenarios in zone 10', directed by José Manuel Cabrero and María Belén Benito.

Jaime Cervera Bravo, Full Professor of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Beatriz Gonzalez Rodrigo, professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Héctor Monzón Despang, director of Consultora Sismorreristente; Rufino Goñi Lasheras, Associate Professor of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra; and Ignacio Arteaga Jordá, Associate Professor of the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra were part of the tribunal.

At the end of the thesis defense, the court praised the work of research carried out by Dávila, due to the difficulties of creating an own database , looking for the information personally in Guatemala City itself. The thesis reflects the need for assessment projects on the seismic vulnerability of urban populations.

Recently, the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria have once again highlighted the urgency of this subject of programs of study. The consideration of these phenomena in the processes of architectural design and urban planning is often neglected and forgotten because of their leave occurrence.

The goal of this thesis is the assessment of seismic vulnerability in Guatemala City. It aims to show the status seismic vulnerability of the Guatemalan population, as well as to identify the most vulnerable traditional and modern structural typologies, and even to present the effects of a seismic risk scenario.

Text by Ana Belén Poza