Afghanistan is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, and earthquakes are among the most significant natural hazards affecting the country’s urban infrastructure and human activities. The high vulnerability of buildings, combined with insufficient prevention and preparedness plans, has contributed to severe damages and losses in past earthquakes. Lessons learned from previous disasters highlight the importance of adopting comprehensive city-wide approaches that integrate improvements to people’s lives with other policies, programs, key services, mobility infrastructure, and large-scale urban and rural development projects.

The general objectives of this study were to utilize advanced methodologies and tools to:

• Develop the seismic hazard map of Pul-e-Khumri City
• Conduct building stock vulnerability and risk assessment for Pul-e-Khumri City
• Prepare a risk-sensitive land-use plan based on seismic hazards, HVRA studies, and remote-sensing analyses of geological and hydrometeorological hazards (e.g., rockfall, landslides, floods, etc.) in Pul-e-Khumri City
• Develop the resilience master plan of Pul-e-Khumri City

Two main components of the project were carried out by VestA experts, including:

• Seismic hazard, building vulnerability, and risk assessment of Pul-e-Khumri City, including the development of a seismicity model and vulnerability functions
• Vulnerability analysis of buildings for all potential seismic hazard levels