23/05/2026
How do soft alluvial soils impact building safety during an earthquake?
Our 2nd-year civil engineering students are finding out by bridging geological science with structural engineering resilience!
Under the guidance of Lecturer Raisul Islam, undergraduate students Md. Saiful Islam, Md. Nurul Islam, and Md. Sharif Ahmed presented an impactful poster on "Earthquake Risk in Dhaka: A Geological Perspective" for their CE 2103: Engineering Geology and Geomorphology course.
Here are the key takeaways from their research:
• A Looming Threat: Dhaka is situated at the active interaction zone of the Eurasian, Indian, and Burmese plates. With no major rupture in the last 100 years, a significant seismic event is geologically overdue due to a growing "seismic gap".
• The Ground Beneath Us: The team showed that a building's safety depends heavily on its neighborhood's soil. Areas like Lalbagh, Kotwali, Mohammadpur, and Kamrangirchar are highly vulnerable due to soft alluvial deposits that drastically amplify bedrock motion.
• The Structural Impact: A severe earthquake could leave up to 60% of buildings with severe cracks and render half of the city's structures uninhabitable. The risk is heavily compounded by structural defects like soft-stories and building pounding.
The takeaway? We cannot change the geology, but we can change how we build. The students advocate for urgent soil stabilization, structural configuration controls, and proper urban planning.
