Seismic Risk and Urbanization: The Alternatives of Prevention: Case of the City of Algiers

Seismic risk is among the major risks that threaten our country. Actually, Algeria is located on the border of the two tectonic plates that generate moderate earthquakes at large magnitudes. The capital Algiers is considered to be the most vulnerable city of the country. Not only, it bears witness to terrible seismic disasters but it is based on six seismic faults that can move at any time. Added to this phenomenon, Algiers is facing extreme urban mutation and the Urbanization process since independence has not taken seriously into account the seismic risk factor. Indeed, the development of the city along the coast of the Bay of Algiers and its current growth towards areas of the sahel and the Mitidja as well as the degradation and aging of the built environment participated to make the capital a highly vulnerable territory, which is capable of unleashing the potential of a seismic major disaster. the present communication has not the pretention to explore the whole question of the sismeic risk of the city of algiers, but debates the question of the risk under the angle of prevention