The Autonomous Region of the Azores is known for its daily seismic activity. In recent weeks an earthquake was felt on the island of Terceira with a magnitude of 2.1 on the Richter scale. After an audit, the Court of Auditors (TdC) revealed that the Azores' land-use plans do not prohibit the construction of buildings in areas of high seismic risk. For this very reason, the TdC wants studies to be carried out on the matter in order to guide property development strategies taking seismic risk into account.
Although several studies were carried out on seismic risks in the Azores between 2010 and 2018, the TdC admits that the areas of high seismic risk, where construction should not be allowed, have not been identified, according to the Público newspaper. "There is no known municipal land use plan that has carried out an assessment of buildings and activities located in areas of seismic, volcanic, geotechnical and flood risk, with a view to the possible relocation of buildings and uses and the adoption of technical criteria that minimise risks to people and property," says Cristina Flora, the councillor responsible for the TdC report.
This means that when deciding to go ahead with a building project, the public decision-maker has no land-use planning instruments that allow them to know the seismic risk associated with the site of the new construction. In the Azores region, the municipalities of Praia da Vitória and Horta are the only exceptions to the rule, the newspaper reports.
To this end, the TdC recommended that the municipalities and the regional government of the Azores should draw up land-use plans for each island within the next three years, which should include the seismic risks associated with each area, which will be valid for both private and public organisations. And this recommendation goes beyond the Azores, since Portugal is in a geographical area with seismic risk. In this sense, all audits carried out by the TdC will take these earthquake parameters into account.