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Abstract

The northern boundary region of Bangladesh and neighbouring North-East Indian states of Meghalaya and Assam are capable of producing large (M≥7) to great (M≥8) earthquakes as historical evidence shows. Such earthquakes can cause havoc and wide spread damage in densely populated cities of Bangladesh including the capital city of Dhaka. If an earthquake monitoring system can be installed in towns near Bangladesh-India border, a warning time of several seconds will be available before the earthquake waves reach Dhaka city. This time may be used for quick safety measures such as taking appropriate shelter, building evacuation, shutting off gas etc. A low-cost seismic accelerometer with alert system and backup battery has been manufactured using available low-cost accelerometer sensor and data acquisitions system. It sends warning message using mobile network whenever the acceleration exceeds selected threshold value. Because of its low cost it can be easily deployed in large numbers and can provide early warning for distant large magnitude earthquakes. In recent years, landslides have emerged as recurring natural hazards in hilly urban areas of Chittagong and Rangamati causing human casualties. A low-cost computational method based on rainfall data and hill-slope data is briefly discussed. To monitor vulnerable hill slope, low-cost inclinometer can also be assembled which will send a warning message when there is significant soil movement resulting in tilting of the inclinometer. Early warnings made possible by installing such low-cost devices can play a major role in reducing casualties and property losses during a major earthquake or landslide event.