Alemayehu, Teferra (Prof.)Besrat, Eshetu2020-11-252023-11-282020-11-252023-11-282017-11http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/23533Hawassa, a lakeside city in southern Ethiopia found at the heart of the East African Rift system, has been frequented with a series of minor to strong earthquakes reaching up to a magnitude of 7. A recent minor earthquake caused structural distresses in the city that tempts one to hypothesize that this may be principally attributed to the young lacustrine deposit typical of the city. Primary data from refraction and resistivity tests and secondary data from available geotechnical reports were collected from different locations of the city so as to model respective soil profiles. Due to lack of measured strong ground motion records in the area, input motions were selected from PEER database using relevant filtering criteria and scaled according to the local seismic hazard. The selected ground motions are used in a one-dimensional ground response analysis software, DEEPSOIL, and responses at the surface and at various depths are obtained. A typical geotechnical profile across the city consists of a thick silty sand soil with a thin horizon of welded-tuff at a shallow depth. The results obtained from the study show that ground motions are greatly influenced by local site soils across the selected locations, with amplifications much exceeding the prediction of design spectra specified by current codes. This led to the proposal of a design spectrum that fitted the analysis outputs from 56 cases.en-USHawassaGround ResponseAnalysisThesis