In India, around 32% population is residing in urban areas and this is likely to increase to 40% by 2030 (NIPFP, 2007). This rapid growth in population in the cities has resulted in an increased demand for the transportation infrastructure which has caused to an increased use of the vehicles across the city resulting in congestion. In India, the number of motor vehicles is doubling every four years for the last three decades (MORTH, 2004) to meet the increasing demand for transportation. The vital problem is not the increasing number of the vehicles in the country but the maximum concentrations of the motor vehicles in the cities (Singh, 2005). Around 32% of the total registered vehicles in India are operating in the cities alone (Singh, 2005). This increasing numbers of the motor vehicles in the cities also caused some detrimental effect on the environment. Transport sectors in India emit nearly 261 Tg of CO2, of which 94.5% was emitted by the road transport (Sharma et al., 2011). Among the different vehicle classes, the number of two wheelers is highest among the other vehicle classes with a proportion of more than 73% in total vehicle population followed by three wheelers with a proportion of 15% and passenger vehicles with a proportion of 10% (Sharma et al., 2011). The proportion of commercial vehicle is very low, near about 5% (Sharma et al., 2011). These huge numbers of two wheelers and three wheelers are mostly responsible for the oversaturation of the traffic flow on the city roads resulted in congested city traffic (Sharma et al., 2011). With an increased income and better need for mobility, the number of private vehicles is increasing rapidly in the country. According to recent data, the sales of private vehicles have increased by 9.23% where the sales of commercial vehicles have increased only 4.16% in April-March 2017 over the same period last year (SIAM, 2017). As per the MoUD (2008), the mode share of the public transport will decrease from 5% in 2007 to 2% in 2031. They also predicted that the mode share of the non-motorized vehicles will go down from 38% in 2007 to 26% in 2031. Smaller and medium sized Indian cities are rapidly growing, and mode share of the private transport are also predicted to be increased from 57% in 2007 to 72% in 2031 (MoUD, 2008). From these data, it can be said that, though the non-motorized transport occupies a significant mode share in present situation but it tends to decrease in near future and maximum of the current users of the non-motorized transport will shift to private vehicles for their commuting needs. This will increase the number of private vehicles in the cities and will eventually deteriorate the already prevailing traffic congestion. This increasing growth of the private vehicles has also accelerated by the poor service quality of the public transport available in the cities (Badami and Haider, 2007). Therefore, it is very much important to improve the service quality of the public transport system. Public transport have the potential to reduce the number of private vehicles in the cities and it is able to extend the transport service to the proportion of people who do not have any private vehicles and who cannot afford the frequently changing paratransit or taxi fares (Nwachukwu, 2014). Therefore, an improvement of the public transport is necessary to reduce the dependency on the private cars and other modes of transport and helps to reduce the problems like traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, parking problems and energy consumptions (Nocera, 2011).

Liquefaction is one of the most natural hazardous phenomena, which harms the constructed environment during earthquake. Effect of liquefaction phenomena in the form lateral sliding, settlement, punching shear failure and tilt. Structures situated at shallow depth and lifelines near around the area mostly affected by liquefaction and caused severe destruction and economic losses all over the world. Sometime structures are damaged so badly that it is uneconomical to repair and hence finally demolished. Earthquake-induced liquefaction is most frequently experiential in loose, saturated, clean sand deposits. This is due to loose sand tends to compress when a load is applied, disparate to denser sands which tend to dilate during shearing, at least after some strains are enforced. When the fully saturated soil is compressed, the water pressure tends to surge and tries to flow out from the soil to regions having lower pore water pressure. Though, if the loading is large enough and, applied dynamically many times at relatively high frequencies, as in case of an earthquake and other loadings, the undrained condition may result in partial or total effective stress loss called liquefaction. When liquefaction phenomenon occurs, the strength and stiffness of the soil decreases and the ability of a soil deposit to sustain structural load is dramatically reduced. The consequences of liquefaction are seen in terms of permanent deformation, building performance, and ground shaking. These consequences depend on site conditions, earthquake loading characteristics, and structures properties. Initial time researchers, (Seed and Lee 1966; Seed and Idriss 1971; Castro and Poulos 1977; Seed 1979; Seed et al. 1985; Kramer and Seed 1988) were focused on experimental work to understand the liquefaction phenomenon and cyclic mobility. While the physical phenomenon is well understood, analytical modeling and computer simulation remains a challenge due to complex behavior of soil under seismic loading. Even if liquefaction does not occur, the development of excess pore pressures may lead to excessive soil softening, weakening or to partial loss of stability and even to bearing capacity failures. Rational analysis for the prediction of earthquake generated pore pressures involves a fundamental description of the soil constitutive behavior. Basically, two-phase porous medium classified as uncoupled and coupled model has been used to study the liquefaction behavior numerically. Numerous investigators including (Finn et al. 1977; Nasser and Shokooh 1979; Liyanapathirana and Poulos 2002) studied the uncoupled investigation of liquefaction in which the response of saturated soil, without considering the effect of soil–water interaction is modeled. The pore water pressure generation and its effect model has been model separately using the results obtained like displacement and volumetric strain. The major dearth in the uncoupled approach is that it is incapable to justify the progressive stiffness degradation caused by pore pressures increment in the soil.

Due to rapid urbanization in developing world, city administrators and urban planners are challenged with problems in delivering basic services like green space, sanitation, water supply, transportation, and primary health center. The urban green spaces’ coverage is not adequate to meet people’s needs due to population pressure, expansion of industry, and construction in the process of urbanization (Cetin 2015a, b, c). Urban planners have to visualize such growth during planning, policy, and decision-making. Impulsive construction of unplanned informal houses in and outside the administrative boundaries of towns and cities is common in developing countries. These insightful changes cause a change in land use type which makes urban planning foreseeable (Zewdu 2011). Urban planning does not only cover matters of the built environment such as housing and transportation network, but also the integration of green spaces into the physical urban landscape. The main indicators of planned urbanization expecting physical and socioeconomic development in terms of the suitable areas for health, where bioclimatic comfort arises as one of the most significant factors (Cetin 2015a, b, c). The bioclimatic comfort situations can be established with the design criteria of landscape architecture and planning (Cetin et al. 2016). In recent years, Addis Ababa and its surroundings have observed unprecedented land degradation as a consequence of deforestation for firewood supply and human settlement. Big tracts of the city’s vegetation area are transformed to permanent structures at a rate of 6.65 km2 /year (Tamiru et al. 2005). About 10,000 ha of land initially reserved for green spaces have been allocated for other uses (Tadesse 2010). Over the years, Addis Ababa witnessed ecosystem degradation and vegetation cover is estimated at 14.6% (AAEPA 2005). In the city, 382 ha of riparian area is being cultivated by vegetable growing farmers, which cover up to 7.1% of the city’s vegetable demand (Azeb 2007). Land suitability analysis is the process to determine whether the land resource is appropriate for some specific uses and to determine the suitability level by considering different factors such as LULC (land use and land cover) type, landscape, and road infrastructure (Manlun 2003). Suitability analysis of different LULC patterns and dynamics is important to determine the most desirable site for future development. Identifying appropriate suitability parameters are the foundation of construction of suitability analysis. Green spaces are land uses that are covered with natural or man-made vegetation in the built-up areas and planning areas (Manlun 2003). The meaning of the green space system has also been continuously emerging with the development of city theory, which mainly encompasses horticultural, ecological, and spatial meanings. GIS has the main role in land-use suitability analysis for green space. In the tourism sector also, maps have vital role to protect natural and cultural value in terms of time and cost efficiency and deliver very accurate and up-to-date data (Cetin 2015a, b, c).

With the rapid development of economic globalization, the global construction market has thrived in the past decade [1]. Moreover, the large market for construction in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will create widespread prosperity and opportunities for international construction enterprises (ICEs). By taking advantage of these opportunities, increasing numbers of international contractors will expand into the international construction market [2]. However, opportunities are always accompanied by risks, and ICEs will be exposed to new risks when venturing outside their home countries [3, 4]. ICEs have witnessed a dramatic increase in political risks around the world, such as the credit crises in Greece, Venezuela, and Congo; the wars in southern Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, and Libya; the terrorist attacks in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia; and the coups in Niger, (ailand, and Honduras [2, 4, 5]. (ese risks had a very large negative impact on the global market and resulted in great losses for ICEs. Given the increasingly complex business environment, political risks should not be ignored by ICEs when they approach global markets [2, 6, 7]. Political risk in international construction projects refers to uncertainty related to political events (e.g., political violence, regime changes, coups, revolutions, breaches of contract, terrorist attacks, and wars) and to arbitrary or discriminatory actions (e.g., expropriation, unfair compensation, foreign exchange restrictions, unlawful interference, capital restrictions, corruption, and labor restrictions) by host governments or political groups that may have negative impacts on ICEs [6]. Compared with the nonsystematic risks (e.g., technical risk, quality risk, procurement risk, and financial risk) of construction projects, political risk is more complex, unpredictable, and devastating and is usually outside the scope of normal project activities [2]. Much of the extant literature has focused on political risks in international general business [8, 9] but has paid less attention to political risks in international construction projects. In most cases, political risk management is practiced only as a part of risk management at the project level in construction projects. However, project-level political risks can also affect enterprises’ objectives (e.g., financial, reputation, stability, survival, development, and strategic decisions) [10]. Implementation of political risk management only at the project level has some drawbacks: (1) lack of a comprehensive understanding of political risks; (2) overemphasis on short-term project goals and less consideration of corporate strategic objectives; (3) constraints because of limited resources or inappropriate resource allocation among projects; and (4) lack of accumulation and sharing of risk management experience. (erefore, risk management only at the project level no longer seems to be sufficient to help ICEs to address political risks in the global market [11].