The experimental
online risk
assessment service of eRiskZone provides quick and automatic
preliminary evaluations of possible building damage due to strong
motion earthquakes (475 or 975 years return periods). The system is
free of charge and, at present, is applicable to any location of the
Italian territory only. The selected results provided by the online
service are obtained by means of a simplified risk analysis, and may
include, depending on the seriousness of the envisaged structural
damage, the recommendation to proceed with more sophisticated analysis
to be carried out off-line by experts in the fields of earthquake
engineering.
The user is required to introduce the following information:
- Site Location: clicking on the map provided by the
system
(within an interactive GIS environment) the user selects the structure
location.
- Ground Characteristics: such as site
topographic features, soil typology, groundwater depth, etc.;
- Structural Characteristics: such as structural
typology, number of floors, etc.
The above
mentioned pieces if
information can be provided by means of an easy-to-use interface
offering multiple alternatives for the building and soil data.
Once the above
listed information has been provided, the system is ready to perform
the simplified seismic risk analysis.
The following steps are performed in the simplified analysis:
- Assessment of seismic hazard on rock, by accessing a
remote
database containing the results of analyses carried out offline
throughout the Italian territory;
- Evaluation of local site amplification effects by
means of two alternative simplified approaches (i.e., base method and advanced method);
- Evaluation of the possible structural damage by means
of pre-defined fragility curves.
Depending on the envisaged damage level and on the potential occurrence
of soil liquefaction, the system will also recommend to proceed with
more sophisticated analysis to be carried out off-line by experts in
the fields of earthquake engineering.
