Real time post earthquake damage assessment of lifeline systems using broadcasted intensity measure maps

Abstract

Risk assessment is a solid methodology to evaluate the effects of a hazard on a lifeline system. In civil engineering, probabilistic seismic risk assessment is used to calculate the risk to structures and infrastructures due to possible future earthquakes. The results are used to plan mitigation measures and to strengthen the structures where necessary. Instead, after an earthquake, public authorities need models that compute rather than the risk the damage caused by the earthquake to individual vulnerable components and links, and that simulate the global behavior of the system. Nowadays, entire seismic regions are instrumented with tight networks of strong motion stations and minutes after an earthquake national agencies compute and broadcast intensity measure maps to the public. Examples of these networks are: The USGS network on the west coast of US, the JMA network in Japan, the CWB network in Taiwan. In this study, a framework is developed to automatically calculate the damage within a lifeline sys-tem in quasi real-time just after a new intensity measure map is broadcasted. The results can be used by authorities to prioritize visual inspections and to help emergency personnel to deal with the damages. The example used is a highway transportation network but the framework can be used for other life-line systems.