2019/01/11 by Annalisa Greco, Alessandro Pluchino, Greco, A. +11
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics (physics.geo-ph) #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Seismic Performance and Analysis #Urban Design and Spatial Analysis #earthquake and tectonic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1901.04335
openalex publication_date 2019/01/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In order to estimate the seismic vulnerability of a densely populated urban area, it would in principle be necessary to evaluate the dynamic behaviour of individual and aggregate buildings. These detailed seismic analyses, however, are extremely cost-intensive and require great processing time and expertise judgment. The aim of the present study is to propose a new methodology able to combine information and tools coming from different scientific fields in order to reproduce the effects of a seismic input in urban areas with known geological features and to estimate the entity of the damages caused on existing buildings. In particular, we present new software called ABES (Agent-Based Earthquake Simulator), based on a Self-Organized Criticality framework, which allows to evaluate the effects of a sequence of seismic events on a certain large urban area during a given interval of time. The integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) data sets, concerning both geological and urban information about the territory of Avola (Italy), allows performing a parametric study of these effects on a real context as a case study. The proposed new approach could be very useful in estimating the seismic vulnerability and defining planning strategies for seismic risk reduction in large urban areas