A New Agent-Based Methodology for the Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Areas

A. Greco; A. Pluchino; L. Barbarossa; G. Barreca; I. Caliò; F. Martinico; A. Rapisarda

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arXiv · 1901.04335

A New Agent-Based Methodology for the Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Areas

A. Greco·A. Pluchino·L. Barbarossa·G. Barreca·I. Caliò·F. Martinico·A. Rapisarda

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Abstract

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

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A. Greco, A. Pluchino, L. Barbarossa, G. Barreca, I. Caliò, F. Martinico, A. Rapisarda. 2019-06-13. A New Agent-Based Methodology for the Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Areas. https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.04335

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