High-Resolution Early Earthquake Damage Assessment System for Mexico City Based on a Single-Station

Abstract

A high-resolution early earthquake damage assessment system is presented for Mexico City based on real-time computations of seismic spectral intensities at a reference site. To obtain intensities for the entire Mexico Valley, pre-calculated response spectral ratios at soft sites are used. The estimates of seismic intensities (peak ground acceleration, peak ground velocity and spectral ordinates for selected structural periods), together with intensity-damage relations for buildings, fatalities and water supply network were used to obtain the spatial distribution of expected damage throughout the city. The process takes approximately 10 minutes with no human intervention. Since the available time to carry out all the computations is short, we have built a representative building and population database that concentrates all the information in a square mesh of 400 × 400 m. Results are sent to an Emergency Center and to decision makers to trigger previously set emergency plans and to provide information before emergency plans are in full operation.