Regional earthquake shaking and loss assessment

The Joint Research Activity 3 of EC FP6 NERIES Project has developed a methodology and software, ELER (c) - Earthquake Loss Estimation Routine, for rapid estimation of earthquake shaking and losses throughout the Euro-Mediterranean region. Recently, a new version (v2.0) of the software has been released. The multi-level methodology developed together with researchers from Imperial College, NORSAR and ETHZurich is capable of incorporating regional variability and sources of uncertainty stemming from ground motion predictions, fault finiteness, site modifications, inventory of physical and social elements and the associated vulnerability relationships. Loss estimation (damage, casualty and economic) is performed at different levels of sophistication (Level 0, 1 and 2) that are commensurate with the availability of inventory of human built environment (Loss Mapping). This paper elaborates on ground motion estimation and Level 0 and Level 1 loss estimation methodologies used in ELER (c), also presenting examples from the validation studies conducted.