Large-scale infrastructures are increasingly used in urban areas to meet demands of evolving societies. As many densely populated cities are located on sedimentary basins exposed to strong seismic events, the safeguarding of such structures is essential for the resilience and durability of the built urban environment. Recent events showed remarkably (e.g., the 2017 Mw 7.1 Puebla earthquake in Mexico, the Mw 6.2 2016 Amatrice earthquake in Italy) that the construction of infrastructure with adequate seismic performance is the main factor in minimizing economic loses and long-term consequences to the communities.
Scientific impact:
This project is of theoretical and practical scientific significance. The theoretical importance of this study lies in demonstrating that with an evolutionary stochastic model we can provide a complete and expedient, yet realistic, description of strong ground motion on sedimentary basins. Furthermore, the stochastic description of ground motion (in the form of evolutionary power spectra) provides the means for realistic practical assessment of the reliability of critical large infrastructures.
Socio-economic impact:
Public authorities are expected to have great interest in the project results when planning measures for large-scale structures. The project findings are expected to influence practitioner engineers and provide them with useful tools for seismic design. The project will exploit French research infrastructures, reinforcing their position on the forefront of the earth sciences and seismic engineering. Ultimately, the results of the project will contribute to the safety of large-scale infrastructures, and thus, to the prevention of large financial losses for local communities and countries.