Down Home Next The Project

Summary

One of the basic problems in the seismic hazard assessment and earthquake resistant design of structures is the proper selection of the ground motion parameters for the generation of the design earthquake. These ground motion parameters, particularly near the source of an earthquake are the most detailed available means of identifying the source mechanism of the earthquake and may used to determine the forces endangering engineering structures. Strong-motion records are, therefore, of major interest to both scientists and engineers, and an indispensable tool for the establishment of Eurocode-8.

The present state of strong-motion recording capabilities in Europe and adjacent area shows, that although the total number of all stations is difficult to estimate, the number of ground response instruments is higher than 3,000. The number of individual ground response records made by European earthquakes of large magnitudes during the last 30 years exceeds a conservative estimate of 5,000 (Smit, 1999). This does not include data from the former USSR and a few other European countries, or from the European nuclear and oil industries. The so far limited number of freely available European strong-motion records has often obliged users from Europe to turn to non-European ground motion data, which are not consistent with the seismotectonics of the region. There is therefore, a clear need for a public domain and easy accessible platform for uniformly processed European strong-motion records and for reliable seismological, instrumental station and network specific parameters.

The objectives of this project in the frame of the 5th Framework Programme of the European Commission, Research-Directorate General, Environment and Climate Programme are:
to establish a freely accessible platform of a reliable strong-motion databank and associated database of seismological parameters of earthquakes in the greater European area.
to install the platform on the Internet at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London (United Kingdom) with identical sites at University of Iceland in Reykjavik, at University of Trieste (Italy) and at the Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering in Thessaloniki (Greece).
to provide end-users, engineers and scientists alike, with high quality strong-motion and uniformly estimated seismological data from earthquakes in the European area.
to validate and, if necessary, re-calculate or re-estimate seismological-, instrumental- and site-specific parameters.
to retrieve, process and preserve by archiving on the platform European strong-motion data recorded by analogue instruments before 2000 as well as to process and store all strong-motion records, analogue and digital, both generated during the period of the project.
to foster and enhance access to ground-motion data and information about European strong-motion networks.
in co-operation with the European Association for Earthquake Engineering to secure the running of the platform after the end of the project by one or more of the Internet-sites established by the project.

The work is distributed amongst four organizations:
The Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, London, United Kingdom.
University of Iceland, Engineering Research Institute, Applied Mechanics Laboratory, Reykjavik.
University of Trieste, Department of Earth Sciences, Italy.
University Kiril and Metodij, Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Skopje, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, acts as subcontractor.
Ministry of Environment and Public Works, Institute of Engineering Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Up Home Next