2-D Modeling of Site Response for Microzonation Purposes

The estimation of seismic site effects is becoming an important part of the scenario-like modelling approaches used to predict the seismic strong motion in vulnerable environments. We show how detailed numerical modeling can lead to estimates of the seismic amplification due to site effects that are consistent with observations.Such modeling allows for the full utilisation of both the seismological and the large amount of geological, geophysical and geotechnical data, already available. Therefore, detailed modelling of the ground motion for heterogeneous media (up to several Hz) can be used for immediate microzonation purposes, without the need to wait for the occurrence of the next big event in the not always densely instrumented area of interest.