Performance-Based Tsunami Engineering via a Web-Based GIS Data Explorer

Abstract

In spite of advances in numerical modeling and computer power, coastal buildings and infrastructures are still designed and evaluated for tsunami hazards based on parametric criteria with engineering “conservatism,” largely because complex numerical simulations require time and resources in order to obtain adequate results with sufficient resolution. This is especially challenging when conducting multiple scenarios across a variety of probabilistic occurrences of tsunamis. Numerical computations that have high temporal and spatial resolution also yield extremely large datasets, which are necessary for quantifying uncertainties associated with tsunami hazard evaluation. Here, we introduce a new web-based tool, the Data Explorer, which facilitates the exploration and extraction of numerical tsunami simulation data. The underlying concepts are not new, but the Data Explorer is unique in its ability to retrieve time series data from massive output datasets in less than a second, the fact that it runs in a standard web browser, and its user-centric approach. To demonstrate the tool’s performance and utility, two examples of hypothetical cases are presented. Its usability, together with essentially instantaneous retrieval of data, makes simulation-based analysis and subsequent quantification of uncertainties accessible, enabling a path to future design decisions based on science, rather than relying solely on expert judgment.