Abstract
Earthquake-induced disasters are often more severe over soft soils than over firm soils or rocks owing to the seismic site effects related to the amplification of ground motion. On a regional scale, such differences can be estimated by spatially predicting the subsurface soil thickness over the entire target area. Generally, soil deposits are deeper in coastal or riverside areas than in inland regions. In this study, the seismic site effects in the coastal metropolitan areas of Incheon and Bucheon, South Korea, were assessed to provide information on seismic hazards. Spatial prediction of geotechnical layers was performed for the entire study area within an advanced GIS framework. Approximately 7500 existing borehole records in the Incheon and Bucheon areas were gathered and archived into a GIS database. Surface geotechnical data were acquired from a walk-over survey. Based on the optimized geo-data, spatial zoning maps of site-specific seismic response parameters, based on multiscale geospatial modeling, were created and presented for use in a regional seismic mitigation strategy. Seismic zonation was also performed to determine site coefficients for seismic design over the entire target area and to compare them with each other. We verified that the geotechnical data based spatial zonation would be useful for seismic hazard mitigation.
Highlights
Frequent earthquakes in recent years, and the subsequent significant human and property damages, have triggered acute awareness in countries with strong earthquakes and in countries with small to medium-level earthquakes, such as South Korea (Green et al 2011; Lee et al 2012; Sun et al 2014; Kim et al 2018)
The expert geographic information system (GIS)-based geotechnical information system was established through the optimization of the GIS-based framework for the geostatistical zonation of site-specific seismic site effects proposed by Sun et al (2010, 2014) and Sun and Kim (2017)
To predict the ground motion caused by earthquakes and subsequent seismic hazards, and to generate a more reasonable ground motion in the seismic design and seismic performance assessment process that considers site effects, site classification systems are presented in the current seismic design criteria
Summary
Frequent earthquakes in recent years, and the subsequent significant human and property damages, have triggered acute awareness in countries with strong earthquakes and in countries with small to medium-level earthquakes, such as South Korea (Green et al 2011; Lee et al 2012; Sun et al 2014; Kim et al 2018). The Uniform Building Code and the subsequent International Building Code (IBC) have been derived from empirical seismic measurements and damage data primarily from the western region of the United States, along with the corresponding numerical analyses (Dobry et al 2000; ICC 2000, 2006) This US region has deeper bedrock and higher soil stiffness compared to regions in South Korea (Sun et al 2005). Amplification of ground motion and changes in the surface or underground terrain owing to surface geological conditions are deeply related to region-specific geotechnical characteristics and are considered as additional amplification factors Such additional amplification phenomena have been reported in cases of major earthquake damages (Green et al 2011). The optimal site classification information that can be used for conservative seismic response and the determination of seismic design site coefficients was compiled
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