Merging Virtual and Real Environments for Visualizing Seismic Hazards and Risk

Abstract: Earthquake research in the last few decades has led to considerable advances in seismic hazard and risk modeling across academia, industry, and government. Technological advances such as high performance computing and visualization can further facilitate earthquake hazard and risk research. This work utilizes the CAVE of the Marquette Visualization Laboratory to visualize seismic hazards and risk by integrating hazard characterization, structural modeling, and emergency response. Building upon the framework of performance-based earthquake engineering, site-specific ground motions, which link seismic hazards to structural responses, serve as loading inputs to structural models. The resulting structural responses can then be translated into damage states of building elements in the immediate room environment based on fragility functions. To illustrate, we display a map of the Los Angeles region with ground motions for the Mw7.8 ShakeOut scenario, create a virtual room in a residential building subjected to such earthquake shaking, and simulate emergency response in this immersive environment. The illustrative visualization can be extended to various scenarios and help communicate site- and structure-specific hazards and risk to the general public.