L. Turner | Geology Reports

USGS2018

State transportation agencies partner to deploy and enhance ShakeCast

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is organizing and leading a three-year Transportation Pooled Fund (TPF) project, Connecting the Dots: Implementing ShakeCast Across Multiple State Departments of Transportation for Rapid Post-Earthquake Response. Ten state Departments of Transportation (DOT)—CA, ID, MO, MS, OK, OR, SC, TX, UT, AND WA—have partnered and combined research funds to pursue implementation and advancement of the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) ShakeCast system. ShakeCast is a software application that automatically retrieves ShakeMap shaking estimates and performs analyses using fragility functions for bridges, buildings, and other structures. The ShakeCast system identifies which facilities are most likely impacted by an earthquake and sends notifications to responders in the minutes after an earthquake. By focusing inspection efforts on the most damage-susceptible facilities in the severely shaken areas, ShakeCast can reduce response time and priorities for bridge inspections in the aftermath of a significant earthquake. The goal of the TPF project is to establish or enhance operational ShakeCast instances for all the partner DOTs, while advancing transportation-focused aspects of the software platform. DOTs are uniquely able to take advantage of the ShakeCast technology in that bridge fragilities can be readily derived from the National Bridge Inventory (NBI). DOTs also share the need for prioritized response strategies given their very large numbers of facilities—over wide areas—that have varying vulnerabilities, many of which could potentially be affected by earthquake shaking. The ten-state TPF project will also explore opportunities for DOT-specific ShakeCast software modifications, for example, for enhanced neighboring-state situational awareness and response coordination as well as for long-term maintenance and operations of their ShakeCast systems.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2017

Development and utilization of USGS ShakeCast for rapid post-earthquake assessment of critical facilities and infrastructure

The ShakeCast system is an openly available, near real-time post-earthquake information management system. ShakeCast is widely used by public and private emergency planners and responders, lifeline utility operators and transportation engineers to automatically receive and process ShakeMap products for situational awareness, inspection priority, or damage assessment of their own infrastructure or building portfolios. The success of ShakeCast to date and its broad, critical-user base mandates improved software usability and functionality, including improved engineering-based damage and loss functions. In order to make the software more accessible to novice users—while still utilizing advanced users’ technical and engineering background—we have developed a “ShakeCast Workbook”, a well documented, Excel spreadsheet-based user interface that allows users to input notification and inventory data and export XML files requisite for operating the ShakeCast system. Users will be able to select structure based on a minimum set of user-specified facility (building location, size, height, use, construction age, etc.). “Expert” users will be able to import user-modified structural response properties into facility inventory associated with the HAZUS Advanced Engineering Building Modules (AEBM). The goal of the ShakeCast system is to provide simplified real-time potential impact and inspection metrics (i.e., green, yellow, orange and red priority ratings) to allow users to institute customized earthquake response protocols. Previously, fragilities were approximated using individual ShakeMap intensity measures (IMs, specifically PGA and 0.3 and 1s spectral accelerations) for each facility but we are now performing capacity-spectrum damage state calculations using a more robust characterization of spectral deamnd.We are also developing methods for the direct import of ShakeMap’s multi-period spectra in lieu of the assumed three-domain design spectrum (at 0.3s for constant acceleration; 1s or 3s for constant velocity and constant displacement at very long response periods). As part of ongoing ShakeCast research and development, we will also explore the use of ShakeMap IM uncertainty estimates and evaluate the assumption of employing multiple response spectral damping values rather than the single 5%-damped value currently employed. Developing and incorporating advanced fragility assignments into the ShakeCast Workbook requires related software modifications and database improvements; these enhancements are part of an extensive rewrite of the ShakeCast application.

Conference Paper↗