Challenges and Opportunities in Developing a National Seismic Hazard and Risk Model With Openquake for New Zealand

Abstract eng:
National seismic hazard and risk models are often developed with ‘in-house’ software that, while meeting the needs for that particular model, may be limited in functionality. Over time the models can become out-dated and cumbersome to maintain and upgrade. Further, these codes are often not in a suitable state for distribution and collaboration with others. This is common across many countries around the world including New Zealand. Through the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) initiative, the seismology and engineering community has access to a free and open source seismic hazard and risk engine, OpenQuake, that can be used as the calculation engine for national models. OpenQuake provides flexibility in calculation types and its open source philosophy allows new functionality to be added by users if required. Recently, the main components of the New Zealand Seismic Hazard and Risk Model have been converted from legacy software formats to the Natural Risk MarkUp Language (NRML) format and incorporated into an end-toend hazard to risk OpenQuake model for New Zealand. This process has also contributed back to the GEM community by the incorporation of new Ground Motion Prediction Equations (GMPEs) specific to New Zealand into the OpenQuake repository. This paper will present some of the challenges of implementing the existing seismic hazard model in OpenQuake, provide insight into the process of comparing results from multiple codes, as well as the opportunities of using a state-of-the-art computation engine such as OpenQuake.

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