Rapid earthquake response: The state-of-the art and recommendations with a focus on European systems

The purpose of this study is to review the state-of-the-art for RRE (Rapid Response to Earthquakes) systems, focusing first on the tools and methods that have been developed for shake-map computation (i.e., taking into account the seismic recordings as well as macroseismic observations when available), in order to provide a map of the ground shaking intensity rapidly after an earthquake event. Systems for RRE aim at providing reliable and near-real time ground-motion and loss estimates following an earthquake, in order to help authorities taking appropriate actions when needed.

The second part of this research focuses on the different approaches taken for rapid loss assessment, the ones based on shake-maps and the others. The authors give an overview of the current operating systems with emphasis on European ones, and we highlight their differences and identify the current gaps and pending issues. Finally, they call attention for the need to treat carefully uncertainties propagated at each calculation step, which added up are non-negligible, and are an important part of the result itself. Considering the full statistical distribution of loss and damage estimates provides more information than average or median values, and such statistics should therefore be provided by RRE systems and taken into account by decision-makers in order to take informed actions following an earthquake.