Multi-resolution analysis of earthquake losses : from city block to national scale

This thesis advances existing methodologies to evaluate earthquake losses at local,
regional and national scales. A specific application is developed for scenario earthquakes in the New Madrid region. The main issues addressed are:
1. Sensitivity of the estimated losses to formulation in terms of macroseismic intensity or quantitative ground motion characteristics
2. The effect of spatial resolution on the accuracy of the loss estimates
It is found that loss results are highly sensitive to the characterization of ground
motion and moderately sensitive to the spatial resolution. Loss sensitivities to earthquake location, consideration of variability in damage from element to element and
alternative structural classification systems are also investigated.