New challenges for urban engineering seismology
Recent devastating earthquakes and induced seismicity near infrastructures must become the centrepiece of analysis in reducing risk and increasing resilience, facing up to global urban population growth in the coming decades and the concentration of wealth in cities. The prediction of seismic ground motion and response of structures are key issues in reduction of seismic urban risk. There is therefore a demand for highly trained scientists with a broad understanding of engineering seismology and earthquake engineering, skills being essential in academic research, in private companies with activities related to risk mitigation and energy facilities and for policy makers. The URBASIS project aims to provide a multi-disciplinary training platform for ESR in order to develop their individual project and to promote their entrepreneurship and their employability toward the academic, private and insurance or decision-making sector. High-quality supervision of the ESR will be ensured through the international recognition of the URBASIS partners. A comprehensive set of transferable skills will be developed through innovative and interdisciplinary joint research projects between academic and non-academic partners on the prediction of seismic hazard in urban areas considering low probability/high consequences events and induced seismicity related to the exploitation of energy resources; the seismic ground motion prediction within the non-free-field urban area; the coupling between ground motion and structures/infrastructures responses for natural and induced seismicity including time dependency vulnerability; and the systemic risk of interconnected urban systems. URBASIS will create a lasting collaboration for the establishment of a European network of academic and non-academic experts, improving the interface with decision-makers. Advanced capacities in modelling and predicting seismic impact in cities will be got, putting the urban environment as the centrepiece of URBASIS.