OpenQuake is an open-source application written in Python and Java for calculating seismic hazard and risk at any scale. OpenQuake will be the 'engine' of the OpenGEM platform. OpenQuake is developed in the open and makes use of a number of other independent open source projects such as OpenSHA.
OpenQuake is unique for a number of reasons:
- It combines deterministic and probabilistic hazard and risk calculations within a single software;
- The development is “open source”, and takes place on a public repository that encourages collaboration on a single code base (through a distributed version control system);
- All input and output follow an evolving data interchange format called NRML (Natural hazards Risk Markup Language);
- The code is engineered in such a way that it can be used on a single processor laptop as well as on a cloud of computers.
Current Capabilities
The current version of OpenQuake has no graphical interface, but can perfectly be used for a number of seismic hazard and risk analyses. Read more about the Science behind OpenQuake in the
OpenQuake Book.
Below a brief overview of the current capabilities of OpenQuake's hazard and risk components:
Seismic Hazard
The hazard component of OpenQuake leverages on OpenSHA, an open source, Java-based platform for conducting Seismic
Hazard Analysis (SHA). OpenQuake computes hazard following two different approaches:
- Classical Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis (PSHA)
- One based on the stochastic simulation of earthquake activity and of the shaking produced by each event.
The main outputs that OpenQuake can currently produce, given an input source zone model and set of ground-motion prediction equations (GMPE), include:
- Hazard curves - curves providing probabilities of exceedance in a given time span for given values of a ground motion parameter
- Hazard maps - maps describing the geographic distribution of values of a ground motion parameter with a fixed probability of exceedance in a given time span
- Stochastic Event Set - a set of earthquake ruptures in a given time span obtained through random sampling of a seismic source model
- Sets of Ground-Motion Fields (each ground-motion fi eld describes the ground-motion shaking values for a set of sites computed considering an earthquake rupture and a GMPE, and spatial correlation of the intra-event residuals of the latter).
Future developments will expand the capabilities to include uniform hazard spectra and magnitude-distance-epsilon and geographic disaggregation.
Seismic Risk
OpenQuake calculates seismic risk using three different calculators:
- the Classical PSHA-Based Risk Calculator
- the Probabilistic Event-Based Risk Calculator
- the Deterministic Event-Based Risk Calculator.
All three calculators require the same input in terms of vulnerability functions (currently modeled as discrete functions describing the probabilistic distribution of loss, given
a level of ground shaking) and exposure data (e.g. geographical distribution of values of given building typologies).
The current version of OpenQuake provides the following main outputs:
- Loss exceedance curves - loss versus probability of exceedance in a given time span, both for single assets and aggregated losses for multiple assets
- Conditional loss maps describing the geographical distribution of values of loss with a fi xed probability of exceedance in a given time span
- Mean loss maps describing the geographic distribution of mean loss within a given time span
- Loss statistics per event or across all events (mean loss, standard deviation of loss etc.).
Future developments will allow damage maps to be produced, describing the geographical distribution of mean number/area/percentage of damage at a given limit state for a given deterministic event.
OpenQuake Highlights
- A first (sandbox) version of OpenQuake was publicly released in January 2011 [version 0.2]
- From May 2011 onwards, OpenQuake is being used for realtime applications, for the national seismic hazard maps of Ecuador and Canada, for hazard and risk estimates by the Middle East Regional Programme (EMME) and there is extensive collaboration with the European Project SHARE.
- A service has been set up to in August 2011 to allow stakeholders to try and experience OpenQuake in the cloud: the OpenQuake Alpha Testing Services (OATS).
