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More than 100 people participated in the webinar presentation of the national probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) model for the Dominican Republic held on June 14th. Servicio Geológico Nacional Dominicano (SGN) hosted the event in cooperation with GEM, Oficina Nacional de Evaluación Sísmica y Vulnerabilidad de Infraestructura, and USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance.

The national seismic hazard model was developed in collaboration with SGN and with local scientists under the TREQ project. Due to the ongoing covid pandemic, the strong partnership was made possible through multiple online sessions with local executives and risk professionals. This approach demonstrated the importance of incorporating detailed information and local knowledge in the assessment of earthquake hazard and risk at the city or local level through participation and collaboration.

GEM’s Kendra Johnson who led the development of the seismic hazard model for the Dominican Republic in the context of the TREQ project said, “This was really a collective effort with other scientists at the GEM Foundation and in the Dominican Republic. Completing this seismic hazard model is one of the important results of the TREQ project, and one that we hope will become more useful going forward, especially in its application in the seismic building code.”

The report on the national PSHA model for the Dominican Republic developed by the project describes the PSHA input model and presents: i) the primary data sources and their preparation; ii) the methodology used to develop the seismic source characterization and to select ground motion models; iii) the hazard results computed; and iv) how the results compare to former models used to compute seismic hazard for the country.

GEM worked closely with SGN whose staff had been very involved from the start, in particular Yesica Perez, Vladimir Guzman, Maria Betania Roque Quezada and Santiago Muñoz during the technical stages, and with Edwin Garcia, Freddy Duran, and the IT support at the later stages.

Additionally, both the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo and SGN contributed data that was especially useful in developing the hazard model.

To download the model and documentation, please visit the model page at:

https://www.globalquakemodel.org/product/dominican-republic-hazard-model.