The second year of the URBASIS project came to an end under special conditions due to the COVID crisis. The ambition of the ITN URBASIS project is to provide the recruited ESRs with the opportunity to exchange and complete their skills in their research field. The program of training activities and the exchanges planned directly with the researchers involved in the network during the workshops and scientific meetings were designed to provide them with the best conditions to develop their personal development plan.
The situation has modified our initial plans. But cheer up! We are convinced that the upcoming program will allow them to develop their project in the best possible conditions. As everywhere in Europe, we have organized ourselves and are moving forward in order to allow them to be exposed to an (online) scientific environment being as profitable and adapted to them as possible. The scientific activity is progressing, and the deliverables of the project are numerous and of high quality, as detailed in this newsletter.
In this situation, such impredictible, our ability to adapt will have to be mobilized and I am certain that, in the end, the projects of each ESR will contribute to advancing our knowledge of seismic risk in urban areas.
Edito by Philippe Guéguen, coordinator of the ITN URBASIS project.
Induced seismicity is currently drawing public attention as a potentially significant hazard. Several studies have been conducted to develop ground-motion prediction equations (GMPEs) for induced seismicity, however, many of them still rely on the assumption that induced events have similar source and attenuation parameters to those of natural earthquakes. We use Preston New Road (PNR) dataset recorded between 2018-2019 with local magnitudes ML < 3 at distances less than 40 km to develop GMPEs that are tuned to the key magnitude-distance range for induced seismicity applications. A preliminary observations focused on: (1) study of attenuation parameters using spectral fitting methods utilizing three different part of seismograms (S-wave, coda wave, and S-coda wave windows) and coda envelope decay methods; (2) estimations of residual site-specific exponential decay ; and (3) observation of site condition by calculating Vs30 using several bedrock depth assumptions and fundamental frequency obtained from horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) discussed in this deliverable. In addition, an updated ML- MW relationship model for PNR dataset is presented. These findings can subsequently be implemented for developing suitable GMPEs for induced earthquakes. Through a better understanding of ground motions and their controlling factors, future studies will hopefully can draw more robust conclusions on the behaviour of ground motions from these events and reduce the uncertainty associated with GMPEs for induced events. More information
"During the last year, so many things have changed in my daily life and I would say that most of them were positive; moving to a new country is always exciting and even more when you are part of an interesting and challenging project like URBASIS. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to remember the first year without the world pandemic, because it changed us in so many different ways as well as how we interact with each other. From the academic point of view, although from home we could continue with our research activities, the uncertainty about the health situation around us, and the modifications in training activities, seminars, and conferences affected us in one way or another. However, after all of this, I could say that human beings are resilient and we adjust ourselves to adversities to overcome them. Personally, I found different ways to be productive as well as to relax during my free time, so a first year full of personal and professional experiences and with the best expectations for the years to come."
“First-year was about getting acquaintance with the field of my research, trying to understand the different approaches and past work in the field of systemic vulnerability.”
"Realizing the immense importance of your research work and its impact on society gives you a strong motivation to persistently go ahead. Strong interest that has been developed about the subject is the most prominent achievement of my first year in this project.
I am currently working at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. My PhD is related to the systemic vulnerability and risk analysis on the city scale. Moving to a new place brought different opportunities, challenges and completely new experiences. First-year was about getting acquaintance with the field of my research, trying to understand the different approaches and past work in the field of systemic vulnerability. Being a part of the URBASIS project also gave me the opportunity to have direct networking with the experts in the field of earthquake engineering. Since it was a journey initiated along with other fourteen early-stage researchers like myself, I found new friends with whom I could share similar circumstances."
“It was a struggle to be forced at home and try to find a balance between work and life.”
"It's hard to believe that it has been almost a year since our first General Assembly in Potsdam, the starting point.
We were thrilled then by the fantastic training opportunities given by URBASIS for boosting communication and collaboration between ESRs.
However, the COVID19 just surprisingly came and hit the Europe continent, bringing paradigm-shift changes to our life. 'Postponement', 'cancellation' and 'virtual' seemed to have made frequent appearances in our emails during that 5-month-long lockdown in the UK. It was a struggle to be forced at home and try to find a balance between work and life. But on the bright side, the solitary life might also serve as an opportunity for some purposeful people to 'nerdly' make achievements. There's some kind of irony that a whole year has passed and we spent half of it at home. Now the second wave is coming, and sadly Liverpool happens to be the region with the highest risk that has been forced into a Tier 3 lockdown. Hope everybody can hang in there. The show must go on.