This book contains selected papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Strong Ground Motion Seismology," held in Ankara, Turkey between June 10 and 21, 1985. The strong ground motion resulting from a major earthquake determines the level of the seismic hazard to enable earthquake engineers to assess the structural performance and the consecutive risks to the property and life, as well as providing detailed information to seismologists about its source mechanism. From the earthquake engineering point the main problem is the specification of a design level ground motion for a given source-site-structure-economic life and risk combination through deterministic and probabilistic approaches. In seismology the strong motion data provide the high frequency information to determine the rupture process and the complexity of the source mechanism. The effects of the propagation path on the strong ground motion is a research area receiving sub stantial attenuation both from earthquake engineers and seismologists. The Institute provided a venue for the treatment of the subject matter by a series of lectures on earthquake source models and near field theories; effects of propagation paths and site conditions, numerical and empirical methods for prediction; data acquisition and analysis; hazard assessment and engineering application."

Most of the existing strong motion instrumentation on civil engineering structures is installed and operated as federal, state, university, industry or private applications, in many cases operated as a closed system. This hampers co-operation and data exchange, hampering the acquisition of strong motion and structural data, sometimes even within a single country. There is a powerful need to inform engineers of existing strong motion data and to improve the accessibility of data worldwide. This book will play a role in fulfilling such a need by disseminating state-of-the art information, technology and developments in the strong motion instrumentation of civil engineering structures. The subject has direct implications for the earthquake response of structures, improvements in design for earthquake resistance, and hazard mitigation. Readership: Researchers in earthquake engineering, engineers designing earthquake resistant structures, and producers of strong motion recording equipment.

Urban seismic risk is growing worldwide and is, increasingly, a problem of developing countries. In 1950, one in four of the people living in the world's fifty largest cities was earthquake-threatened, while in the year 2000, about one in two will be. Further, ofthose people living in earthquake-threatened cities in 1950, about two in three were located in developing countries, while in the year 2000, about nine in ten will be. Unless urban seismic safety is improved, particularly in developing countries, future earthquakes will have ever more disastrous social and economic consequences. In July 1992, an international meeting was organized with the purpose of examining one means ofimproving worldwide urban safety. Entitled "Uses ofEarthquake Damage Scenarios for Cities of the 21st Century," this meeting was held in conjunction with the Tenth World Conference ofEarthquake Engineering, in Madrid, Spain. An earthquake damage scenario (EDS) is adescription of the consequences to an urban area of a large, but expectable earthquake on the critical facilities of that area. In Californian and Japanese cities, EDSes have been used for several decades, mainly for the needs of emergency response officials. The Madrid meeting examined uses of this technique for other purposes and in other, less developed countries. As a result of this meeting, it appeared that EDSes bad significant potential to improve urban seismic safety worldwide.

This book contains selected papers presented at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Strong Ground Motion Seismology," held in Ankara, Turkey between June 10 and 21, 1985. The strong ground motion resulting from a major earthquake determines the level of the seismic hazard to enable earthquake engineers to assess the structural performance and the consecutive risks to the property and life, as well as providing detailed information to seismologists about its source mechanism. From the earthquake engineering point the main problem is the specification of a design level ground motion for a given source-site-structure-economic life and risk combination through deterministic and probabilistic approaches. In seismology the strong motion data provide the high frequency information to determine the rupture process and the complexity of the source mechanism. The effects of the propagation path on the strong ground motion is a research area receiving sub stantial attenuation both from earthquake engineers and seismologists. The Institute provided a venue for the treatment of the subject matter by a series of lectures on earthquake source models and near field theories; effects of propagation paths and site conditions, numerical and empirical methods for prediction; data acquisition and analysis; hazard assessment and engineering application."

Urban seismic risk is growing worldwide and is, increasingly, a problem of developing countries. In 1950, one in four of the people living in the world's fifty largest cities was earthquake-threatened, while in the year 2000, about one in two will be. Further, ofthose people living in earthquake-threatened cities in 1950, about two in three were located in developing countries, while in the year 2000, about nine in ten will be. Unless urban seismic safety is improved, particularly in developing countries, future earthquakes will have ever more disastrous social and economic consequences. In July 1992, an international meeting was organized with the purpose of examining one means ofimproving worldwide urban safety. Entitled "Uses ofEarthquake Damage Scenarios for Cities of the 21st Century," this meeting was held in conjunction with the Tenth World Conference ofEarthquake Engineering, in Madrid, Spain. An earthquake damage scenario (EDS) is adescription of the consequences to an urban area of a large, but expectable earthquake on the critical facilities of that area. In Californian and Japanese cities, EDSes have been used for several decades, mainly for the needs of emergency response officials. The Madrid meeting examined uses of this technique for other purposes and in other, less developed countries. As a result of this meeting, it appeared that EDSes bad significant potential to improve urban seismic safety worldwide.

Most of the existing strong motion instrumentation on civil engineering structures is installed and operated as federal, state, university, industry or private applications, in many cases operated as a closed system. This hampers co-operation and data exchange, hampering the acquisition of strong motion and structural data, sometimes even within a single country. There is a powerful need to inform engineers of existing strong motion data and to improve the accessibility of data worldwide. This book will play a role in fulfilling such a need by disseminating state-of-the art information, technology and developments in the strong motion instrumentation of civil engineering structures. The subject has direct implications for the earthquake response of structures, improvements in design for earthquake resistance, and hazard mitigation. Readership: Researchers in earthquake engineering, engineers designing earthquake resistant structures, and producers of strong motion recording equipment.