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Cosmos Site Characterization Working Group: Achievements and Perspectives, From the Determination of Soil Properties to the Consideration of Topography and Installation Effects

Description: 

We present the results and perspectives of the "Site Characterization" working group of the Consortium of Organizations for Strong Motion Observation Systems (COSMOS). The group's leaders see the project as an interdisciplinary means of bringing together the engineering and earth science aspects associated with site characterization. Since 2015, implementation recommendations of non-invasive and passive site characterization methods have been issued. The main outcomes of these efforts was the publication of articles in a special issue of the Journal of Seismology in 2022. In parallel, a series of international online and face-to-face workshops, meetings and a training course have been organized from 2022 to 2024 and additional user-specific workshops are scheduled for future conferences. The working group is also planning to develop an Internet forum to bring together users and experts in the field of site characterization. In the coming years, in addition to the site characterization, the working group aims to broaden the range of topics covered by considering all the phenomena that impact the representativeness of recorded signals. One example is topographical site effects, on which we propose to contribute to the organization of a numerical simulation benchmark within the framework of the ESG 2026 conference. It is also important to address the “installation effects”, i.e. the impact of the practical installation choices of seismological stations (coupling using concrete slabs or pillars, etc.; installation on the surface, manholes, or at greater depth; installation in larger or smaller buildings). With this in mind, we would like to establish a consensus on the additional metadata required to fully describe a station. In the long term, we plan to propose a best practice guide for installing seismological stations, to minimize external perturbation effects.

Session: Why Ignore the Structure? Soil-structure Interaction and Site Response at Local and Regional Scales [Poster]

Type: Poster

Date: 4/17/2025

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Marco

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Poster Number: 14

Authors