The Selena-Rise Open Risk Package

Resumen

Today, a considerable number of non-commercial seismic risk analysis tools
are available. The happy circumstance that the tools are free is likely a result of
the fact that the group of potential users or customers is small and with limited
funds which are not sufficient for the distribution of commercial or proprietary
seismic risk assessment software.
Aware of the need for non-proprietary and open-source software for seismic
risk and loss computation, the International Centre for Geohazards (ICG), through
NORSAR (Norway) and the University of Alicante (Spain), began the
development of the tool SELENA in 2004. The current version 4.1 of SELENA
(Seismic Loss Estimation using a Logic Tree Approach; Molina et al., 2009),
initially coded in MATLAB, has recently been translated into C. Thus, the code
can be compiled as a stand-alone binary, which is then independent of MATLAB
and its toolboxes. Furthermore, the code has been adapted in such a way that it
can even be run in the free (open-source) MATLAB clone Octave.
In order to make it even more attractive to use SELENA, the separate
software tool RISe (Risk Illustrator for SELENA; Lang and Gutiérrez, 2009) has
been developed to allow easy conversion of the geo-referenced SELENA input
and output files into Google Earth kml-files. Since it is linked to the Google Earth
visualization, the user automatically takes full advantage of the partly highresolution
satellite images provided by Google Earth. This is particularly
important in situations where other commercial GIS packages do not provide a
high resolution database, or for developing countries where many cities and
municipalities cannot be displayed on high resolution base maps other than
Google Earth satellite images. RISe is customized to SELENA’s file structure,
and it is further intended to assist the user during the different stages of the risk
computation process. Like SELENA, RISe is openly distributed through
NORSAR’s webpage www.norsar.no
The open SELENA-RISe package is a powerful tool to conduct earthquake
risk and loss computations at the level of geographical units (such as census
tracts). Since SELENA offers a range of options to the user and is open to any
user-defined input data, its application for scientific and analytical purposes is
facilitated. In contrast, more practical applications of SELENA are enabled
through its Google Earth interface RISe. This allows for easy identification of
more vulnerable building typologies or building areas through a simple graphical
visualization of inventory data and computation results. Further, SELENA-RISe
can be used within cost benefit analyses since the impact of parameter changes
(e.g. of building vulnerability) on final damage and loss estimates can be
investigated and directly illustrated.