Using citizen data to understand earthquake impacts: Aotearoa New Zealand’s earthquake Felt Reports and their current use in Science
A seminar by Tatiana Goded, Seismic Hazard Modeller, GNS Science Dunedin
Aotearoa New Zealand's national seismic network, GeoNet, administers Felt Reports, including the Felt RAPID and Felt Detailed databases, which are being collected at present.
New Zealand has a long tradition of using earthquake Felt Reports provided by the public to analyse the damage caused by moderate to large earthquakes.
From traditional paper-based Felt Reports to current online reports (using the GeoNet website or a mobile app), researchers have been using such data to obtain a geographical distribution of the damage caused by an earthquake and to assess what actions people take during shaking.
Felt Reports include questions on people's reactions, indoor and outdoor effects of earthquake shaking, building damage, and tsunami evacuation. The database of long online Felt Reports (from 2024 to the present) comprises over 1,000,000 Felt Reports from more than 30,000 earthquakes.
Current research being carried out using these data includes:
- development of a database of community intensity data;
- use of intensity data derived from felt reports on ShakeMapNZ, a recent tool that delivers near real-time shaking intensity maps a few minutes after a magnitude 4.0 or above earthquake in New Zealand;
- updating of the New Zealand Ground Motion to Intensity Conversion Equation and Intensity Prediction Equation,
- understanding human behaviour for earthquakes and related hazards such as tsunami; and
- improving public education. This talk will summarise the research currently being carried out in New Zealand using felt report data.