A hypothesis testing based method for seismic intensity rapid assessment by strong ground motion parameters

That the distribution of earthquake damage could be reliably estimated within several minutes after a big earthquake,would be very important for the government to make emergent response in time and to distribute the rescue forces to the seismic areas,which could mitigate the loss of lives and properties in the most efficient way.Intensity rapid assessment is also very useful for public information,loss estimation,earthquake planning,and post-earthquake engineering and scientific analyses.Based on the hypothesis testing in statistics and actual seismic intensity data of three big historic earthquakes in California,a method of estimating seismic intensity rapidly by strong ground motion parameters is presented in the article.Comparisons indicate that this method is more reliable to establish the relationship between strong ground motion parameters and seismic intensities,which show the different degrees of earthquake damage.This method has already been used in Ground Motion Fast Reporting Program in Mainland China.