“…Macroseismic intensity (Grünthal, 2011) is a useful tool for purposes such as loss estimation (e.g., Eguchi et al, 1997;Grünthal et al, 2006;Wyss, 2008), communication of earthquake effects to the public (e.g., Wald, Quitoriano, Heaton, et al, 1999), and SHAs in regions with abundant historical earthquake records and moderate seismicity but sparse seismometer coverage (e.g., Musson, 2000;Bindi et al, 2011). Because the evaluation of building vulnerability is part of both macroseismic investigation and risk assessment, it is a natural advantage for intensity as the basis of risk assessment, leading to the continual popularity of the use of intensity for this purpose.…”