The Use of Spectral Content to Improve Earthquake Early Warning Systems in Central Asia: Case Study of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

Expansion of urban areas in Central Asia increases their exposure to seismic hazard, but at present no earthquake early warning (EEW) systems exist in the region. Such systems, successfully implemented in other regions, aim to provide warning of the order of tens of seconds about impending disasters, enabling the first rapidresponse steps to be taken. The feasibility of such systems for Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, has been demonstrated. This study investigates how the use of the spectral content, instead of just ground-motion thresholds, can be used to improve the performance of proposed regional warning systems. We find that using the spectral content of the first few seconds after the P-wave arrival can provide timely warning for events closer to the target city than was possible with the threshold systems. It is further shown that for events less than 60 km from the target, any regional system needs to be complemented with an onsite one to provide a comprehensive EEW system.

Ground‐Motion Forecasting Using a Reference Station and Complex Site‐Response Functions Accounting for the Shallow Geology

“…Moreover, as the spectral content of the first few seconds after the P-wave arrival can already provide timely warning for strong-motion events close to the target city, the use of the method might contribute to improving earthquake early warning systems (Stankiewicz et al, 2015). Once the location and the back azimuth of the earthquake are known, a fast calculation of the stretching factor is possible, allowing an appropriate calculation of the delay of the arrival of the seismic waves at the soft-soil sites.…”

Real-Time Characterization of Finite Rupture and Its Implication for Earthquake Early Warning: Application of FinDer to Existing and Planned Stations in Southwest China

“…Some regions (e.g. Italy, Chinese mainland, Switzerland, Chile, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and El Salvador) are currently testing EEW systems within their seismic monitoring networks (Clinton et al, 2016;Leyton et al, 2018;Massin et al, 2019; and see next section for details of Chinese mainland), while others are only at the stage of discussing the need and feasibility of developing EEW systems (Bird et al, 2008;Stankiewicz et al, 2015;Romeu Petit et al, 2016;Sokos et al, 2016;Zuccolo et al, 2016;Ogweno et al, 2019). Recently, crowdsourcing (Hammon and Hippner, 2012) has been applied as a promising new technique to EEW, allowing the general public to record seismic data/records with micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) in smart devices and to receive earthquake alerts in real-time on a global or regional scale (Minson et al, 2015).…”