A WebGis tool for seismic hazard scenarios and risk analysis

The WebGis development represents a natural answer to the growing requests for dissemination and use of geographical information data. WebGis originates from a combination of web technology and the Geographical Information System, which is a recognised technology that is mainly composed of data handling tools for storage, recovery, management and analysis of spatial data. Here, we illustrate two examples of seismic hazard and risk analysis through the WebGis system in terms of architecture and content. The first presents ground shaking scenarios associated with the repetition of the earthquake that struck the Lake of Garda area (northern Italy) in 2004. The second shows data and results of a more extensive analysis of seismic risk in the western part of the Liguria region (north-western Italy) for residential buildings, strategic structures and historic architecture. The adoption of a freeware application (ALOV Map) assures easy exportability of the WebGis structures for projects dealing with natural hazard evaluation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.