As a consortium of organizations, COSMOS provides the mechanism for collaboration for scientists, engineers, private companies, utility operators, academic institutions, and government agencies. Please check out some of current and past projects below.
Center for Engineering Strong Motion Data
As part of our work, COSMOS supports the online hosting and maintenance of the Center for Engineering Strong Motion Data (CESMD), including providing access to the ground motion database. In this way, COSMOS supports and facilitates the collection and use of strong-motion records by researchers and practitioners.
Site Characterization Project
COSMOS has been preparing international guidelines on Applying Noninvasive Geophysical Methods for Characterizing Seismic Site Conditions. This project develops practical consensus guidelines and recommendations from the international community on non-invasive geophysical site characterization methods and technical requirements. The product of this project will support research associated with development of future GMPEs that consider site soil conditions. A key aspect of this activity is the implementation of workshops and mechanisms for ongoing collaborative work by international leaders in the field. The collaboration will lead to a set of specific milestones with the ultimate deliverable being a set of final guidelines on the use of non-invasive site characterization techniques. In undertaking these activities, COSMOS is working in Cooperation with the USGS.
US Community Vs Profile Database Web Interface Development
The United States Community Shear-Wave Velocity (VS) Profile Database (PDB) project is a multi-institutional effort with the goal of creating an open-access repository of VS profiles, a critical site attribute used in modeling of seismic site response, ground failure prediction, and other applications. No such resource currently exists in the public domain in the U.S., so this project fills a substantial practical need that will benefit practicing engineers and researchers. Over 5000 VS profiles are anticipated to be incorporated into the database, with over 2300 already digitized and accessible. A majority of the data is from California, however data from the Pacific Northwest and central and eastern U.S. are already in hand. Data sources include federal government reports from the U.S. Geological Survey and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, various state agencies such as geological surveys, departments of transportation and water resources, reports from universities and research institutions, private industry, and utility companies. Data collection is ongoing, and the database has an ability to expand as new data is acquired or contributed.
The PDB project is currently funded to a limited extent by the USGS External Grants Program. This funding covers collecting and digitizing VS profile data for California and compiling the data in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) files, a file format convenient for transferring and organizing hierarchical data. A web interface tool has been created to facilitate public access and use of the database, leveraging lessons learned from database development for the Next-Generation Liquefaction (NGL) project. The tool’s interface includes GIS map-based markers for each site of interest containing VS profiles at individual locations; these markers can be expanded to show site data and metadata. Geophysical and geotechnical data are included at each site as available, which can be plotted using online data visualization functions within the web tool. The project utilizes a structured query language (SQL) relational database, which allows for object-oriented computing. The SQL database is easily accessible for efficient cloud-based computing, data visualization, and transfer. The web infrastructure is being developed to also provide security to objects stored in the PBD.
Recent work on the database has focused on expanding the schema and the tools that interact with the database, to include horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio data. This information can be useful, in combination with shear wave velocity, for the prediction of site response.
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR(S): Jonathan P. Stewart, UCLA
SPONSORS: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program under Grant No. G17AP00018; a consortium of COSMOS, Southern California Edison, and Pacific Gas & Electric provided a supplementary grant to develop the web interface. Funding for in-person community VS PDB project planning workshops in May 2015 and June 2017 were provided by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center, The B. John Garrick Risk Institute at UCLA, and BC Hydro.