Tsunami Fragility — A New Measure to Identify Tsunami Damage —

Abstract

Tsunami fragility (fragility curve, or fragility function) is a new measure, we propose, for estimating structural damage and fatalities due to tsunami attack, by integrating satellite remote sensing, field survey, numerical modeling, and historical data analysis with geographic information system (GIS). Tsunami fragility is expressed as the structural damage probability or fatality ratio related to hydrodynamic features of tsunami inundation flow, such as inundation depth, current velocity and hydrodynamic force. It expands the capability of estimating potential tsunami damage in a quantitative manner.