Urban System Resilience: Scaling Factors for Sustainable Seismic Response in Basin Areas

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that sedimentary basins amplify seismic ground motions through multifaceted wave-propagation mechanisms, including reflection, refraction, and basin-edge resonance. One-dimensional (1-D) ground response analysis is the most widely used tool in engineering practice, but it cannot capture the multi-dimensional effects that govern seismic response in basin settings, leaving a gap between resilience-based design and sustainable post-earthquake recovery. This paper proposes a resilience-based framework that combines conventional 1-D analysis with numerically derived scaling factors to address basin-induced amplification. A parametric study using nonlinear 1-D (D-MOD 2000) and 2-D (FLAC) wave-propagation models investigated how varying peak ground acceleration, basin depth-to-width ratio, slope angle, and distance from basin edges affect seismic performance. Results show that 1-D analysis systematically underestimates spectral amplification in transitional basin zones by up to 1.5 times. The framework provides tangible correction factors for routine engineering applications, simplifying basin effects into useful parameters for seismic microzoning, resilient infrastructure design, and sustainable recovery planning, without computationally intensive multidimensional simulations. This work advances resilience-based design by integrating field conditions into simplified engineering workflows to sustain urban systems in active basin environments under seismic hazard.