Microzonation: techniques and examples

Corinne Lacave1, Pierre-Yves Bard2 and Martin G. Koller1

Affiliation: 1 Résonance Ingénieurs-Conseils SA, Geneva, Switzerland

2 LGIT, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, and LCPC, Paris, France

Key-words: Microzonation, site effects, topographic effects, standard spectral ratio, H/V
ratio, Nakamura method, numerical simulations, empirical Green's function
technique

1. Introduction

It is now well known, and widely accepted amongst the earthquake engineering community,
that the effects of surface geology on seismic motion exist and can be large. Two "famous"
examples of such effects are San Francisco and Mexico City. In San Francisco, local
amplifications over unconsolidated sediments have been shown to be responsible for intensity
variations as large as two degrees (MM scale) during both the 1906 "big" San Francisco
earthquake and the more recent 1989 Loma Prieta event. In Mexico City, there exist very soft
lacustrine clay deposits underneath the downtown area of the city. These led to very large
amplifications, which caused a high death toll and large economic losses during the distant
Guerrero Michoacan earthquake of 1985. Nearly all recent destructive earthquakes (Spitak,
Armenia 1988, Iran 1990, Philippines 1990, Northridge 1994, Kobe 1995, Armenia, Columbia
1999, Turkey 1999...) have brought additional evidence of the dramatic importance of site
effects. Accounting for such "site effects" in seismic regulations, land use planning or design of
critical facilities thus became one goal of earthquake hazard reduction programs (Bard, 1997).

In the first section, the most important site effects are presented, namely amplification effects
related with sedimentary sites and strong lateral discontinuities, as well as motion
amplifications related with surface topography. Then, experimental and numerical techniques
are presented that are available to estimate these site effects, in the framework of microzonation
studies. An application is finally presented for the Rhône valley in the Visp area, a narrow
alpine valley in the canton Wallis, Switzerland.

2. Site effects

2.1 Effects of soft surface layers

It has been recognised for a very long time that earthquake damage is generally larger over soft
sediments than on firm bedrock outcrops. This is particularly important because most of urban
settlements have occurred along river valleys over such young, soft surface deposits. Many
large cities located in earthquake prone areas may be given as examples: Los Angeles, San
Francisco, San Salvador, Caracas, Lima, Bogota, Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe, Katmandu, Manila,
Lisbon, Thessaloniki, Izmit, and, of course, Mexico City. But one should not forget many other
mid-size, recently developed cities, especially in moderate seismicity areas, since they might be
the place for future, heavily damaging events, due to the combination of site effects and urban
development.

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Soft soils may have, and did have indeed, dramatic consequences for the inhabitants of those
cities. They have however given engineering seismologists the opportunity to perform
numerous macroseismic observations during the last century. These demonstrated very clearly
that the damaging effects associated with such soft deposits may lead to local intensity
increments as large as 2, in extreme cases even 3 degrees on the MM or MSK/EMS scale.

The fundamental phenomenon responsible for the amplification of motion over soft sediments
is the trapping of seismic waves due to the impedance contrast between sediments and the
underlying bedrock. When the structure is horizontally layered (which will be referred to in the
following as 1-D structures), this trapping affects only body waves travelling up and down in
the surface layers. When the surface sediments form a 2-D or 3-D structure, i.e., when lateral
heterogeneities such as thickness variations are present, this trapping also affects the surface
waves which develop on these heterogeneities, and thus reverberate back and forth.

The interference between these trapped waves leads to resonance patterns, the shape and the
frequency of which are related with the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of the
structure. While these resonance patterns are very simple in the case of 1-D media (vertical
resonance of body waves), they become more complex in the case of 2-D and a fortiori 3-D
structures. An illustration of 1-D and 2-D effects is given in Figure 1.

2.2 Topographic effects

It has been often reported after destructive earthquakes that buildings located at hill tops
suffered much more intensive damage than those located at the base (see example in Figure 2).
There is also very strong instrumental evidence that surface topography considerably affects the
amplitude and frequency contents of ground motion: reviews of such instrumental studies and
results may be found in Géli et al. (1988), Faccioli (1991) and Finn (1991). However, the
number of instrumental studies about topographic effects is extremely low compared to studies
dealing with soft soil amplification, so that it remains impossible to derive any statistics from
the existing data.

Theoretical and numerical models also predict a systematic amplification of seismic motion at
ridge crests, and, more generally, over convex topographies such as cliffs. Correspondingly,
they also predict de-amplification over concave topographic features, such as valleys and the
base of hills. The amount of those effects have been shown (Pedersen et al., 1994) to be rather
sensitive to the characteristics of the incident wavefield (wave type, incidence and azimuth
angles). Theory also predicts complex amplification and de-amplification patterns on hill
slopes, resulting in significant differential motions. Very often, measurements show larger
effects than what is predicted by simulations. A possible explanation is that in many cases
weathered rock is found at the top of hills that reinforces the topographic effect (Pedersen et al.,
1994).

3. Methods for estimating site effects

3.1 Experimental methods

3.1.1 Standard spectral ratio (SSR)
The most common procedure (the principle of which is illustrated in Figure 3) consists in com-
paring recordings at nearby sites (where source and path effects are believed to be identical)
through spectral ratios. These spectral ratios constitute a reliable estimate of site response if the

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"reference site" is free of any site effect, which means that it should fulfil the two following
conditions: First, it should be located near enough to the examined station to ensure that
differences between each site are only due to site conditions, and not to differences in source
radiation or travel path, which is generally warranted when the hypocentral distance is larger
than about 10 times the array aperture (in case of necessity a ratio of 5 might still be
acceptable). Secondly, it should also be unaffected by any kind of site effect, which is the case
when the reference site is located on an unweathered, horizontal bedrock. These two conditions
prove to be rather restrictive in practice. The SSR technique, introduced first by Borcherdt
(1970), is still widely used. Measurements are usually available only for events weaker – much
weaker indeed - than the event engineers are interested in. Therefore, due to non-linearity, the
site effect estimated by SSR techniques may be considered as an overestimation or upper limit
of the actual site effects at high frequencies, and, correlatively, a slight underestimation at
frequencies below the "elastic" fundamental frequency.

In a nutshell, the principle of this method may be described as follows: for a network of I sites
having recorded J events, the amplitude spectrum of the ground motion Rij(f) recorded at site i
during the event j can be written as:
Rij(f) = Ej(f) . Pij(f) . Si (f) (1)
with Ej(f): source function; Pij(f): path contribution between the source and the local site; and
Si (f): local site contribution.

Written in logarithmic form, it leads to a simple linear equation:

ln (Rij(f) ) = ln (Ej(f)) + ln (Pij(f)) + ln (Si (f)) (2)
The traditional spectral ratio technique corresponds to the fact where the path term Pij(f) is
assumed to be site independent, i.e., when the distance to the reference site is small compared to
the source-to-site distance.

3.1.2 H/V noise ratio (or "Nogishi-Nakamura" technique)

The H/V ratio, i.e. the ratio between the Fourier spectra of the horizontal and vertical com-
ponents of ambient vibrations (often called "microtremors" or "ambient noise"), was introduced
in the early seventies by several Japanese scientists (Nogoshi and Igarashi, 1971; Shiono et al.,
1979; Kobayashi, 1980; Nakamura, 1989).

Although Nakamura's qualitative explanation looked at least questionable (as indicated in

Lachet and Bard, 1994, and again in Kudo, 1995), various sets of experimental data (Ohmachi
et al, 1991; Lermo, 1992 ; Field and Jacob, 1993b; Duval et al., 1994; Duval et al., 1995; Field
et al., 1995; Seekins et al., 1996; Lachet et al., 1996; Gitterman et al., 1996; Fäh et al., 1997;
Lebrun, 1997; Riepl et al., 1998) confirmed that these ratios are much more stable than the raw
noise spectra. In addition, on soft soil sites, they usually exhibit a clear peak that is well correl-
ated with the fundamental resonant frequency. These observations are supported by several
theoretical investigations (Field and Jacob, 1993b; Lachet and Bard, 1994; Lermo and Chavez-
Garcia, 1994; Cornou, 1998), showing that synthetics obtained with randomly distributed, near
surface sources lead to horizontal-to-vertical ratios sharply peaked around the fundamental S-
wave frequency (Figure 4a), whenever the surface layers exhibit a sharp impedance contrast
with the underlying stiffer formations.

However, the first three studies mentioned avove also conclude that the amplitude of this peak
is not well correlated with the S wave amplification at the site's resonant frequency (Figure 4b).
Instead, it is highly sensitive to some parameters such as Poisson's ratio near the surface.
Furthermore, Lachet and Bard (1994) proposed that the good match at the fundamental

3
frequency is due to the horizontal-vertical polarisation of the Rayleigh waves, an interpretation
that is in agreement with the early Japanese studies (Kudo, 1995). According to this view, no
straightforward relation exists between the H/V peak amplitude and the site amplification.
However, this opinion is not shared unanimously. For instance, a one to one average correlation
is claimed by Konno and Ohmachi (1998) on the basis of a comparison between observed H/V
peaks and numerical estimates of 1-D transfer functions. Furthermore, an empirical relationship
between H/V peak amplitude and local intensity increment (MM scale) was argued in
Toshinawa et al. (1997) from a strictly experimental viewpoint. A thorough comparison (Bard
et al., 1997; Bard, 1999) between observed amplifications derived from earthquake records and
observed H/V peak amplitudes at more than 30 sites demonstrates that the latter is almost
always smaller than the former (Figure 5). Such an experimental result, although not yet
explained by theoretical or numerical work, despite the new computations performed by Cornou
(1998), could be very useful indeed. It would mean that the H/V ratio technique could provide a
lower-bound estimate to the actual weak motion amplification. This view needs to be
confirmed, however, by a larger set of experimental data.

Other examples of estimates obtained with this technique are also displayed in Figure 6, for
comparison with other estimates. They show that H/V ratio technique allows obtaining, very
simply, the fundamental resonant frequency, but fails for higher harmonics, and that peak
amplitude is somewhat different from amplification measured on spectral ratios.

In practice, the H/V ratios from ambient vibrations are sometimes "non-informative" so that no
unequivocal interpretation is possible. This seems to be true particularly in the case of
pronounced 2D or 3D structures, i.e. in the presence of significant lateral heterogeneity.
Nevertheless, the method proved to be the most inexpensive and convenient technique to
estimate fundamental frequencies of soft deposits. It definitely deserves more research efforts
so as to elucidate the factors influencing its reliability.

3.1.3 H/V spectral ratio of weak motion

Another simple technique consists in taking the spectral ratio between the horizontal and the
vertical components of the shear wave part of weak earthquake recordings. This technique is in
fact a combination of Langston's (1979) "receiver-function" method for determining the
velocity structure of the crust from the horizontal to vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) of
teleseismic P waves, and Nakamura’s proposal (1989, 1996) to use this ratio with recordings of
ambient vibrations (section 3.1.2).

This method is obviously interesting, because of its simplicity and economy. It was first applied
to the S wave portion of the earthquake recordings obtained at three different sites in Mexico by
Lermo and Chavez-Garcia (1993). These recordings exhibit very encouraging similarities bet-
ween the classical spectral ratios and these HVSR, with a good fit in both, the frequencies and
amplitudes of the resonant peaks. The same technique has been also checked on various sets of
weak and strong motion data (see Chavez-Garcia et al., 1996; Lachet et al., 1996; Riepl et al.,
1998; Theodulidis et al., 1996; Bonilla et al., 1997; Yamazaki and Ansary, 1997; Zaré et al.,
1999), from which several conclusions appear well established:
– The HVSR shape exhibits a very good experimental stability.
– It is also well correlated with surface geology, and much less sensitive to source and path
effects (a warning should be issued however for near field recordings of large events,
because of the strong directionality of the near-source "fling" or "killer pulse").
– However, comparisons with classical spectral ratios (including surface / down-hole record-
ings), as well as with theoretical 1D computations (see also Lachet and Bard, 1994), also
agree on the fact that the absolute level of HVSR depends on the type of incident waves. It

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 follows that the determination of the absolute level of amplification from only HVSR is not
straightforward.

Field and Jacob (1995) also applied this technique in their systematic comparisons, and found
that the method reproduces very well the shape of the site response, but underestimates the
amplification level (see Figure 6e). They also found very different results when applying this
technique to the P-wave part of the recordings. They therefore conclude that HVSR, when
applied to the S-wave signals, reveals the overall frequency dependence. Based on our own
investigations, we agree only partly with this conclusion, since in some cases we did find a
good similarity in "spectral shapes", but in a few other HVSR we were only able to identify the
fundamental resonance frequency. Furthermore, it should be pointed out that this technique has
been applied and checked for soft soil sites only, and might not be valid for other kinds of site
effects.

3.2 Numerical methods

When the geotechnical characteristics of the site or of the area are known, site effects can be, in
principle, estimated through numerical analysis. The prerequisite of a sufficient geotechnical
knowledge generally implies that such ground response analyses be made on a site by site basis,
but the density of boreholes and geotechnical information in some large cities may be sufficient
to allow a numerically-based zoning. Such an approach, however, requires an in-depth
understanding both of the analytical models and of the numerical schemes that are used. When
the required expertise is lacking, it may occur that sophisticated numerical analyses lead to less
reliable results than simpler and cruder, but more robust, approximations. Thus, the present
section will mainly emphasize the latter ones.

3.2.1 One-dimensional response of soil columns

There exist a number of simple analytical methods which allow computation of the seismic
response of a given site with only the help of a small personal computer. Amongst these, the
most widely used makes use of the multiple reflection theory of S waves in horizontally layered
deposits, very often referred to as "1-D analysis of soil columns".

Such a soil column is excited by an incoming plane S wave, generally considered as vertically
incident, and corresponding to a surface bedrock motion representative of what is likely to
occur in the area. The specific parameters required for such an analysis are shear-wave velocity,
density, damping and thickness of each layer. These parameters may be obtained either through
direct in situ measurement, or from drillings and subsequent laboratory measurements, or from
known approximate relationships with other, more usual geotechnical parameters such as the
SPT number from standard penetration tests.

These analyses may be performed considering either a linear or a non-linear behaviour for the
soil. The non-linearity is very often approximated by a "linear-equivalent" method that uses an
iterative procedure to adapt the soil parameters (i.e., rigidity and damping) to the actual strain it
undergoes, according to the curves depicted in Figure 7. The SHAKE program is one of the
most widely used for such calculations (Schnabel et al., 1972).

Recently developed packages incorporating true non-linear constitutive models are now avail-
able, that also allow to account for liquefaction phenomena (example: CyberQuake program,
1998). However , these non-linear analyses require a quantitative knowledge of the actual non-
linear material behaviour, which can only be obtained by means of sophisicated laboratory tests.
Some generic average curves have been proposed for different types of material, as sand or

5
clay, but the actual behaviour of a given soil at a given site may strongly depart from these
averages. This was precisely the case in Mexico City where the clays proved indeed to behave
almost linearly despite the large strains experienced during the 1985 event, while they were
previously believed to be highly non-linear because of their very low rigidity.

3.2.2 Advanced methods

Although all numerical methods have the same base – i.e. the wave equation – many different
models have been proposed to investigate several of the various aspects of site effects, which
involve complex phenomena. For example, one has to consider various types of incident wave
fields (near-field, far-field, body waves, surface waves); the structure geometry may be 1-D, 2-
D or 3-D; or the mechanical behaviour of earth materials may encompass a very wide range
(viscoelasticity, non-linear behaviour, water-saturated media, liquid domains, etc.). Typically,
these advanced methods may be classified into four groups:
– Analytical methods, which can be used only for very simple geometries, are extremely
valuable as benchmarks.
– Ray methods, which are basically high frequency techniques. It is uneasy to use them when
wavelengths are comparable to the size of heterogeneity, a situation which is generally the
most interesting one.
– Boundary based techniques (including all kinds of boundary integral techniques, or those
based on wave function expansions), which are the most efficient when the site of interest
consists of a limited number of homogeneous geological units.
– Domain based techniques (such as finite-difference or finite-element methods), which allow
to account for very complex structures and material behaviour, but are very heavy from a
computational viewpoint.

As stressed by Aki and Irikura (1991), "(…) these methods have their advantages and
disadvantages, and, in general, those which can deal with more realistic models are less
accurate, while those achieving a higher accuracy are more time consuming. Most of these
methods are still actively developed, because each has its own merit that effectively applies to a
certain class of problems (…)". It is not our aim in this section to elaborate on the intrinsic
reliability of each numerical technique, but simply to discuss the applicability of numerical
methods, considered as a whole, to the estimation of site effects for engineering purposes.

Although these methods need heavy computational processes, their main advantage rests in
their flexibility and versatility (combined with their cheapness on standard computers), which
have lead to significant breakthroughs in the understanding of site effects during the last two
decades. Not only they allow to carry out phenomenological and parametric studies, they can
also be used to assess the uncertainty in a site’s seismic response, given the imperfect
knowledge regarding the mechanical and geometrical characteristics of the considered site.
Advances could be achieved along two avenues:
– Proper consideration of diffraction effects in complex surface or subsurface topography.
There now exist many numerical techniques to account for 2-D or even 3-D geometries, as
the Akil-Larner modelling for example (Aki and Larner, 1970), or the combined mode
summation and finite-difference technique proposed by Fäh and Suhadolc (1994). However,
because of computational limitations, as well as lack - at reasonable expenses - of
sufficiently detailed knowledge of the underground structure, analyses with true 3-D models
are generally restricted to low frequencies (typically below about 1 Hz).
– More realistic modelling of strong non-linear behaviour in soft soils, and especially saturated
sands, as done by the program CyberQuake for example (CyberQuake, 1998).

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Nevertheless, the routine application of numerical models for the evaluation of site effects
raises some concerns:
– Until recently, numerical models had been only very rarely objectively tested for their ability
to predict actual effects. Indeed, comparisons between observations and theoretical
computations had almost always been carried out a posteriori : the predictors knew what to
find.
– Numerical methods are not panacea, but can be applied only to some limited cases.
Unfortunately, individuals who lack an understanding of their limits may use the software
implementing these methods outside of their validity domain, which may consequently lead
to wrong estimations.

Even when the methods are properly used, their actual cost may be high, perhaps well in excess
of the cost using instrumental means. The reason is that they require detailed geotechnical or
geophysical investigations for the site to provide the constitutive properties needed as input
parameters. This issue may sometimes be overcome through parametric studies, but this is
useful only when the results do not exhibit too much sensitivity (which is rarely the case).

3.2.3 Empirical and semi-empirical methods

Empirical attenuation laws
Many empirical attenuation laws have been derived on the basis of available strong motion
recordings. They all relate a given ground motion parameter (pga, pgv, Sa, duration, Arias
intensity, etc.) to the magnitude and distance of the seismic event, and they also very often take
into account a site parameter. Very often this site parameter is simply a binary descriptor, such
as "rock" and "non-rock". Only rarely is the site geology characterized in a more refined
manner, for instance with distinction between thin and thick deposits, or with S-wave velocity
values : the reason is that detailed information on strong motion recording sites is generally
missing. Significant efforts are made throughout the world, however, to fill this gap : the most
striking example is the K-NET network installed in Japan after the Kobe event, for which a
20 m deep borehole has been drilled at each of the 1000 sites, and the S and P wave velocity
profile has been obtained.

It is thus possible to modify the ground motion parameters according to the site geology.
However, as these modifications are based on a very crude classification of soils, and on
statistical studies which, in essence, smooth out the extreme values, such an approach may lead
to a dangerous underestimation of amplifications at sensitive sites. Conversely, there is a
significant probability of overestimating the motion at common sites.

Empirical Green's functions technique (EGF)

The empirical Green's functions (EGF) technique is known essentially in the seismological
community, as a tool for studying the source process of past large earthquakes using records
from both mainshock and aftershocks (e.g. Mueller, 1985 ; Courboulex et al., 1998). It is far
less known in the engineering community, where its potential to predict the expected strong
ground motion during future large events has not yet been sufficiently exploited. A key feature
of the EGF technique is its capability to synthesise physically realistic, site specific acceleration
time histories. This is of particular interest for the seismic analysis of critical facilities.

Since critical facilities should withstand strong earthquakes with long return periods, typically
of the order of 10 000 years or more, it is common that no recording of such an event is
available for the facility's site. This lack of appropriate time histories can elegantly be overcome
with the aid of the EGF technique. Its basic idea is to interpret recordings of small seismic

7
events at the site of interest as reasonable approximations of Green's functions and to convolute
them suitably, using earthquake scaling laws, in order to simulate time histories that correspond
to larger earthquakes. The EGF technique was first put forward by Hartzell (1978) and has
since been further developed by numerous scientists. Its main interest is that the true
propagation and site effects are automatically accounted for ; its main disadvantage is that it
cannot, on its own, account for non-linear soil behaviour. If non-linear soil behaviour cannot be
neglected, the EGF technique should be combined with geotechnical methods, as outlined by
Heuze et al. (1995).

There are, roughly speaking, two different "families" of EGF techniques. In both cases, the EGF
is taken at several times and added up so that a larger earthquake, referred to as the "target"
event, of the same focal mechanism is synthesized (see Figure 8). The difference lies in the way
how the summing up of the EGF is performed : with or without kinematic modelling of the
target event's rupture process. Irikura (1983, 1986), Hutchings (1994) and Irikura and Kamae
(1994) are all representatives of the family of kinematic modelling techniques. The other family
uses essentially statistical tools that allow to sum up the EGFs in a way that the relevant
earthquake scaling laws will be respected. An overview on this family is given by Tumarkin
and Archuleta (1994).

4. Example: Microzonation of the Visp area (Wallis, Switzerland)

Alpine valleys are often characterised by significant site effects, due to the presence of deep
young alluvial deposits in narrow glacial valleys, overlaying a bedrock formation. The town of
Visp is located in the Rhone valley, Wallis, Switzerland. The aim of the following work was to
establish a microzonation directly applicable in engineering practice, by means of proposed
design response spectra for different zones in the considered area (Résonance et al., 1999).

4.1 Geological context and soil parameters

The dimensions of the valley are approximately 220 m in depth (down to the substratum) for a
width of 1500 m.

Geological information were gathered from a systematic bibliographic study. Soil parameters
were deduced from SPT (Standard Penetration Test) values with the aid of empirical relations.
The Rhone valley in the region of Visp can schematically be described as follows :
– In the centre of the valley, recent alluvial deposits are found down to a depth of 170 m, with
S-wave velocities estimated to range from 250 m/s at the surface to 900 m/s at depth. These
deposits are characterised by silts and fine sands in alternation with gravel and sand layers.
– Then a morainic layer of 50 m is found, characterized by velocities estimated around 1000 to
1200 m/s.
– Finally, the rock substratum is characterized, in this study, by an assumed S-wave velocity
of 2500 m/s.

4.2 Methodology
4.2.1 Regional seismic hazard
The regional seismic hazard to be taken into account in the area of Visp, for ordinary buildings,
is characterised by a peak ground acceleration ag = 0.16 g, following the seismic zonation of
Switzerland (SIA 160, 1989). This zonation is based on damage estimation from historical

8
catalogues and empirical correlation with intensity. The corresponding acceleration values are
thus representative of a soil type which is neither a "good" rock site, neither an alluvial site (as
villages were rarely built in alluvial valleys, due to the flow hazard). Following the work done
by Rüttener (1995), and Smit and Rüttener (1998), we chose to consider a reduced value of ag =
0.12 g, for an ideal rock site in the Visp area.

4.2.2 H/V measurements

Measurements of the ground natural frequency were conducted at 80 points in the considered
area, using the H/V ratio experimental technique. The a priori estimated S-wave velocities of
the numerical model were then adjusted, keeping the layer thickness fixed, so as to find the
measured natural frequencies for weak motion. In the present case, velocity adjustments
between 10 and 25 % were necessary. An example is given in Table 1.

4.2.3 Numerical simulations

The geological profile determined as described above was used to perform numerical simul-
ations of the local amplification due to site effects. A pragmatic methodology was chosen for
these calculations, using SHAKE (1-D, pseudo non-linear approach) and Aki-Larner (2-D,
accounting for geometrical effects) programs with the following procedure:
– 2-D calculation by means of the Aki-Larner technique for weak motion, adjustment of the
S-wave velocities according to the measurements of the H/V ratio, in order to obtain the
correct fundamental natural frequency in the transfer function;
– 1-D calculation for strong motion, accounting for the approximate influence of non-linear
behaviour of the soil, followed by an adjustment of the S-wave velocity and the damping (Q
values), as a function of the mean soil deformation, for each layer (Table 1 gives an
example of the pseudo non-linear velocity adjustments and Q values in the centre of the
Rhône valley);
– 2-D calculation for the strong motion with the new values for S-wave velocities and
damping.

4.3 Results
The numerical simulations made it possible to characterize site effects in the Visp area. The
results obtained are of the same order as site effects already observed or calculated in other
similar areas. This study proposed to distinguish three zones :
– zone "Rhône valley",
– zone "alluvial cone",
– zone "rock".

The whole Rhône valley has been defined as a single "zone" in this microzonation, accounting
for a "mean" 2-D effect of the valley. This approach is in agreement with the recent conclusion
of the work performed by Chavez-Garcia and Faccioli (2000), indicating that "the 2-D basin
amplification factor can in first approximation be assumed constant throughout the surface of
the valley".

Following the results of the microzonation study of Visp, an elastic response spectrum has been
defined, for each zone, for the design of standard buildings (see Figure 9).

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5. Conclusions

One of the main points of this overview is that the instrumental approach based on analyses of
earthquake recordings is principally a reliable technique. However, the existence of non-linear
soil effects – a firmly established reality – compromises the validity of amplification factors
obtained from weak motion measurements to a certain extent. Whenever non-linear effects must
be taken into account in numerical approaches, however, the computations are significantly
impaired by the uncertainties in the measurement or estimation of the non-linear constitutive
characteristics of the soil. These uncertainties are at least as large as those that affect the
measurement or estimation of the soil characteristics at small deformations.

Numerical approaches remain of primary importance to help understand the physics of site
effects. Their advantages for practical estimations of amplification factors at specific sites must
not be overlooked, since the instrumental approach may not always be applicable, for instance
in urban areas with weak seismicity (gap areas, or intraplate seismicity zones with large return
periods). However, sensitivity studies (see Field and Jacob, 1993a) draw attention to the need
for multiple, redundant geotechnical measurements (which increases the actual cost of
numerical estimations).

Ambient vibration methods are clearly important because of their low expense, as the H/V ratio
technique based on horizontal to vertical spectral ratios, for example. Additional research must
be carried out to establish the reliability and actual limits of these techniques. For instance, can
the H/V ratio method be used to provide quantitative estimations of site amplification factors ?

The main lessons learned on the physics of site effects are i) the growing reconciliation of
seismologists' and engineers' viewpoints on non-linear soil effects and ii) the accumulating
experimental and numerical evidence on the engineering importance of 2-D or 3-D effects
(wave diffraction by surface or subsurface topography).

Much work, both in research and of regulatory character, remains to be done in order to transfer
the accumulated knowledge about site effects to the engineering practice. For instance,
regulations are still needed on how to anchor peak ground accelerations for soil and rock sites
in design-response spectra so as to account for amplification effects caused by surface and sub-
surface topography.

In summary, although significant advances have been achieved in recent years, some issues
regarding the physics of site effects as well as the manner in which to consider them in
engineering practice remain unresolved (Bard, 1997) :
– Basic research is needed, with both theoretical and experimental approaches, in order to
better understand some particular aspects of site effects: surface topography effects, effects
of strong lateral discontinuities, actual importance of non-linearity in soil response, actual
level and effects of differential motion on structures, site-city interaction effects in densely
urbanized areas.
– Methodological work is required to better assess and compare the reliability, cost and
usefulness of the various methods available for the prediction of site effects.
– Last, but not least, some regulatory work is needed to better account for site effects in
seismic codes.

The extreme importance of site effects in recent damaging earthquakes calls for special efforts
to apply right now what we already know regarding site effects – without waiting for results of
further research. The state of the art is such that it is now possible to perform "present day"

10
microzonation studies. The task at hand is certainly not simple, and it will not only encounter
just technical problems. It must be remembered that the results of such microzonation studies
are intended for use by local authorities, city planners, land-use specialists and civil engineers,
whose technical background and preparation differ greatly. Thus, the recommendations must be
very clear and based on sound judgement. Programs recently launched in several countries will
eventually clarify the methodologies required for this important goal.

11
6. References

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motion network, Soil Dyn. and Earthq. Engng, 18, 101-123.

15
Table 1 : Estimated and adjusted S-wave velocities and Q factors for the soil layers in the
centre of the Rhône valley at Visp.

A priori estimated S-wave velocity Pseudo non-linear Pseudo non-

Depth
S-wave velocity adjusted according to S-wave velocity linear Q factor
for weak motion "noise" measurements for strong motion for strong motion
[m] [m/s] [m/s] [m/s] [–]

0-4 243 290 262 10

4-9 286 340 282 6.0

9-18 412 490 420 7.4

18-22 444 530 444 6.3

22-45 539 650 555 7.2

45-70 641 770 741 33

70-100 800 960 930 38

100-130 900 1080 1050 38

130-170 1000 1200 1170 42

170-210 1100 1320 1290 42

210-250 1200 1440 1410 45

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Figure 1 : Differences between 1-D and 2-D behaviors for a perfectly elastic (no damping)
sediment-filled valley. These diagrams represent the spatial (x) and temporal (t)
evolution of the surface motion of a sediment-filled valley impinged by a SH signal
with a characteristic frequency fp=_1/4h (_1 is the S wave velocity in the sediments,
h is the valley thickness).
a) Results obtained with a 1D approximation ( considering only, for each site x,
the local sediment thickness)
b) Results obtained a 2D modeling, in the case of a shallow valley: h/w = 0.06
c) Results obtained a 2D modeling, in the case of a thick valley: h/w = 0.70

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Figure 2 : An example of a large topographic effect at Piène, France. The 5 top diagrams
display average spectral ratios obtained at 5 surface sites ( ± one strandard
deviation), for the EW (in-plane) component. The reference station is not the base
station ("Roya"), but the westernmost, mid-slope station ("Bramafan"). A cross-
section of the investigated topography is shown on bottom. (Reproduced from
Nechtschein et al., 1995).

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Figure 3 : An example of use of microtremors through H/V ratio technique. Horizontal to
vertical spectral ratios of ambient noise are shown for various locations around an
alluvial coastal plain in the city of Nice. The H/V ratios (thick continuous line) are
compared with classical spectral ratios with respect to a rock reference site (thin
continuous line), and with 1D numerical estimates of the transfer function (thick
dashed line). After Duval, 1994.

19
a)

Figure 4 : Theoretical checks of the H/V ratio technique. Numerical horizontal to vertical
spectral ratios were computed from noise models in various (about 15) soil
profiles.
a) Comparison between the S-wave resonance frequency (fs, computed for
vertically incident S-waves) and the peak frequency "observed" in theoretical H/V
ratios (fn): the agreement is very satisfactory.
b) Same thing for the spectral amplitude at the resonant frequency (As is the
amplification for vertically incident S waves, An is the amplitude of the H/V peak
obtained from noise modeling): the agreement is very poor... (Reproduced from
Lachet and Bard, 1994).

Figure 5 : Experimental checks on the H/V ratio technique, based on instrumental recordings
at 33 different soft sites in different areas from France and Greece. Relationship
between the amplitude of the H/V peak and the peak amplification measured on
earthquake spectral ratios with respect to a reference site. There is no correlation
but an apparent inequality : the former is almost systematically lower that the
latter.

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Figure 6 : Comparison between various techniques for the estimation of site response
transfer function, for two sites in Oakland (California). Adapted from Field and
Jacob, 1995.
a) Traditional spectral ratios;
b) Generalized Inversion spectral ratios whatever the noise ratio);
c) Generalized Inversion spectral ratios obtained when only data with signal to
noise ratio larger than 3 are kept (and then given an equal weight).
d) Parameterized inversion estimates;
e) Average Horizontal-to-vertical component spectral ratios for S wave part of
earthquake records.
f) Nakamura's estimates (average horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio of ambient
vibrations)
Curves a) to c) correspond to site-reference techniques, while curves d) to f)
correspond to non-reference site techniques. The dashed-lines represent 95 %
confidence limits of the mean.

21
Figure 7 : An example of strain dependency of normalized shear modulus (top) and damping
(bottom), for soft soils with varying plasticity index PI (after Dobry and Vucetic,
1987).

22
 Figure 8 : Schematic representation of the different sources of time delays in the summation
of the EGF : path length, finite rupture velocity and dislocation rise time (after
Bour, 1993).

Figure 9 : Chosen elastic response spectra for the three zones "Fels (Rock)", "Schuttkegel
(alluvial cone)" and "Rotten (Rhone valley)".

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