Empirical prediction of the ground shaking scenario for the Catania area

Simplified approaches for prediction of strong ground shaking, that can be efficiently implemented through a Geographical Information System (GIS), ar e applied to constructing earthquake scenarios for the Catania municipal ar ea. Ground shaking maps in terms of peak ground acceleration and response s pectral ordinates are developed both for a repetition of the catastrophic 1 693 earthquake (M7.3), and for a lower energy event, like that which occurr ed in 1818 (M6.2). The maps account for amplification due to local site con ditions. According to the commonly used attenuation relations, the local am plification is taken into account either in a simpler way or in a more deta iled approach, derived from an extensive geotechnical zonation. The approxi mation introduced by the simpler methodology, to be used whenever accurate data are not available, is estimated by a comparison with damage distributi on.