From surface wave inversion to seismic site response prediction: Beyond the 1D approach

Surface wave methods consist of the extraction and inversion of the Rayleigh wave phase-velocity dispersion curve to recover the (usually 1D) shear-wave velocity profile. In the literature, uncertainty due to data error has not received much attention, but the discussion about uncertainty due to model error is even poorer. Even with an unrealistic noise-free dataset and an exact forward model, an inappropriate parameterization can generate solutions very far from the actual soil structure. In general, the model used for the dispersion curve interpretation is 1D. Hence, when the velocity distribution is laterally heterogeneous, model errors can have significant consequences on the reliability of the resulting shear-wave velocity distribution. From a poor velocity reconstruction, an unsatisfactory, and often dangerous site response analysis follows. In fact, shear wave measurements play a relevant role in seismic ground motion amplification estimation. In this paper, we discuss the possi