Taiwan is located at the collision boundary between the Philippine and Eurasian plates, resulting in frequent seismic activities. In the past ten years, several large-scale and high-intensity disaster-causing earthquakes have occurred in Taiwan, such as the 1999 Chichi earthquake (Mw 7.6), the 2016 Meinong earthquake (Mw 6.4), and the 2018 Hualien earthquake (Mw 6.4). They caused collapse and damage of many building structures and the loss of life and property. General residences may face several medium- to large-scale earthquakes during the period of use. Therefore, the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) cooperates with the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, the National Laboratory Animal Center (NLAC), the Freeway Bureau of MOTC, etc., to install the structural monitoring systems in selected buildings and bridges in Taiwan. The structural monitoring system measures and records structural vibration responses to provide early warning service and to evaluate the structural health status after an earthquake occurs. The website “Taiwan Structural Monitoring Data Hub (TSMOD)” is established to present the data of structural monitoring systems and the analysis results. In the future, NCREE will continue to cooperate with relevant industry, government, and academia units to integrate monitoring information of structures in Taiwan (such as social housing). NCREE will also use the above-mentioned structural monitoring data to continuously develop and improve the technologies of structural system identification, damage assessment, post-earthquake structural safety rapid assessment, earthquake early warning, structural seismic response analysis, simulation, etc., to accomplish the ultimate goal of smart structural disaster prevention applications.
Fig1: Spatial Distribution of Structures with Health Monitoring Systems
Fig2: Identified Structural Fundamental Periods in the 2022 Guanshan and Chihshang Earthquakes in Eastern Taiwan
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