Urban RAT: New Tool for Virtual and Site-Specific Mobile Rapid Data Collection for Seismic Risk Assessment

The Urban Rapid Assessment Tool (RAT) integrates recent advances in virtual environments and mobile smart devices to facilitate the rapid visual screening (RVS) of building structural parameters outlined in FEMA 154 and FEMA 310. These advanced parameters support Tier-1 and Tier-2 earthquake loss estimations in programs such as Hazus and CanRisk. Urban RAT includes two software components that use a common database schema: Urban RAT Desktop integrates the virtual environment of Street View within the geographic information system ArcGIS and, Urban RAT mobile, an equivalent on-site data collection application for the Android operating system. Structural parameters observed on a sample of 113 buildings using both Urban RAT Desktop and Urban RAT Mobile show significant agreement. As such, virtual assessment is a viable proxy for field-based RVS, making Urban RAT effective and efficient for rapid structural data collection to support detailed loss estimation studies in urban regions. Developed and tested during 2011–2013, the advantages of the Urban RAT tool are defined and discussed in the context of traditional sidewalk surveys and contrasted with other existing data collection solutions.