Urban shakemap methodology for Bucharest

We develop a methodology for a shakemap for the Romanian capital Bucharest that can be rapidly computed and delivered to the public, once real‐time data access is available to a sufficient extent. The methodology, with which the Californian shakemaps are generated, cannot be transferred to Bucharest, due to a missing understanding of the relationship between the geological near‐surface structure and the ground motion amplification. However, a systematic incorporation of previous seismological observations using Fourier Amplitude Spectra of weak and strong ground motion and a recent urban broadband experiment in Bucharest allows us to interpolate computed seismic intensities from 11 sites, where accelerometers measure the actual motion of a specific earthquake to 31 additional locations in the city, so that a reasonably reliable distribution of ground motion in the city can be determined. We demonstrate this methodology using the M W = 6.0 intermediate‐depth earthquake of October 27, 2004.