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The Impact of Portfolio Location Uncertainty on Probabilistic Seismic Risk Analysis
Author(s) -
Scheingraber Christoph,
Käser Martin A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/risa.13176
Subject(s) - portfolio , probabilistic logic , context (archaeology) , seismic risk , econometrics , computer science , uncertainty quantification , hazard , uncertainty analysis , seismic hazard , environmental science , mathematics , geology , seismology , economics , artificial intelligence , simulation , machine learning , chemistry , organic chemistry , financial economics , paleontology
Probabilistic seismic risk analysis is a well‐established method in the insurance industry for modeling portfolio losses from earthquake events. In this context, precise exposure locations are often unknown. However, so far, location uncertainty has not been in the focus of a large amount of research. In this article, we propose a novel framework for treatment of location uncertainty. As a case study, a large number of synthetic portfolios resembling typical real‐world cases were created. We investigate the effect of portfolio characteristics such as value distribution, portfolio size, or proportion of risk items with unknown coordinates on the variability of loss frequency estimations. The results indicate that due to loss aggregation effects and spatial hazard variability, location uncertainty in isolation and in conjunction with ground motion uncertainty can induce significant variability to probabilistic loss results, especially for portfolios with a small number of risks. After quantifying its effect, we conclude that location uncertainty should not be neglected when assessing probabilistic seismic risk, but should be treated stochastically and the resulting variability should be visualized and interpreted carefully.