Benchmarking, validation and calibration of newly-developed HAZUS Tsunami methodology

This paper documents the results of an effort to benchmark modeling results generated from the newly-developed HAZUS Tsunami methodology. Although quantitative comparisons between HAZUS-modeled output and observations of damage from actual events are made, this analysis is considered preliminary in that data from only two events were used in the benchmarking process. Useful insights, however, are still possible, especially regarding whether the results appear to be in the right ballpark. At the end of this paper, we provide recommendations on improvements that should be considered in order to ensure effective application of the methodology in the U.S.