Computer aided intensity assessment in Austria

Internet-based macroseismic questionnaires are becoming more and more an alternative for collecting data from the public. Experience in Austria has shown, that questionnaires received via the Internet have already outnumbered questionnaires which arrive by fax and mail. Therefore, a method to evaluate this “new kind” of macroseismic data objectively was developed to speed up the analysis and to provide authorities with almost real-time information in the future. In addition, the method lends itself to cross-border data exchange circumventing the problem of interpreting questionnaires originating from different countries.