Guidelines for developing an earthquake scenario

This document contains EERI fundamental guidelines to elaborate an earthquake scenario, an instrument widely used to better understand and help plan for the future. A successful scenario tells the story of a defined earthquake and its specific impacts. It draws the reader in by incorporating familiar aspects of the community that they can readily recognize. It helps decision makers to visualize specific impacts that are based on currently accepted scientific and engineering knowledge. At present experts have many tools and sufficient scientific and engineering knowledge to forecast likely events and their impacts. A well-built scenario will not specifically instruct an audience how to respond, but by providing a wide variety of information about the projected earthquake, will provide useful informations to identify areas of greatest vulnerability to inform decisions and actions.