2018 – Comparison of EZ-FRISK and OpenQuake Seismic Hazard Programs

Elodie Borleis, Russell Cuthbertson

There are a number of software packages that have been developed to conduct Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessments (PSHA’s). Each one has advantages and disadvantages. Two such programs are compared; the licenced subscription-based EZ-FRISK software package developed by Fugro USA Land, Inc. and the open-sourced OpenQuake-engine (OQ) software package by the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation. Both of these packages use the classical PSHA methodology as described by Cornell (1968) and modified by McGuire (1976). Each of these packages offers different advantages; OQ is freely distributed, code based and provides easy access to a number of tools. EZ-FRISK doesn’t rely on command-line tools and instead provides an easy user interface with quick access to plots to check results. EZ-FRISK is computationally faster than the OQ program.

A simple rectangular source model with four sites was used to investigate the degree of agreement between these two software packages. Results indicate that hazard estimates from the two packages agree to within 4% for the two closest sites. At long return periods for the two furthest sites, the difference is larger.

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