A Correlation Study of Building Monetary Loss with Seismic Demands through Insurance Claims Analyses of 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

Correlation of building damage with ground motion parameters has been studied by many researchers using analytical modelling. This paper presents a correlation study using observational data consisting of ground motion recording and insurance claim data from the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. Considering both ground motion parameters and structural demand parameters, through statistical analysis, this study evaluates the capability of various parameters in predicting building damage. It is shown that while no single parameter consistently stands out, Arias Intensity (IA) and spectral acceleration at periods close to the fundamental period of structures correlate well with building damage for all regression methods and goodness-of-fit measures used.