Main objective / mission |
This Pilot Demonstrator PD7 uses Tier-0 HPC resources to provide Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Analysis (PTHA), which quantifies the probability of exceeding a specified inundation height, as well as other hazard intensities. PTHA provides scientific guidance for tsunami risk analysis and risk management, including coastal planning and early warning. PTHA aggregates the hazard from many discrete potential scenarios considering their individual probabilities. The objective of the present pilot demonstrator is to provide explicit computation of site-specific PTHA covering a domain of a city scale, say, using a high number of earthquake tsunami source scenarios, combined with high-resolution numerical inundation modelling. The PD7 is linked to applications in the Mediterranean Sea, and uses input data from an existing regional assessment (TSUMAPS-NEAM), to form the basis for the local hazard analysis. |
Workflow description |

The employed PTHA workflow is shown above. We note that the processes carried out inside the Tier-0 system are shown inside the green box. In brief, the workflow contains the following main steps:
(1) Preparation of input data, including user specifications and data retrieval from TSUMAPS-NEAM. This includes high resolution bathymetry and topography data, hazard related thresholds, Tier-0 computational requirements, physics-related input, and data from the previous TSUMAPS-NEAM assessment.
(2) HPC workflow for the hazard analysis including high-resolution numerical tsunami simulations in the Tier-0 queue system using a Faster-Than-Real-Time (FTRT) micro-workflow, individual stability checking and removal of spurious results and data reduction algorithms for the individual out fields from the single simulation results.
(3) The aggregation of the hazard and visualisation. This is performed outside the Tier-0 system. |
PD configuration |
Test case conducted for the tsunami hazard in Catania using a total of 32363 earthquake scenarios, using a system of nested grids with 10m-spacing at the finest resolution. A complete Tsunami-HySEA tsunami simulation for Catania with the grid system presented here took approximately 25 minutes on the MARCONI-100 supercomputer at CINECA, meaning that approximately 13600 GPU hours are required to complete the set of scenarios selected. With 1024 simulations able to run in parallel, around 14 hours of clock-time are needed to perform these calculations. |
Tested architectures |
The software has been tested on four Tier-0 supercomputers: the CTE-POWER cluster in the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), DAVIDE cluster at CINECA consortium, on Marconi-100, and Piz-Daint at the Swiss National Supercomputer Center. CTE-POWER has 4 Tesla V100 cards per node, while DAVIDE has 4 Tesla P100 in each node and Piz-Daint has only 1 Tesla P100 in each node, while Marconi-100 has 4 V100 GPUs on each node. |
Target TRL |
5-6
View TRL chart
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Relevant stakeholders |
Relevant stakeholders include, but are not limited to, national and local authorities responsible for managing risks from natural hazards, the insurance and re-insurance industry, owners of industrial installations or critical coastal facilities, and researchers in geoscience and natural hazard mitigation. |
Achievements up to M18 |
The main achievement of PD7 has been to reach a landmark set of high-resolution tsunami hazard maps for Catania using a total of 32363 earthquake scenarios. Moreover, through the new PRACE project TsuHazAP, this source coverage will be greatly expanded, and will likely serve as a benchmark for other similar applications to test needs for source and model resolutions in future PTHA applications in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. |
Related work and further information |
Several peer reviewed papers reporting on this subject are in the pipeline, and we hope that they will become available in the next few weeks and months. |