An empirical model for the vertical-to-horizontal spectral ratios for Italy

This work presents a novel empirical Ground Motion prediction Model (GMM) for vertical-to-horizontal (VH) response spectral amplitudes up to 10 s, peak ground acceleration and velocity for shallow crustal earthquakes in Italy. Being calibrated on the most up-to-date strong motion dataset for Italian crustal earthquakes (ITA18), the model is consistent with the ITA18 GMM for the horizontal ground motion. This property makes the model useful in probabilistic seismic hazard assessment for Italy to derive compatible vertical and horizontal response spectra. To account for the increase of VH ratios in the proximity of the seismic source, an adjustment term is introduced to improve the prediction capability of the model in near-source conditions, relying on the worldwide NEar-Source Strong motion dataset (NESS). The proposed model uses a simple functional form restricted to a limited number of predictor variables, namely, magnitude, source-to-site distance, focal mechanism, and site effects, and the variability associated with both VH and V models is provided.