Developing an Internet oriented platform for earthquake engineering application and Web-based virtual reality simulation system for seismic hazards: Towards disaster mitigation in metropolises

This paper reviews the state of the art on risk communication to the public, with an emphasis on simulation of seismic hazards using VRML. Rapid growth computer technologies, especially the Internet provide human beings new measures to deal with engineering and social problems which were hard to solve in traditional ways. This paper presents a prototype of an application platform based on the Internet using VR (Virtual Reality) for civil engineering considering building an information system of risk communication for seismic hazards and at the moment in the case of bridge structure.