Seismological station placement in Vukovarsko-srijemska and Osječko-baranjska counties, Croatia: a GIS analysis of environmental noise effects for the CROSSNET project

The Republic of Croatia is a seismically highly active area and is currently insufficiently covered by seismological stations. Due to the shape of Croatia, a dense network of seismological stations is needed for more accurate determination of the magnitude and location of earthquakes. One of the main goals of the CROSSNET Project, which the Croatian Seismological Survey carries out, is to install 95 new seismological stations across the Republic of Croatia.

Selection of a site for a seismological station is a complex process that requires careful consideration of a range of factors to ensure that the station is at an optimal location for collecting accurate and reliable data on seismic activity. Field surveys will be required to verify methods used for spatial analysis. The location of the seismological station was chosen based on several factor maps, including natural and anthropogenic noise sources (such as roads, railways, energy infrastructure, industry, and surface waters), geology, and geomorphological criteria (such as slope and aspect).

This study aims to find the most appropriate locations for installing a network of seismological stations in Osječko-baranjska and Vukovarsko-srijemska counties in Croatia. It is necessary to set up seismological instruments at locations with reduced seismic noise conditions and favourable geological conditions to improve the quality of the data acquired.

Given the large scope of the project and the area it covers, an adequate approach is necessary to plan field investigations; therefore, the Suitability modeller in ESRI software ArcGIS Pro was used to evaluate locations for future field surveys. The suitability modelling identifies relevant criteria (factor maps), prepares criteria data, transforms values for each criterion to a standard suitability scale, weights criteria relative to one another according to their importance, combines the criteria into a suitability map, and finally locates the most suitable areas for field investigations.

This work has been fully supported by Next Generation EU and National Recovery and Resilience Plan under project C6.1. R4-I1.