Case Study: Geoscience Australia achieves $50,000 in development cost savings and faster earthquake hazard modeling with MathWorks' MATLAB

Geoscience Australia Saves $50,000 in Development Costs by Using MATLAB

Geoscience Australia sought to better understand earthquake hazards and their impact on populated areas—especially after the 1989 Newcastle quake. Working with MathWorks, Geoscience Australia used MATLAB to develop detailed spatial earthquake-hazard and risk models for Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.

Using MathWorks’ MATLAB, GA processed large datasets, simulated roughly 12,500 earthquakes across ~13,000 sites, and evaluated damage for 6,000 buildings to produce the most detailed regional risk assessment in Australia. The MATLAB solution cut modeling time from about 20.7 hours to ~3 hours (with the JIT-Accelerator and vectorization), produced hazard results within a day, reduced code by up to 75%, and saved approximately $50,000 in development costs—findings that informed building‑code recommendations.

Geoscience Australia

David Robinson

Geophysicist for the Minerals and Geohazard Division