Ecological Design and Structural Optimization of Urban Green Infrastructure for Seismic Shock Absorption and Wave Energy Dissipation

Urban resilience is threatened by seismic activity, especially in rapidly urbanizing areas with infrastructure vulnerabilities that increase earthquake risk. Traditional mitigation strategies ignore natural seismic energy dissipation and focus on base isolators and reinforced structures. Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) has been extensively studied for climate adaptation, flood control, and ecological restoration, but not seismic risk reduction. Vegetation-root interactions, soil reinforcement, and terrain modifications reduce seismic waves, increase shear strength, and prevent liquefaction at lower cost and environmental impact than traditional engineering solutions. Computational modeling, field data, and case studies evaluate UGI’s earthquake mitigation. The Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Hilbert–Huang Transform (HHT) simulations show Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), Peak Ground Velocity (PGV), and spectral acceleration reductions across UGI configurations. Trees reduce PGA by 38.25% and improve soil cohesion and stability. Seismic refraction tomography and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)-based root mapping measured soil cohesion, root density, and S-wave velocity from 50 seismic events in three earthquake-prone urban areas. Experimental results show that UGI-integrated landscapes deform less and recover faster from earthquakes than impervious urban surfaces. Further research shows fault slip and dip angles affect UGI’s directionality. Optimized vegetation buffers perpendicular to strike-slip faults and deep-rooted vegetation in normal/reverse fault areas reduce wave scattering and soil instability. Urban planning case studies show UGI reduces landslides and soil erosion. This study proposes AI-driven parametric modeling to optimize UGI placement despite land and policy constraints using real-time seismic hazard assessments. It suggests green infrastructure in municipal seismic zoning and building codes. Geophysics, landscape ecology, and urban design show how nature-based earthquake mitigation can make cities seismically resilient and sustainable.