# Converter

Shakemaps are useful for carrying out contingency planning for the event of an earthquake. Normally these are distributed as grid.xml files which are not usable in InaSAFE or QGIS. This tool will import a grid.xml file as a GEOTIFF file from where it can be used within InaSAFE.

Two different interpolation algorithms can be used during the import process - `Nearest Neighbour` and `Inverse Distance`. After the conversion, the tool automatically creates InaSAFE keyword metadata for the layer so that it can be used immediately for analysis.

Converter

To use this tool effectively:

> - Select a grid.xml for the input layer.
> - Choose where to write the output layer to.
> - Choose the interpolation algorithm that should be used when converting the xml grid to a raster. If unsure keep the default.

You can obtain shake data for free from the USGS shakemap site.

If you download the grid file, you should right-click on it and choose Save as in order to ensure that it is saved properly. OSX and Linux users may also consider using command line tools to fetch the grid file:

OSX:

    curl -O http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/global/shake/<shake id>/download/grid.xml

Linux:

    wget -C http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/shakemap/global/shake/<shake id>/download/grid.xml

Note

Replace the <shake id> in the commands above with the actual shake id.