A Global Earthquake Model

GEM is a public/private partnership initiated and approved by the Global Science Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD-GSF). GEM aims to be the uniform, independent standard to calculate and communicate earthquake risk worldwide. With committed backing from academia, governments, and industry, GEM will contribute to achieving profound, lasting reductions in earthquake risk worldwide.

GEM will be the critical instrument to support decisions and actions that reduce earthquake losses worldwide. All who face risk, from homeowners to governments, need accurate and transparent risk information before they will take mitigating action. By providing the information in a manner that is understandable to all users, GEM aims to raise awareness, lead to adoption and enforcement of building codes, promote seismic mitigation, and stimulate insurance use.

GEM will be the first global, open source model for seismic risk assessment at a national and regional scale, and aims to achieve broad scientific participation and independence. It will be conducted in three integrated modules: Hazard, Risk, and Socio-Economic Impact.

Below an image of current GEM activities in world perspective: 

 

The Haiti Earthquake

January 15, 2010

We would like to express our personal condolences to the Haitian people as we watch the tragedy in Haiti unfold. When one is working on the construction of a Global Earthquake Model, seeing such destruction makes the need for a risk assessment model once more painfully clear.

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Outreach Meeting 2010 in tandem with WB conference

December 16, 2009

GEM is very pleased to announce that it will hold its Outreach Meeting 2010 in tandem with the ‘Understanding Risk’ conference, that is organized by the World Bank and is supported by GFDRR and UN-ISDR. From 1-4 June 2010 both events and various side-events will take place in Washington DC, USA.

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