About GEM

Over half a million people died in the last decade due to earthquakes, most of these in the developing world, where risk is increasing due to rapid population growth and urbanisation. Recent earthquakes (Haiti, Japan, New Zealand) painfully reminded the world of the destructive impact of seismic events and the importance of the availability of reliable earthquake risk information.

However, in many earthquake-prone regions no risk models exist to provide such information, and even where models do exist, they are often inaccessible, due to their proprietary nature or complex user-interface. Also there are no agreed global standards for risk assessment, which are critical for effective and unambiguous communication of seismic risk.

Reliable, uniform and consistent risk estimates for the entire globe constitute critical input for increasing risk awareness and the undertaking of mitigating action. Such information is an essential puzzle-piece for minimizing loss of life, property damage and social and economic disruption due to earthquakes, by supporting decisions and actions that may lead to better building codes and construction, land use planning for sustainable development, improved emergency response, protection of critical infrastructures and greater access to insurance.

There is a need for this type of information to become accessible to a wide spectrum of organisations and individuals around the globe. In response to this need, the GEM initiative aims to establish uniform, open standards to calculate and communicate earthquake risk worldwide, by developing a global, state-of-the-art and dynamic earthquake risk model together with the community and ensuring it has understandable interfaces and tools for GEM’s multitude of stakeholders.

Read how the GEM initiative would like to achieve the above, by consulting the pages about GEM's mission and vision, strategy, main features, its organisation and partners, and about how you can become involved in this collaborative effort. 

You can also..

look at all those involved worldwide			watch an introductionary video

And.. download GEM's 2009/2010 Report or GEM's 2-page summary. Click here for more information about sponsoring GEM.

* Note: these may also be obtained in printed version; please send us an email if you would like to receive copies).