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The Japan and New Zealand Catastrophes
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As you have surely noticed, the February issue of this bi-monthly newsletter did not come out at the end of February/start of March as customary. Indeed, the earthquakes that hit New Zealand and then Japan generated such an outpour of reports and bulk-emailing that we felt it wiser to engage in a period of reflection. These events showed us that we need to learn more about the earth and its behaviour, and how the latter impacts us humans. Global knowledge sharing and collaboration is now conspicuously more important than ever. We need to compare notes, discuss methods and test models together. We need to have (more of) Japan’s excellent scientists involved in GEM, just as much as experts and practitioners from Chile, New Zealand, the US and China, to name only a few countries. If you have not seen it already, you may find here the statement that GEM released in the immediate aftermath of these two earthquakes.
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6-9 June GEM Annual Outreach Meeting in Beijing
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From 6-9 June, GEM is bringing together collaborators and key stakeholders in Beijing, the People's Republic of China, to carry out focused discussions on all issues relevant to GEM's past, ongoing and future activities. The 2011 edition of GEM's Outreach Meeting is co-hosted by the China Earthquake Administration and will, in addition to demonstrating where GEM currently stands, feature sessions on risk assessment in the PRC, on the recent disastrous events and their implications for GEM, on socio-economic impact and much more. Technical and dedicated regional meetings will precede the plenary sessions. Invitations will be sent in the next few days - more information from next week on our website.
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Technical Meetings London
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Technical meetings on Testing & Evaluation (T&E), Macroseismic Intensity, Financial Modelling and OpenQuake Development were held from 28 February - 2 March in London, hosted by Willis. The main goal of the T&E meeting was to discuss the possible agenda and technical activities for the T&E component of GEM. After defining what was understood with testing, verification and validation in the context of GEM, thematic sessions followed on the seismic rate model, the prediction of ground motions and hazard, and on the possibilities for testing OpenGEM's risk component. The OpenQuake Development meeting reviewed the progress of the open source OpenQuake project, as well as current capabilities and future plans. In order to discuss how Macroseismic Intensity could be best handled within GEM, constructive debate took place, leading to the formulation of possible activities plan, mentioned further below in this newsletter. The Financial Modelling meeting gathered stakeholders and experts to discuss financial modeling both for the public and private sector, identifying a number of issues that will be the object of further scrutiny in the weeks and months to come. Minutes and all presentations of the meeting can be found here.
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SEI proposals
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Three high-quality proposals were received in response to the RfP for the development of proposals for methods (tools, indicators) for assessment of the impact of seismic events, that was released by GEM after the customary public commentary process. These proposals are now undergoing the typically thorough peer-review process that characterises GEM proposal selection procedure, leading to a likely selection in May, to be announced here and on the website.
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Site Effects RfP
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An important source of variability in seismic shaking arises from site effects and GEM has therefore decided to introduce a new Hazard Global Component on Site Effects. A Request for Proposals is likely to be released in May for international consortia to respond to, but in the meantime we invite you all to provide feedback on the draft version of such RfP, currently posted on our website. Do follow this link to download the draft RfP and submit your comments.
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| Macroseismic Intensity: Call for EOI |
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As mentioned above, GEM is currently exploring possible paths for carrying out macroseismic intensity related activities. As such, it has just released a call for Expressions of Interest on a number of possible tasks on this topic. Please visit the dedicated webpage for more information on these tentatively envisaged tasks, and for the instructions for expressing interest.
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| Global Risk Modelling Initiative |
Over the past few months, GEM has been receiving requests from other scientific communities for feedback and collaboration on the deployment of GEM-like participatory open risk modelling initiatives for perils other than earthquakes. We do believe that the GEM model can and should be exported (not expanded) to other disciplines, perhaps in this way leading to the creation of a global collaborative science-driven multi-hazard risk modelling movement, which, as the recent events in Japan have dramatically shown, could hardly be more timely. Discussions with consortia/associations representing different scientific communities are ongoing, as well as with different international organisations, with a view to assist the former, in collaboration with the latter, in the startup of such efforts, possibly taking advantage of GEM's cumulated experience and common areas of actvities. Stay tuned...
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Meetings Overview
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| Many GEM-related meetings were held in the first months of the year and a number are planned for the weeks to come. In addition, a number of representatives are actively presenting GEM in conferences and gatherings around the globe, as customary. See the online calendar for further information, and find an overview of all meetings below: |
| Recent Meetings |
- 13 January Africa Regional Programme Meeting, Johannesburg, South Africa
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- 19-20 January IDCT (GC Risk - Data Capture) Kick-Off Meeting, London, UK
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- 20 January GVEM (GC Risk - Vulnerability) Kick-Off Meeting I, Boulder, USA
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| - 1-3 February Joint SHARE-EMME-EMCA-GEM Meeting, Zurich, Switzerland |
- 17-18 February GEMECD (GC Risk - Consequences) Kick-Off Meeting, Golden, USA
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| - 28 Feb - 2 March Technical Meetings, London, UK |
| - 3-4 March O&T GEM Taxonomy Workshop, UC Berkeley, USA |
| - 31 March-2 April EMME Mid-Term Assembly, Amman, Jordan |
| - 5-6 April UN/ISDR workshop on Science & Technology, Pavia, Italy |
- 7-8 April GVEM (GC Risk - Vulnerability) Kick-Off Meeting II, London, UK
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Future Meetings
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- 2-4 May Regional Workshop for GEM in the Caribbean, Port of Spain, Trinidad
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| - 23-24 May NERA/GEM European Building Inventory Workshop, Pavia, Italy |
- 26-27 May Regional Workshop for GEM in North-Africa, Rabat, Morocco
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- 6-9 June GEM Annual Outreach Meeting, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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| - 14-15 June First Central Asia Regional Meeting [EMCA] |
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