UN's Margareta Wahlström in Pavia

Inspiring presentations and discussions took place on GEM, risk modelling, research and training in seismic risk and many other related issues when Margareta Wahlström, currently the Assistant Secretary‐General for Disaster Risk Reduction of the United Nations, paid a visit to the Eucentre, where the secretariat of the GEM Foundation is hosted.

After an opening speech of Eucentre's director Michele Calvi and a presentation of Wahlström on her mandate and current activities, in the afternoon of her visit to Pavia, Rui Pinho presented GEM to Wahlström and some of her collaborators of the UN/ISDR.

Wahlström acknowledged the importance of GEM and getting the scientific and professional community around the world involved in the building of a consensus model and innovative tools for seismic risk assessment. She underlined that communicating risk clearly and involving users in all regions is essential for the years to come, so that they will understand and value what GEM's platform has to offer them.

Discussions were furthermore held on a.o. the collaborative development of GEM, the inclusion of a Socio-Economic Impact module, the use of GEM for disaster risk mitigation and how to support use of the model, but also on the possible exportation of GEM models and assessment platform to other fields of natural hazards, such as floods.

The UN/ISDR [United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction] is one of GEM's partners and sits as a non-voting member on GEM's Governing Board.