Earthquake Model of the Middle East Region (EMME)

The EMME project is focused on improving assessment of earthquake hazard, the associated risk in terms of structural damages, casualties and economic losses, and at the evaluation of the effects of relevant mitigation measures in the Middle East region, in concert with the aims and tools of GEM. The Project started in April 2009 and will end in March 2013.

EMME is jointly directed by Prof. Giardini, SED/ETH Zurich, and by Prof. Erdik, KOERI Istanbul. Main institutions involved are: ETHZ (Switzerland), KOERI, METU, SAU (Turkey), IIEES (Iran), CUT, METU/NCC (Cyprus), YU (Jordan), NDMA, PIDE (Pakistan), AUB (Lebanon), AECS (Syria), IIT (India), ACNET (Georgia), ANAS (Azerbaijan), SCI (Armenia).

The EMME project encompasses several workpackages: Earthquake Catalog (WP1), Seismic Sources (WP2), GMPEs (WP3) Risk (WP4), City Scenarios (WP5), Socio-Economic Impact (WP6), IT & Model Building (WP7). The methodologies and software developments within the context of EMME will be made compatible with GEM. EMME will cooperate also with other regional projects in the Euro-Mediterranean area (SHARE) and India.

Current Developments

• As of October 2010, in the framework of WP1 (Earthquake Catalog) activities, a seismic catalogue for the entire region has been compiled and currently homogenization and declustering activities are in progress.  
• As for WP2 (Seismic Sources) preliminary versions of seismic sources data and active fault maps have been created and will be discussed in November 2010. Next steps will be the determination of a seismic source model and associated parameters.
• Possible methodologies and procedures for GMPE modeling have been discussed and WP3 partners took part in a training course on ground motion. Partners are currently studying GMPE derivation and will evaluate and discuss these and further steps in November 2010.
• After a training workshop on the risk assessment software that is to be used, in WP4 (Seismic Risk Assessment) existing studies are currently being evaluated, a building taxonomy of the region is being formatted and regional building inventories compilation is in progress. 
• WP5 aims to implement the outputs of WP1-4 on a city scale and two calls for proposals were released. Following the eavluation process three cities have been selected: Mashad (Iran), Zarqa (Jordan) and Karachi ( Pakistan). This number is expected to increase as additional cities will submit proposals by the end of the second call. 
• Being a regional programme of GEM, coordination with GEM and related projects as SHARE is of great importance. Interaction and information exchange are ongoing between the related work groups of these projects. 
• The EMME Mid-term Assembly will be held on 31.3-2.4 2011, in Amman, Jordan with the participation of the entire EMME group. Participation from other related projects is anticipated.

Website: www.emme-gem.org