Exposure Database: Consortium

The consortium comprises some of the major players in the definition, population and management of global databases, either in the field of risk analysis or for other related fields. It includes two institutes of the Chinese Earthquake Administration, the Institute for Earthquake Science and the Institute of Geophysics, the Centre for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of the Columbia University, developer of the well-known GRUMP and GPW databases, the Global Urban Observatory of UN-HABITAT, which coordinates all activities pertaining to the production of reliable and up-todate urban indicators at regional, country and city levels for UN, ImageCat Inc., a US-based company that has been working for long time on use of remotely sensed and in situ data for earthquake exposure and loss computation, while the US Geological Survey (USGS), owner and developer of the PAGER system, will work as an advisory partner, as will the Eucentre. The partners will be coordinated by the University of Pavia, which has decadal experience in global urban remote sensing.