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GEM participated in the inaugural meeting of the EFEHR consortium held virtually on September 10, 2020. The inaugural meeting deliberated the current status and next steps toward the final release of the 2020 European Seismic Hazard and Risk Models. Several other GEM scientists who have been supporting the development of the risk model also participated.

“As an Observer member of the consortium and as a global institution, GEM is able to support the mission of EFEHR by providing the OpenQuake Engine and accompanying databases and libraries, and by providing technical assistance in developing advanced hazard and risk models for Europe. GEM’s role is also as an interface between the European scientific community and public and private organizations worldwide that have an interest in earthquake hazard and risk models and the earthquake hazard/risk research community in Europe.” John Schneider, GEM Secretary General.

GEM has provided expert input into the new Seismic Risk Model for Europe, and the analysis software developed and maintained by GEM – OpenQuake – has been a cornerstone for this regional work.

The Consortium is expected to help bring European organizations together to coordinate earthquake hazard and risk research and its applications. The GFZ in partnership with ETH has worked together in bringing this collaboration into fruition.

The Consortium also benefits from the involvement of a number of organizations that, in addition to GEM, play an observer role in the General Assembly: these currently include the European Association for Earthquake Engineering (EAEE), European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology (ORFEUS), and European Seismological Commission (ESC).

European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk or EFEHR is a non-profit network of organizations and community resources aimed at advancing earthquake hazard and risk assessment in the European-Mediterranean area. EFEHR supports local and national efforts in one of the three service domains in the Thematic Core Service (TCS) Seismology within the European Plate Observatory System (EPOS). The two others are ORFEUS (waveform services) and CSEM-EMSC (seismological products services).

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