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The Global Earthquake Model Foundation (GEM) participated in the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering. This year’s theme is Resilience, the new challenge in earthquake engineering. The event, which is held every four years, attracted hundreds of seismic scientists as well as earthquake engineers from various parts of the world.

The conference was held in Santiago, Chile from January 9-13, 2017.GEM scientists and engineers presented the following:- Estimation of social vulnerability to seismic risk in South America to promote resilient cities- Earthquake risk for South America: results from the 3-year South America Risk Assessment (SARA) project supported by SwissRe- New capabilities of the of the OpenQuake engine for earthquake risk assessment- Risk Modeler’s Toolkit for seismic vulnerability- OQ capabilities for modeling in-slab subduction earthquakes in Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA)The conference covered comprehensive topics ranging from new trends in resiliency research to empirical/analytical models on deformation-capacity of unreinforced masonry elements, to seismic evaluation of high-rise buildings.

The conference culminated with study tours and technical visits.This year’s conference was organized by The Chilean Association of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering, ACHISINA. The group was created in 1963 as a consequence of the Mw 9.5 earthquake that occurred in southern Chile in 1960, and the interest of an outstanding group of national engineers and seismologists.