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The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation marked the 15th anniversary of the OpenQuake Engine with a global webinar held on 13 October 2025, aligning the event with the United Nations International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR). The webinar reflected the 2025 IDDRR theme, “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters”, which emphasises the importance of investing in forward-looking, science-based approaches to reducing disaster losses.

The event brought together 130 participants from 45 countries, underlining the global reach of the OpenQuake community. The webinar featured a presentation by Anirudh Rao, author of the paper underpinning the event, who reviewed the evolution of the OpenQuake Engine from its early development into a widely used open-source framework supporting seismic hazard and risk assessment in both research and operational contexts. His presentation outlined how the Engine has expanded over time to support a growing range of applications, while maintaining transparent and reproducible scientific workflows.

The session opened with a recorded contribution from Jenty Kirsch-Wood, Head of Global Risk Management and Reporting at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Her remarks framed the discussion within the objectives of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction and highlighted the role of evidence-based tools in guiding resilience-focused investment decisions. A video recording of the full event, including the opening remarks and panel discussion, is available on GEM’s website.

https://www.globalquakemodel.org/gemevents/oq-engine-15-iddrr2025

The webinar was moderated by Prof. Iain Stewart, University of Plymouth-UK, and featured a panel discussion with GEM scientists closely involved in the development and use of the OpenQuake Engine, including Catalina Yepes Estrada and Kirsty Bayliss. The discussion reflected on lessons learned from 15 years of open development, the challenges of maintaining scalable and reliable risk models, and the role of open-source tools in supporting disaster risk reduction across different national and regional contexts.

External perspectives were provided by Chung-Han Chan, Deputy Director of the E-DREaM Centre at National Central University in Taiwan, and Ana Beatriz Acevedo, Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at EAFIT University in Colombia.

The webinar was built around the recently published paper “Evolution of the OpenQuake Engine: Enhanced Capabilities, Collaborative Development, and Global Adoption”, published in Earthquake Spectra by Anirudh Rao and co-authors. The discussion linked the evolution and global adoption of the OpenQuake Engine to the 2025 IDDRR theme, highlighting how open, science-based risk models can support more informed investment decisions and contribute to reducing disaster losses over the long term.

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