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More than 100 individuals and a dozen local and international institutions participated in the TREQ project launch held at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Quito, Antiguo Hospital Militar, Ecuador from March 5 to 6. The Municipality of Quito hosted the event in collaboration with the GEM Foundation and USAID-OFDA, the project’s main funding partner.

The objective of the event was to officially launch the project, and to provide a space for discussion about the strengths, challenges and goals of each city in terms of understanding seismic risk and its contribution to informing disaster risk reduction policies, projects and activities, including for improved disaster response and recovery.

Representatives from the following municipalities presented and actively participated in the event:

• From Quito, Ecuador: the Office of the Mayor, Quito; Metropolitan Directorate of Risk Management (DGR) ; Escuela Politécnica Nacional (EPN); Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE); Central University of Ecuador (UCE); The Polytechnic School of the Army (ESPE), University of the Americas (UDLA), the University of San Francisco de Quito (USFQ); Metropolitan Public Company of Potable Water and Sanitation (EPMAPS); Pichincha Association of Civil Engineers (CICP); Pichincha Association of Architects (CAE); the Center of Research for Housing (CIV); and the Red Cross.
• From Cali, Colombia: The Office of the Mayor, Cali; Servicio Geológico Colombiano; Administrative Department of Municipal Planning (DAPM); and Risk Management Secretariat (SGR).

GEM’s Catalina Yepes and Alejandro Calderon facilitated the 2-day event. The first day focused on the presentations of collaborators from Ecuador and Colombia on risk management, municipal planning and current activities and projects related to TREQ. On the second day, activities focused on workplan development through parallel sessions grouped into 1) Geophysical Institutes and Geological Services 2) Municipal Offices of Planning and Risk Management and 3) Academy and industry professionals.

To learn more about the results of the workshops, an event summary is available for download .

More activities are planned in the coming weeks. For more information on TREQ, please contact us at treq@globalquakemodel.org or visit our project website at https://www.globalquakemodel.org/project/treq.