Earthquake loss models support disaster risk management decisions, including building retrofit programmes, emergency planning and insurance. Their reliability depends on testing and refining them against observations from past earthquakes, including data collected during field missions.

Organised by EEFIT and SECED Young Members, this webinar featured Vitor Silva, Head of Risk Engineering, and Anirudh Rao, Senior Seismic Risk Modeller at the GEM Foundation. The presentations explored how GEM datasets and models can help teams prepare for field missions, and how observations gathered in the field can improve probabilistic earthquake risk assessments.

Examples included a World Bank project in Türkiye and findings from the February 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. The discussion examined how observed building performance can reveal differences between model assumptions and actual construction practices, helping researchers revise exposure models. It also covered the use of damage observations to calibrate vulnerability models and the contribution of field data to improving estimates of earthquake shaking and losses.

The webinar concluded with questions and discussion on connecting field reconnaissance with risk modelling to support disaster preparedness and risk reduction.