News 100 Resilient Cities CoLab Workshop in Cali, Colombia By: ​ ​ Jul 2, 2018 ​ Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn ​ 100 Resilient Cities – pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation (100RC), held a collaborative workshop (CoLab) in Cali, Colombia from 20-22 February on the resilience of school infrastructure. Cali is located in the southwestern part of the country and is Colombia’s third largest city, with a metropolitan population of about 2-1/2 million people. Cali is at very high at risk from earthquake, as well as flood and landslide hazards. John Schneider, GEM Secretary General was invited to attend the CoLab workshop on behalf of GEM as a prospective partner in 100RC, potentially to work with Cali and other cities in the 100RC network to improve understanding of earthquake risks. He said “the 100RC CoLab workshop was a great way to meet 100RC partners, city officials and other stakeholders committed to developing resilient cities, and to see how reducing risks to disasters such as earthquakes can play an important part in the process.” The CoLab was attended by about 50 people, the majority from the Municipality of Cali (Mayor’s office as well as departments of education, risk management, and planning), and the remainder from the 100RC team (led by Vivian Argueta Bernal, Cali Chief Resilience Officer), together with international partners including AIR Worldwide (Alvaro Farias); International Code Council (Alberto Herrera); Build Change (Anna Pavan); Geohazards International (Janise Rodgers); and World Bank (Fernando Ramirez and Fred Krimgold). The workshop focused on Cali’s ambitious USD 170 million dollar program called “My Community, My School” which seeks to improve the quality of Cali’s public educational system. The aim is to fund improvements to about 150 schools over the next several years, including improving physical infrastructure (e.g., new construction and seismic retrofit), as well as making qualitative improvements in school programs. Some of the key discussion points in the workshop were to consider how to design (or redesign) schools to be centers of their local communities, to be safe and sustainable, and to be the foundations for a resilient Cali. Cali Mayor Maurice Armitage said, “Cuando hablo de resiliencia, que es una palabra rara en Colombia, me refiero a buscar que esos colegios que estamos remodelando o que estamos construyendo se conviertan en los establecimientos donde la gente se puede refugiar." (When I speak of resilience, which is a rare word in Colombia, I mean to look for those schools that we are remodeling or that we are building to become the establishments where people can take refuge.)(Source: http://www.cali.gov.co/resiliencia/publicaciones/139149/colab-es-una-gran-oportunidad-para-invertir-de-manera-resiliente-en-educacion-armitage/ ) The workshop promoted interaction between local and international experts to exchange ideas about the design of safe and sustainable schools, and the importance of schools as part of a resilient community. The workshop also produced a set of recommendations for projects for consideration by the Mayor as part of a master plan for the development and maintenance of the school system. As part of the visit to Cali, John also met with Hans Jürgen Meyer and Cristina Rosales of Corporación OSSO, a non-profit and public-good organization based in Cali and devoted to natural hazard and risk research and applications to society. OSSO works closely with the Department of Planning in Cali to develop flood, earthquake and landslide hazard maps. GEM is now assisting OSSO to use the OpenQuake suite of tools for earthquake hazard and risk assessment, which has resulted in a pilot study of earthquake risk in Cali. OSSO has also contributed improvements to GEM’s IDC tools, including a Spanish version of the mobile app. GEM looks forward to working with OSSO in the future on urban risk assessment issues. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

Project Name Products Central Asia Exposure Repository with the inventory of residential, commercial and industrial buildings in Central Asia Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Description The Global Exposure Model is a mosaic of local and regional models with information regarding the residential, commercial, and industrial building stock at the smallest available administrative division of each country and includes details about the number of buildings, number of occupants, vulnerability characteristics, average built-up area, and average replacement cost. The dataset is developed and maintained by the GEM Foundation, using a bottom-up approach at the global scale, using national statistics, socio-economic data, and local datasets. This model allows the identification of the most common types of construction worldwide, regions with large fractions of informal construction, and areas prone to natural disasters with a high concentration of population and building stock. The Central Asia region of the model includes information pertaining to the following countries/territories: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. How to cite this work Yepes-Estrada, C., Calderon, A., Costa, C., Crowley, H., Dabbeek, J., Hoyos, M., Martins, L., Paul, N., Rao, A., Silva, V. (2023). Global Building Exposure Model for Earthquake Risk Assessment. Earthquake Spectra. doi:10.1177/87552930231194048 Available Versions An open version (v2023.1) of the model, aggregated at Administrative Level 1, is available for direct download under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Users interested in this version can click the "Open Repository" button in the right panel to access the information. The full version for any country/territory, at the highest resolution available, can be requested by clicking on the "License Request", where a specific license will be provided, depending on the use case. License information The open version is available under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, which requires: *Attribution (you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made) *Non-commercial (you may not use the material for commercial purposes) *ShareAlike (derivatives created must be made available under the same license as the original) Any deviation from these terms incur in license infringement. For commercial use of the model, a specific license agreement must be made tailored to your use case, in such instance please click on "License Request". Share License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Available resources Open Repository License Request Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn text Map View Search Popup title Close Country/Region Available Resources Country/Region Available Resources Country/Region Resource Url Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Related products Global Exposure Model Global Vulnerability Model Global Seismic Risk Map Country-Territory Seismic Risk Profiles Global Seismic Hazard Map Related publications For downloading or accessing detailed product information like PNG/PDF maps, datasets, license request, shapefiles and more, please switch to a desktop or laptop computer. Thank you for your understanding.

News GEM: helping reduce earthquake infrastructure damage through science #BuildToLast By: ​ ​ Oct 7, 2019 ​ Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn ​ Earthquakes are the number one cause of fatalities due to natural hazards from 1998-2017 -- with the majority caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2010 Haiti earthquakes -- and the number two cause in terms of economic losses, second only to storms. (CRED-UNISDR 2018) During that period, earthquakes caused more than half (56%) of the 1.3 million fatalities and cost USD 661 billion or 23% of the USD 2.9 trillion reported economic losses. (CRED-UNISDR 2018) Majority of the fatalities and injuries from earthquakes are due to building collapse attributed to poorly constructed buildings, lack of adherence to land-use zoning and building codes. The limited knowledge and understanding of citizens regarding the risks and mitigation measures around disasters could have also contributed to less demand for accountability. (Why Do People Die in Earthquakes? - Kenny, 2009) We cannot build a sustainable future with these monumental numbers. But as daunting as they might seem, they are not insurmountable and solutions are available. What can we do to address this? This year’s International Day for DRR theme is ‘Build to Last’, which is Target D of the Sendai Framework: to reduce disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services. GEM believes that by better understanding earthquake risk, and developing the capacity of disaster risk reduction stakeholders, we can significantly reduce fatalities, injuries and economic losses from disaster damage through open risk data sharing; the use and promotion of transparent risk assessment tools; adherence to scientific methodologies; inclusiveness and participation; and putting the interest of the public to the fore. John Schneider, GEM Secretary General explains, “Earthquakes might be few and far in between, but when they strike the consequences are of epic proportions.” He adds that since 2009, GEM has been at the forefront of developing open analysis tools, global databases, models at various scales, and capacities of DRR scholars and practitioners to combat the damaging effects of earthquakes to human lives, infrastructure and economy. The importance of understanding seismic hazard The first global seismic hazard model was created within the Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) at the end of the 1990's (Giardini et al., 1999). It represented a substantial improvement in our understanding of earthquake hazard globally and offered essential information for the design of buildings and land-use planning to many countries. (GAR, 2019) Almost twenty years later, GEM in collaboration with several organisations and projects released a new compilation of probabilistic seismic hazard models called the GEM earthquake hazard mosaic of earthquake hazard models created either at national or regional (i.e. continental) scale. (GAR, 2019) Marco Pagani, GEM Hazard Team Coordinator explains how GEM’s Global Earthquake Hazard model can be used to help improve resilience to earthquakes. “Many of the models contained in this collection are already used at national level to update building codes and compute risk at national level. Overall, this compilation of models provides a summary of the best science currently applied to the assessment of seismic hazard across the world at national and regional levels.” The importance of understanding seismic risk The calculation of earthquake risk requires a robust earthquake hazard model that defines where, how often and how severely earthquakes will strike in the future; an exposure model (building stock); and vulnerability and fragility functions (likelihood of damage to buildings). Vitor Silva, GEM Risk Team Coordinator says, "GEM’s Global Earthquake Risk model can be used to support decision-makers in the identification of regions that are prone to higher and more frequent earthquake-induced hazards and losses, to distinguish construction types that have high vulnerability, and to devise strategies for effective risk mitigation." To further complicate the problem, in terms of risk reduction, earthquakes pose a particular set of problems for countries in seismically active areas. ‘Return periods’ are long and unpredictable, so low mortality in the recent past is not an indicator of future earthquake risk. (Economic Losses, Poverty and Disasters 1998-2017 - CRED-UNISDR, 2018) A sustainable future This is the reason why risk-informed development planning in earthquake-prone areas cannot be overemphasized. The unpredictability of earthquakes combined with their damaging and deadly effects hinder sustainable development, creation of jobs and availability of funds for poverty reduction initiatives. Understanding risk is a prerequisite for a sustainable future. Mami Mizutori, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction says, “If it’s not risk informed, it’s not sustainable; and if it’s not sustainable it has a human cost.” To help achieve this year’s DRR Day theme, GEM has compiled in the Related Content sidebar several links to GEM’s products useful for developing disaster risk reduction management strategies. No images found. GALLERY 1/8 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS #BuildToLast useful resources (links) For the general public Global Maps (Hazard, Risk and Exposure) Africa Maps (Hazard, Risk and Exposure) Country Risk Profiles For scientists, researchers and modelers OpenQuake (entire suite) - engine, platform, toolkits, user guides Africa Model (datasets) Glossary for GEM Taxonomy website Building Classification Survey website Publications GAR Global Earthquake Model paper/article Guidelines for Analytical Vulnerability Assessment Low/Mid Rise Guidelines for component-based analytical vulnerability assessment of buildings and non-structural elements Guidelines for empirical vulnerability assessment Introduction to GEM earthquake consequences database OpenQuake Platform (vulnerability, fragility, exposure databases)

Project Name Products Global Vulnerability Model Sets of functions to assess the consequences of earthquakes on the built environment of the world Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Description The Global Vulnerability Model (v2023.1) consists of a set of functions that estimate the consequences of earthquakes of a given intensity to different building typologies. This model includes curves to assess economic losses, divided into structural, non-structural and content losses, as well as estimates of fatalities. The database is separated by region-country/territory and considers functions for over 3500 building typologies identified in the Global Exposure Model developed, curated and maintained by the GEM Foundation. The fragility functions are derived analytically, using non-linear time-history analyses on equivalent single-degree-of-freedom oscillators and a large set of ground motion records representing several tectonic environments. The entire database is available for direct download under a CC BY-NC-SA license for risk modelers, analysts and researchers to perform seismic risk assessment on their portfolios. How to cite this work Martins L., Silva V. (2023), Global Vulnerability Model of the GEM Foundation, GitHub. https://github.com/gem/global_vulnerability_model/ DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8391742 Available Versions The entire database is available as individual XML files for each country, for direct download under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. Users interested in this product can click the "Open Version Download" button in the right panel to access the information. If your use case does not meet the open license requirement (i.e. commercial use is intended), please submit a request in our system by clicking on the "License Request", where a specific license will be provided, depending on the use case. License information The open version is available under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, which requires: *Attribution (you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made) *Non-commercial (you may not use the material for commercial purposes) *ShareAlike (derivatives created must be made available under the same license as the original) Any deviation from these terms incur in license infringement. For commercial use of the dataset, a specific license agreement must be made tailored to your use case, in such instance please click on "License Request". Share License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Available resources Access Dataset Documentation License Request Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn By selecting a region in the global map below, a table will appear with the region, country, or territory for which GEM currently has vulnerability models. You can also use the Search box to find a specific country or territory's vulnerability model. Map View Search Popup title Close Country/Region Available Resources Country/Region Available Resources Country/Region Resource Url Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Related products OpenQuake Engine Global Seismic Hazard Map Global Exposure Model Country-Territory Seismic Risk Profiles Global Seismic Risk Map Related publications For downloading or accessing detailed product information like PNG/PDF maps, datasets, license request, shapefiles and more, please switch to a desktop or laptop computer. Thank you for your understanding.

Project Name Products Caribbean & Central America Hazard OpenQuake engine input model to perform hazard calculations for the Caribbean & Central America Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn Description The original model covering the Central America and the Caribbean region (v2018.0.0) was initially developed in the framework of the CCARA project, a GEM collaboration project funded by USAID. Cuba and Puerto Rico were included a posteriori by the GEM hazard team. During the CCARA project and after it, some local organizations and experts were involved and this model benefits from it: University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica - Costa Rican Institute of Electricity, Costa Rica - Nicaraguan Institute of Territorial Studies, Nicaragua - Catholic University of El Salvador, El Salvador - Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, El Salvador - Panama University, Panama, Puerto Rico Seismic Network, Puerto Rico, National Center for Seismological Research, Cuba. The model was built as a combination of a shallow model, where active faults and distributed seismicity sources were integrated, and a subduction model, divided into its main components (i.e. interface and in-slab). The interface seismicity was modelled using complex faults, while for the in-slab region, the typology of source preferred was the non-parametric source. Since the original version, several significant updates have been made to the model by the GEM hazard team, leading to the latest release (v2019.1.0), which was used in the computation of the 2023 Global Earthquake Hazard and Risk Maps. Differences in the versions can be consulted in the model documentation. How to cite this work A publication on the model is currently in preparation Available Versions An open version (v2018.0.0) is available for direct download under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. Users interested in this version can click the "Open Version Download" button in the right panel to access the information. The latest version (v2019.1.0) developed by GEM can be requested by clicking on the "License Request", where a specific license will be provided, depending on the use case. Differences in the versions can be consulted in the model documentation. License information The open version is available under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license, which requires: *Attribution (you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made) *ShareAlike (derivatives created must be made available under the same license as the original) Any deviation from these terms incur in license infringement. In such instance please click on "License Request". Share License CC BY-SA 4.0 Available resources Open Version Download Documentation License Request Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn text Map View Search Popup title Close Country/Region Available Resources Country/Region Available Resources Country/Region Resource Url Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Preview Preview is not available. Related products Global Exposure Model Global Vulnerability Model Global Seismic Risk Map Country-Territory Seismic Risk Profiles Global Seismic Hazard Map Related publications Exposure forecasting for seismic risk estimation: Application to Costa Rica Read More Probabilistic Seismic Risk Assessment for Costa Rica. Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, . Read More For downloading or accessing detailed product information like PNG/PDF maps, datasets, license request, shapefiles and more, please switch to a desktop or laptop computer. Thank you for your understanding.

News Round up of GEM activities and participation in recent events (July - August) By: ​ ​ Jul 2, 2018 ​ Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn ​ During the last two months, GEM participated in various meetings across the globe. Here’s a list of GEM’s participation in some notable gatherings: GEM meets Community Safety Branch - Geoscience Australia in Canberra (July 25) GEM represented by John Schneider met with Geoscience Australia (GA) Community Safety Branch to discuss issues associated with earthquake hazard and risk modeling and to explore areas of mutual interest for potential collaboration. GA is currently completing a new national earthquake hazard model for Australia and has provided assistance to the Government of Indonesia in developing a new national earthquake hazard model for Indonesia using OpenQuake. John also travelled to Perth Australia with Mark Edwards and Maruf Rahman to meet Western Australia Department of Fire and Emergency Services together with lifeline system (transportation, electric power and water distribution) providers as part of a new collaborative project on earthquake vulnerability and risk to lifelines in Western Australia. GEM participates in US earthquake risk reduction discussion in London (July 7) GEM represented by Vitor Silva participates in discussion panel on earthquake risk model for the United States at Lloyds of London with RMS, AIR Worldwide, EPICentre UCL, Imperial College and Aon Benfield. The meeting held on July 7 in London was attended by around 160 participants. The panel discussion provided an opportunity for GEM to highlight the work recently completed by GEM, and funded by the California Seismic Safety Commission, on GEM’s OpenQuake risk model for the United States, which includes latest earthquake hazard model for California (UCERF3) as part of the USGS 2014 national hazard model. GEM meets FM Global in Boston (July 24) In Boston, USA GEM, represented by Marco Pagani, meets with FM Global to discuss global hazard modelling and the OpenQuake engine. The focus of the discussions was on FM Global’s contribution to the development of a global earthquake fault database. GEM at earthquake symposium in Lenzburg, Switzerland (5-7 September) Marco Pagani delivered an invited presentation on earthquake hazard modeling in Europe at the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment Workshop in Lenzburg, Switzerland. The workshop was convened by GEM sponsor ETH to review the state of the art and define future directions for earthquake hazard research in Europe. The workshop was attended by 150 leading experts on Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) from around the globe. GEM at OASIS Modelling Conference in London (4-5 September) John Schneider was a guest at the first annual conference of the OASIS Loss Modellng Framework. OASIS is a consortium of organisations with common interests in developing and applying natural catastrophe risk models to insurance risk issues. About 200 model developers, users and risk management professionals attended the conference. GEM global databases and OpenQuake modeling tools featured prominently in presentations and discussions of earthquake risk modeling developments and applications. Many participants expressed interest in having GEM risk models accessible through the OASIS platform. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM Foundation Awarded Grant by Google Season of Docs Project By: ​ ​ Dec 14, 2023 Nov 21, 2023 Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn ​ November 21, 2023. The GEM Foundation was selected to participate in the Google Season of Docs (GSoD) 2023 program in June, securing funds to hire a technical writer to streamline the documentation of the OpenQuake Engine. This initiative aims to consolidate fragmented documentation into a unified website, enhancing accessibility for both novice and experienced users. Despite the widespread adoption and substantial impact of the OpenQuake Engine within the earthquake science and engineering community over the past decade, certain aspects, particularly documentation, have faced challenges. With a small team of fewer than 30 employees, only a few solely dedicated to engine development, documentation varied across multiple platforms, including GitHub repositories, HTML documents, video tutorials, and PDF explanations. The primary objective of this documentation project was to restructure and unify all existing information into a cohesive site. Following other popular open-source documentation examples, the GEM Foundation reorganised the documentation, which is now available live at docs.openquake.org/oq-engine-new/master/manual/ . To gauge user satisfaction with the engine documentation, a survey was conducted among OpenQuake users before the project initiation in June. Results revealed that while most users were aware of the engine users’ manual, awareness about the advanced users’ manual and underlying seismic hazard and risk analysis books was limited. By centralising all resources into a single website, GEM aims to address these awareness gaps among users. A follow-up survey was distributed in November to evaluate the impact of the improvements on user satisfaction and to gauge the effectiveness of the revamped documentation. In the initial survey, the perception score on user experience was 3.27, while the updated documentation received an overall score of 4.13, indicating a comparative improvement of 26%, slightly below the 30% target. The user experience satisfaction is expected to further improve in the coming months as changes and enhancements are finalised, also thanks to contributions from the USAID - Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance-supported Forecasting and Communicating Earthquake Hazard and Risk (FORCE) Project and a collaboration with the European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk (EFEHR) . No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM renews its commitment to help achieve the goals of the Sendai Framework by 2030 By: ​ ​ Jul 31, 2019 ​ Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn ​ The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation has renewed its Sendai Framework Voluntary Commitment (VC) to increase earthquake risk understanding and resilience globally. Under the Sendai Framework VC, GEM is committed to continue developing, communicating and facilitating the use of earthquake hazard, risk and social vulnerability tools and information to contribute to the achievement of the four priorities of action of the UNDRR’s Sendai Framework by 2030 . The Voluntary Commitments initiative, was developed in response to the UN General Assembly resolution 68/211 (2013) and launched in the lead-up to the World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) in March 2015 to support the development of partnerships at all levels to implement the Sendai Framework. GEM made its first commitment during the WCDRR in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. UNDRR has established an online platform as a mechanism to mobilize, monitor and take stock of commitments from multi-stakeholders for the implementation of the Sendai Framework until 2030. Since its launch in December 2018, a number of stakeholders have already showcased their efforts to build resilient societies by publishing and monitoring Voluntary Commitments (VCs) in support of the implementation of the Sendai Framework through the SFVC online platform. To learn more on how to participate in this initiative, visit https://sendaicommitments.unisdr.org . No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Spanish language is now supported in IDCT Android data collection tool courtesy of Corporación OSSO Colombia By: ​ ​ Jun 27, 2018 ​ Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn ​ Corporación OSSO Colombia released the IDCT Android data collection tool with Spanish language support on 30th March. Through the generous contribution and support of Corporación OSSO, it is now possible to collect building inventory data by selecting Spanish terms from the form interface and to view help pages in Spanish. (Read Spanish version below) The app can be installed on Android phones and tablets via Google Play (link). The source code is available from GitHub. Users test the Android app in 2014 The GEM Android data collection tool was first released in 2014 as part of GEM’s objective to develop a suite of open-source software and protocols to support participatory population of a global exposure database (GED) of structural information. This tool allows users of Android tablets and smartphones to collect information about individual buildings for use in seismic or multi-hazard risk assessment. The tool was tested in Greece, Italy, UK, USA and Kyrgyzstan.The creation of this tool required the collaboration of many professionals and involved 11 international organizations. ------------------------------------- Espanol ahora puede elegirse como lengua en los ajustes de la herramienta IDCT Android data collection, gracias a Corporación OSSO Colombia El 30 de Marzo, Corporación OSSO Colombia lanzó la herramienta IDCT Android data collection con posibilidad de elegir el idioma Español en los ajustes. Gracias a la grande contribución y al apoyo de la Corporación OSSO, ahora es posible coleccionar información sobre edificios en el inventario seleccionando términos en Español del interfaz, así como ver paginas de ayuda. La aplicación se puede instalar en teléfono Android y tabletas mediante Google Play (link). El código fuente se encuentra en Github. La herramienta GEM Android data collection se lanzó en 2014 en el marco del objetivo de GEM de desarrollar un conjunto de software de código abierto y protocolos para apoyar la población participativa de una base de datos de exposición global (GED) de datos estructurales. Esta herramienta les permite a los usuarios de tabletas y smartphones Android coleccionar información sobre cada edificio para ser utilizadas en la evaluación del riesgo sísmico o del multi-riesgo . La herramienta fue puesta a prueba en Grecia, Italia, Reino Unido, EEUU y Kirguistán. La creación de esta herramienta vio la colaboración de muchos profesionales y involucró a 11 organizaciones internacionales. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM partners with Nasdaq and AIR Worldwide to provide earthquake risk models to the financial risk management sector By: ​ ​ Jul 25, 2020 ​ Share Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn A Nasdaq banner welcomes GEM in Times Square, New York, USA. GEM is pleased to announce its partnerships with Nasdaq and AIR Worldwide, which are expected to pave the way for GEM Foundation’s seismic hazard and risk models to become available via the Nasdaq Risk Modelling for Catastrophes and AIR Touchstone platforms. GEM’s OpenQuake models will be rendered into their respective OASIS LMF format, an open-source format developed by OASIS LMF, and Touchstone format using AIR’s Model Builder. The resulting models will support financial risk analysis including (re)insurance portfolios. Nasdaq and AIR will act as non-exclusive distributors of GEM models to their customers. This is the first time GEM, a non-profit Foundation specializing in seismic hazard and risk assessment, will partner with external risk model platform providers to market and demonstrate models for end user evaluation and distribute licenses for the purpose of modelling catastrophe risk. However, all models will be freely available in OQ for non-commercial, public-good use, and revenue from these partnerships will be used to maintain models and support activities in developing countries. GEM Secretary General, John Schneider, explains GEM’s role in the private and public sector with the signing of its respective agreements with Nasdaq and AIR and emphasizes the Foundation’s interest in diversifying its approach to make the latest risk information as accessible as possible to a broad range of stakeholders. “Fundamental to GEM’s success is the maintenance of the public-private partnership which is at the core of the Foundation’s governance and operational model. Making GEM models available via Nasdaq and AIR platforms can broaden our stakeholder reach and diversify how GEM models can be accessed. We are optimistic that this move will usher in a new chapter in GEM’s pursuit to reduce earthquake risk worldwide.” Nasdaq Risk Modelling for Catastrophes - powered by - enables insurers, reinsurers, brokers and corporates to unlock access to a broad range of catastrophe risk models from multiple vendors through a single service, increasing ease of model accessibility and strengthening risk management programs. Matthew Jones, Head of Catastrophe Risk Product at Nasdaq, said “This agreement means that we can now start providing GEM’s risk models on our service, filling essential gaps in the ability to assess earthquake risk globally. The industry wants choice and GEM is the 10th model developer to join the Nasdaq catastrophe risk modelling community, offering firms the strategic benefits of utilizing industry standards and Software as a Service, including ease of access to a wide choice of models and cost efficiency.” AIR Worldwide is a risk modeling and data analytics company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with customers in insurance, reinsurance, financial services, and government markets. AIR’s Touchstone platform enables real-time decision-making that helps companies to make more informed underwriting, pricing, and risk management decisions; compare different views of risk; investigate the sensitivity of model assumptions; and satisfy regulatory reporting requirements. Jay Guin, Executive Vice President of AIR and Chief Research Officer, says, “This is a milestone for GEM. AIR has been a long-time sponsor of GEM and we are happy to be part of this new journey through AIR’s Touchstone platform. Model Builder enables clients to access additional views of risk while leveraging Touchstone’s financial module, scalability and performance capabilities. We will continue to support GEM’s efforts to promote openly available and accessible risk information.” Click the linked texts for more on and . No images found. GALLERY 1/2 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS