News News Briefs: October - December 2025 By: Dec 16, 2025 Dec 18, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn The GEM Foundation continues to expand its global outreach through active participation in international conferences, training workshops, and governance meetings. These engagements highlight GEM's ongoing efforts to advance seismic risk reduction, strengthen collaboration with key global partners, and contribute to the development of innovative risk assessment tools. In this section, we bring you the latest updates from GEM’s involvement in these various events. GEM joins Overture Maps Foundation The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation became a contributing member of the Overture Maps Foundation on 7 November 2025, following the acceptance of its application. Overture Maps Foundation is a collaborative initiative that brings together organisations to develop and maintain open, interoperable global map datasets, including building and infrastructure data. As a non-profit member, GEM will participate in Overture’s working groups and task forces, supporting collaboration on global building datasets relevant to seismic exposure modelling. The membership aligns with GEM’s ongoing work to improve the quality, consistency and transparency of global exposure data used in seismic risk assessment. Through this engagement, GEM aims to contribute to and benefit from shared efforts to advance open geospatial data for risk-informed decision-making. PHIVOLCS becomes first information partner for GEM Learning Centre The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation has received formal consent from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) to feature publicly available information from its official website on GEM’s forthcoming Learning Centre. The Philippines will serve as one of the pilot country pages for the Learning Centre, which is being developed as a web-based educational platform to share earthquake science, hazard information, preparedness resources and examples of disaster risk reduction practice. PHIVOLCS will be acknowledged as an information and contribution partner, with all materials properly cited and linked to their original sources. The collaboration marks an initial step in GEM’s plans to expand accessible, science-based learning resources for diverse audiences. First OpenQuake Engine certifications awarded The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation has issued the first OpenQuake Engine certifications, marking the launch of a new accreditation initiative linked to structured OpenQuake training. The certification page went live on 10 October 2025, providing a dedicated platform for issuing and verifying credentials. Certificates were awarded on 12 September 2025 to 17 participants who successfully completed the Scenario Analysis course at the GEM–EGU Summer School on GeoHazards Risk, held from 8 to 12 September 2025 at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Each certificate is issued with a unique, verifiable URL, allowing participants to reference their certification directly, including on professional profiles such as LinkedIn. The initiative supports GEM’s efforts to recognise technical competence in the use of OpenQuake tools and to promote consistent and transparent application of seismic hazard and risk methodologies. OpenQuake training delivered at EDF/CEA GEM staff delivered an OpenQuake training at EDF/CEA Training in Aix-en-Provence, France, supporting capacity building in seismic hazard and risk assessment. The training was led by Marco Pagani, Head of Seismic Hazards, Michele Simionato, Senior Software Developer, and Christopher Brooks, Seismic Hazard Scientist, who introduced participants to OpenQuake methodologies and workflows relevant to hazard and risk analysis. The activity forms part of GEM’s ongoing engagement with technical and institutional partners to support the application of open, science-based tools in operational contexts. GEM expertise shared at IAEA workshop on seismic hazard assessment GEM participated in the IAEA International Workshop on Seismic Hazard Assessment of Nuclear Installation Sites in Low Seismicity Regions, held in Brussels, Belgium, from 4 to 7 November 2025. The workshop brought together experts to discuss approaches and challenges in assessing seismic hazard for nuclear facilities in regions of low to moderate seismicity. GEM was represented by Marco Pagani, Head of Seismic Hazards, and Manuela Villani, Senior Seismic Hazard Scientist, who contributed to technical discussions during the training meeting organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency. EPOS Seismology and Geo-INQUIRE Workshop 2025 GEM participated in the EPOS Seismology and Geo-INQUIRE Workshop 2025: From Big and Novel Datasets to AI for Frontier Seismological Science and Services, held from 24 to 27 November 2025 at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. The workshop focused on the use of large and emerging datasets, including artificial intelligence methods, to advance seismological science and services. GEM was represented by Lana Todorović, Liquefaction and Landslide Modeller, and Vitor Silva, Head of Risk Engineering, who took part in discussions on data-driven approaches and their application to seismic hazard and risk assessment. The workshop was co-organised by EFEHR, ORFEUS and EMSC, with support from the Geo-INQUIRE project. GEM’s exposure modelling expertise featured at EU Science for Preparedness Conference GEM participated in the EU Science for Preparedness Conference, held in Turin, Italy, from 4 to 6 November 2025. The conference brought together experts from science, policy and crisis-response communities to examine how evidence-based knowledge can strengthen Europe’s capacity to anticipate and respond to disasters. Organised by the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) and the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC) of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the event featured sessions on early-warning systems, impact modelling, exposure mapping and resilience planning. GEM was represented by Marco Baiguera, Exposure Analyst, who contributed to a session on the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) by presenting GEM’s exposure modelling activities and their relevance for exposure mapping and risk-informed decision-making. Exposure modelling for global risk assessment presented at Human Planet Forum 2025 GEM participated in the Human Planet Forum 2025, held at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, which brought together scientists, policymakers, UN agencies and practitioners to examine how open geospatial data can support disaster risk reduction, sustainability and societal resilience. Marco Baiguera, Exposure Analyst at GEM, presented how Earth observation datasets are being integrated into GEM’s exposure modelling to support seismic risk assessment. His presentation highlighted recent improvements in estimating building characteristics, increasing the spatial detail of exposure models, and developing scenarios of how populations and structures may evolve over time. A recording of the presentation is available via the event webcast, starting at 15:15:29. https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/geo-human-planet-forum-2025-25-11-20 Shake-table demonstration at EUCENTRE attended by GEM staff GEM staff took part in a technical shake-table demonstration at EUCENTRE, illustrating how buildings respond to strong ground shaking under different structural configurations. The demonstration used EUCENTRE’s six-degree-of-freedom shake table, with a payload capacity of 30 tonnes, to reproduce motions from the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw 7.7) in Taiwan. The exercise highlighted how engineering design choices influence structural behaviour during earthquakes and reinforced the importance of accurate modelling, robust standards and informed decision-making for public safety. The demonstration also provided practical insight into the link between ground motion characteristics and structural response, supporting GEM’s ongoing work in seismic risk assessment and resilience. ## No images found. GALLERY 1761651862070.jfif 1761651862707.jfif IMG_1394.HEIC 1761651862070.jfif 1/39 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

You have chosen to request a demo on: Global EarthquakE ScEnarios (GEESE) First Name Last Name Email Company or Institution Name Country Sector Provide Details I accept the license terms and the conditions of products use. Email us at product@globalquakemodel.org if you're experiencing problems submitting this form or if you have any inquiries. Thank you. Request Thanks for submitting! You will be contacted as soon as possible Add answer here

News Disaster Risk Reduction: The role of geological survey organizations (GSOs) in understanding risk and informing risk reduction actions By: Apr 11, 2023 Share Facebook LinkedIn Disaster Risk Reduction: The role of geological survey organizations (GSOs) in understanding risk and informing risk reduction actions The online forum, divided into three sessions held on February 6th (Enablers), February 13th (Science and Technology) and February 20th (Risk Management Goal), aimed at providing a high-level overview of the role of GSOs in disaster risk reduction, including strategies, awareness of and advocacy on hazards and risks, financial risk management, building codes, and early warning systems. The virtual event, organized by the World Community of Geological Surveys, NRCan, GEM Foundation and GNS New Zealand, was attended by more than 532 individuals from 97 countries. Keynote topics included an introduction to GSOs in Disaster Risk Reduction by Sahar Safaie (Sage On Earth Consulting); the Global tsunami early warning program and its cross-jurisdiction approach by Denis Chang Seng (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission); The evolution of earthquake building codes and recommended approaches for advancing building codes by Tunar Onur (Onur Seemann Consulting); and an Overview of the Global Earthquake Model and the lessons learned about partnerships at local, national, regional and global level by John Schneider (GEM Foundation). John’s presentation focused on GEM’s achievements built upon collaborations and partnerships at different geographic scales: Local - TREQ project to develop capacity for urban earthquake hazard and risk assessment in Quito, Santiago and Cali); Country - (national seismic risk model for Canada, earthquake risk assessment and retrofit scenarios for Türkiye and earthquake hazard model for the Philippines; Regional - European seismic hazard and risk model; and Global - global earthquake hazard and risk model. John emphasized that these multi-level engagements were guided by GEM principles (openness, credibility, collaboration and public good), and international drivers such as the Sendai Framework Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. Two questions highlighted the Q&A portion of the GEM session: 1) why aren't risk models used every five years to audit whether progress is being made in risk reduction by measuring and reporting expected economic damages and casualties?, and 2) how might GEM’s exposure database be used in other applications such as for the risk assessments of other hazards or in post-disaster impact assessments? For the first question, John expressed that it’s an area the GEM ought to be striving to be able to do. He added that over short time periods, it's quite difficult to do and explained that “I think it’s possible to monitor things like changes in building stock, look at earthquakes that are happening historically, and compare over different time scales in different countries”. John further added, “I think we're getting to a point where this is becoming more possible - not only for earthquakes but also for other hazards - as we evolve our capabilities, as we get better at measuring risk and collecting the data. We will be able to use modeling tools together with observations to do exactly that in the future”. For the second question, John answered that GEM’s global exposure database can be used for other perils because it’s hazard agnostic. He explained that the database contains information about the fundamental properties of residential, commercial and industrial buildings, construction practices, economic data and other variables that can be used for exposure modelling for climate change, floods, storms and other natural hazards. To watch all the presentations and recordings, please visit the American Geosciences Institute YouTube channel . No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM Launches New Public Sponsorship Scheme to Strengthen Public Engagement By: Apr 5, 2025 Mar 12, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn In December 2024, the GEM Governing Board approved a new public sponsorship scheme aimed at increasing public sector involvement in the foundation’s governance. This refreshed approach broadens the range of public institutions that can join GEM’s Governing Board as Public Governors, reflecting GEM's commitment to balanced public and private representation within its Board. "The new scheme is a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration with public institutions globally," said Helen Crowley, GEM Secretary General. "We want to encourage more public sector partners to join us in advancing earthquake risk reduction efforts worldwide." To support this goal, the new scheme is structured to accommodate different levels of involvement through three sponsorship tiers, all of which provide full involvement in strategic initiatives and project support, but are designed to suit different levels of engagement and resources. Two of these tiers involve financial contributions, while the third offers a pathway through the new Partnership Opportunity Application. Open to all public institutions, this tier follows a competitive selection process based on the merits of the institution's strategic alignment with GEM’s mission and contributions to earthquake risk reduction efforts, with the objective of engaging with more countries, especially those in the Global South. To ensure that public institutions are well-informed about the new scheme and the application process, GEM launched a campaign to reach a broader audience. GEM’s Get Involved page was updated to outline the scheme and explain how public institutions can apply for the Public Governor role under the new pathway. Following this, GEM scheduled a webinar on April 10th, 2025 to further discuss these changes and officially launch the call for applications to the merit-based tier. Through this initiative, GEM aims to enhance its outreach to public sector partners while reinforcing its commitment to balanced governance. Public institutions interested in applying are encouraged to visit GEM’s Get Involved page and participate in the upcoming webinar for further guidance. To gain a deeper understanding of the initiative and its potential impact, Helen shares the vision behind the new sponsorship scheme, its financial sustainability, and the benefits for public institutions looking to get involved in this Q&A. No images found. GALLERY 1/3 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News A promising start for the USAID-GEM TREQ Project: Public, private, academia and industry professionals joined the launch in Quito, Ecuador By: Mar 17, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn 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. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

Terms of use All of GEM’s products are freely available for public good, non-commercial use, but they may have different license restrictions. Open and free distribution of data, models, and tools remains at the core of GEM’s work, further enhancing their availability and accessibility. Share Facebook LinkedIn Thank you for your interest in GEM products and services! GEM’s products and services are provided by the GEM Foundation. Profits or income derived from commercial sales of products or services are used to fund GEM’s core programs, with an emphasis on providing support to developing countries. Core programs include advancing capabilities in earthquake and multi-hazard risk, pioneering scientific risk assessment methods, and expanding risk and resilience applications to downstream users. These Terms of Use ('Terms') would like to provide you with a ‘how-to’ guide for accessing and using GEM’s website, products, and services ('Products'). Please read the various sections of these Terms carefully, and contact us if you have any questions. GEM releases software, datasets and models under open licenses as follows: Software, AGPL The software license used by GEM, the GNU AGPL, allows users to use the software for any purpose, including commercial purposes, without having to request a specific permission and without needing to become active supporters of our projects. The AGPL does restrict (re)distribution and integration of the software - in particular it is not permitted to link AGPL software with closed-source software systems, even if this linkage is performed via a network. Users are permitted to modify AGPL software, however, users must remember to release any derived/modified versions openly under the terms of the AGPL. In essence, this means that GEM software must remain open and cannot be made into closed products without permission. Data and Models The Creative Commons licenses applied to our creative contents, datasets and models, allow users to freely use and modify (by making derivative works) our products and require that the authorship of GEM Foundation is always correctly attributed and in some cases impose some additional restrictions on use. GEM models and datasets are distributed with either the CC BY-SA license which allows commercial use or the CC BY-NC-SA license which prohibits commercial use. Both are Share-Alike licenses; this means that the product and any modified or derived products may only be (re)distributed under the terms of the same license. In essence, this means that GEM models that are released openly must remain open and cannot be made into closed products without permission. Licensing of products developed by Third Parties If a third party has developed a model or data set used by GEM, GEM must have an agreement in place in order to distribute or incorporate them into other products. GEM has received permission from all contributors of national and regional hazard models to release the outputs of the hazard models in the global hazard map. In terms of the models themselves, the permissions are generally CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA, or a public license with no restrictions on use. The vulnerability and exposure data used for the risk models are generally GEM’s IP (Intellectual Property) or are publicly available through the external organisations that own the datasets. In addition, regardless of public licenses, GEM will not value-add or distribute a third-party model without the permission (e.g., license or collaborative agreement) of the third party.

News OQ Engine used in a nuclear SHA project By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn It is well acknowledged that some facilities, such as the nuclear ones, require particular caution when it comes to the calculation of levels of ground motion to be used for design and risk assessment. In other words, the calculation process for an area selected to host nuclear facilities should comply with some specific requirements in terms of Quality Assurance, along the same line of what is achieved in the model building process through the application of the procedure proposed by the SSHAC (Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee that developed SSHAC guidelines which can be used in the development of PSHA input models or in PSHA studies). Taking as a case study the Thyspunt site in South Africa, where Eskom is planning to build some nuclear power plants, a group of scientists including two members of the GEM hazard team proposed a procedure based on the use of the OpenQuake Engine guaranteeing that minimum quality levels in the calculation of hazard are met. They carried out a study to verify the original logic tree calculations and to compare them against the ones obtained with a different software and an independent implementation. After a wide range of tests, the OQ Engine was able to effectively mimic calculations performed by the previous software proving the reproducibility of original calculations and the consistency between its results and the ones computed with the initial software. The result, besides being an international validation of the OpenQuake-engine, represents an interesting contribution in the field of nuclear applications. It demonstrates quality and effectiveness of the testing process adopted by the development team in the implementation of hazard models as well as in the implementation of the software itself. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News OpenQuake stakeholder survey: second round By: Sep 21, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn We are happy to announce the second round of GEM’s OpenQuake stakeholder survey. We have revised and adjusted the questions based on the initial results and responses. We are hoping that the improved survey questionnaire will make the process better for the second batch of respondents. The survey invitation will be released on and will run for three weeks. Watch this space for future updates. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

You have chosen to request a demo on: New Zealand Hazard First Name Last Name Email Company or Institution Name Country Sector Provide Details I accept the license terms and the conditions of products use. Email us at product@globalquakemodel.org if you're experiencing problems submitting this form or if you have any inquiries. Thank you. Request Thanks for submitting! You will be contacted as soon as possible Add answer here

News GEM and 100RC partnership to boost earthquake resilience By: Mar 1, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn Cities at risk to earthquakes are expected to directly benefit from the partnership between GEM and 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC), which is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic shocks and stresses of the 21st century. (source: http://www.100resilientcities.org) The agreement signed in August provides an opportunity for 100RC member cities to understand and address their earthquake risk by working with GEM to incorporate earthquake risk reduction in their resilience strategies and capturing lessons learned to inform other cities. The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) will partner with motivated cities to build their capacity for long-term risk mitigation planning using GEM’s open source OpenQuake software and GEM’s other tools and services. “Our partnership with the 100RC is a great opportunity to share GEM’s open tools, data and technical expertise at the city level. Working together with 100RC is an important step toward achieving GEM’s vision of a world that is resilient to earthquakes.” John Schneider, GEM Secretary General. Cities will receive an ‘Earthquake Risk Thumbnail’, a report providing OpenQuake maps of the city’s or region’s seismic risk comprised of the hazard, and the physical, social and economic risk to the exposed assets and population. 'Thumbnail’ report will propose options for deeper engagement which may include collaboration on data collection, raining local city staff or partners to use GEM’s products and tools, and stakeholder engagement workshops including the Resilience Performance Scorecard (RPS) exercise. Rebecca Laberenne, Associate Director on the Solution Development and Innovation Team at 100RC, underscores the value of partnering with GEM saying, "We are delighted to have GEM Foundation as a 100RC Platform Partner to provide much needed information and technical advice to cities whose buildings and infrastructure are at risk to earthquakes. GEM's approach to collaboration and technical assistance will be very welcomed by cities to gain an understanding of their risks, as well as to assist in identifying appropriate and cost-effective mitigation and risk reduction measures as part of their resilience strategies." No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS