News News Briefs: March 2022 Topiqs Newsletter By: Mar 16, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn During this period, GEM scientists have also participated in various international virtual conferences and events on loss models, earthquake risk assessment, and global challenges in earthquake risk and catastrophe modelling. OpenQuake online training The training was organized by GEM’s hazard and risk teams and was held from January 31st to February 3rd as part of TREQ – a USAID-supported project that started in 2020. ASCE Lifelines Engineering Conference, Los Angeles, CA GEM participated in the event from February 7 – 11, 2022. The event, with a theme of Understanding, Improving & Operationalizing Hazard Resilience for Lifeline Systems, was organized by ASCE Infrastructure Resilience Division (IRD), in partnership with The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to commemorate 50 years of Lifeline Engineering. Conference UCR February 9⋅5:00 – 6:00pm GEM was invited to provide a conference lecture in the University of Costa Rica on the 9th of February. The lecture was entitled Seismic risk in structures, bridges and lifelines: from assessment to mitigation, and focused on introducing the fundamentals of the evaluation of seismic risk, and how its products can be used to mitigate risk in society. Successful examples from the TREQ project were presented to a wide audience that included students and professionals of civil engineering, geology and actuarial sciences. GEM-GA new agreement for the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Study for Earthquakes in the Yilgarn Project (RAMSEY) signed GEM and Geoscience Australia (GA) signed the project agreement for the new RAMSEY project that GA will be leading as a contribution to GEM. GA will be assessing the earthquake vulnerability and resilience of water, power and transportation infrastructure in Western Australia. Mark Edwards, Geoscience Australia representative to the GEM Governing Board and John Schneider, GEM Secretary General signed the RAMSEY project agreement on March 17th in Canberra, Australia. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM News Briefs September 2023 By: Sep 29, 2023 Share Facebook LinkedIn Oasis Insight Conference 2023 GEM's Secretary General, Helen Crowley, and Andres Abarca, GEM Product Manager attended the Oasis Insight Conference 2023, in partnership with the Swiss Re Institute, which took place in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 6, 2023. A significant highlight of the event was Helen's participation in a panel discussion centred on the pivotal role of Open data and Science in advancing earthquake risk assessment, particularly within the European context. Drawing from her extensive leadership experience with the European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk (EFEHR) and her current role as Secretary General of the GEM Foundation, Helen shared the critical contributions of these initiatives in curating and upholding essential data and resources for comprehensive risk assessment. OpenQuake Engine Documentation Survey results OpenQuake team is currently working to improve the existing documentation, aiming at consolidating information previously spread across separate locations. The goal is to have an effective manual that will serve as the definitive, centralised source guiding users in the use of OpenQuake. To this end we did a survey in July 2023 with funding from Google Season of Docs initiative, aimed to support the efforts to enhance GEM's OpenQuake Engine Documentation. A total of 45 respondents participated in this survey. They primarily use the OpenQuake engine for research, with self-learning being the common method of acquisition. Users access information from sources including the user manual, GitHub Repository, and OpenQuake Forum. Documentation is rated as fair to good in user-friendliness, organisation, and sufficiency/completeness. Overall, respondents are willing to participate in future surveys after the ongoing documentation improvements, which are expected to be completed by December. Looking ahead, we plan to conduct a follow-up survey to gauge the effectiveness of these enhancements and gather feedback on user satisfaction. Enhanced User Experience: GEM Website Updates GEM's website is getting an exciting makeover! Our enhanced product page is set to launch on October 13, 2023, showcasing global products including hazard, risk, exposure, country seismic risk profiles, and vulnerability models. For now, stay tuned for further updates, including details about past and upcoming events, like the Global Products release event, the previous GEM Conference: Are we making a difference, and an upcoming METIS project seminar-workshop. Explore our revamped Homepage with interactive maps and global products, along with an improved Latest Updates section and a convenient Downloadable Resources area. Don't miss out - more updates coming soon! No images found. GALLERY PXL_20230906_141803085.jpg PXL_20230906_141832426.jpg PXL_20230906_142018246.jpg PXL_20230906_141803085.jpg 1/3 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

Publications Critical Issues on Probabilistic Earthquake Loss Assessment Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2017 | Peer-reviewed Probabilistic loss modeling can be used to develop risk reduction measures, such as the identification of regions more prone to human and economic losses, or to develop financial mechanisms to transfer the earthquake risk from local governments to the private sector. This study addresses several critical issues in probabilistic loss modeling, and provides recommendations depending on the intended final use of the risk results. Modeling issues related to convergence in probabilistic event-based analysis; consideration of epistemic uncertainties within a logic tree; generation of different types of loss exceedance curves; and derivation of risk maps are thoroughly investigated. The Metropolitan Area of Lisbon is used to explore these issues, and it is demonstrated that different assumptions in the loss modeling process can lead to considerably different risk results. Furthermore, the findings and recommendations of this study are also relevant for institutions that promote the assessment of earthquake hazard and risk, such as the Global Earthquake Model Foundation.

News Passing on Knowledge: 2nd GEM–EGU Summer School on Geohazards Risk Assessment (with an active participation from the TREAD project) By: Oct 6, 2025 Sep 12, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn The University of Aveiro in Portugal hosted the second GEM–EGU Summer School on Geohazards Risk Assessment from 8-12 September 2025, bringing together 26 participants from 22 countries for an intensive week of learning, exchange, and collaboration. This year, the Summer School was organized in collaboration with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Integrated Training Network TREAD! Training the Next Generation The Summer School provided participants with training on hazard and risk analysis using open-source tools, particularly GEM’s OpenQuake Engine. Through hands-on exercises, they learned how to run earthquake scenarios, interpret results, and present findings to different stakeholders. Case studies included recent events such as the 2023 Türkiye and 2025 Myanmar earthquakes, as well as risk reduction practices from Lisbon. Beyond earthquakes, the programme explored multi-hazard risks including landslides, liquefaction, and tsunamis. Lectures and workshops were led by experts from GEM, the University of Aveiro, University College London, the University of Calabria, the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, and other institutions. Participants who successfully passed the final assessment earned an official OpenQuake Engine User for Scenario Assessment certification, valid for three years, marking a tangible step forward in their professional development. This was the first time that the GEM Foundation offered the opportunity to become a Certified User of the OpenQuake Engine; more opportunities for certification are expected to be offered in the future, also for PSHA and PSRA, and interested users can find more information on the GEM website. Building Skills and Community Interactive sessions challenged participants to apply what they had learned to real-world problems. Teams tested different modelling approaches in OpenQuake and presented strategies for reducing earthquake risk under limited budgets. These exercises highlighted the value of evidence-based decision-making and the practical application of scientific models in disaster risk reduction. Speakers also addressed risk communication and the social dimensions of resilience, reminding participants that scientific results must be translated into policies and actions that benefit communities. A Platform for Collaboration The Summer School was organised by GEM and the University of Aveiro, with support from the European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk (EFEHR) and the European Integrated Training Network TREAD. Doctoral candidates from TREAD actively contributed, underscoring the event’s role in connecting research with practice. For GEM, the programme is an investment in the next generation of disaster risk reduction professionals. By equipping young scientists and practitioners with the skills and networks to apply risk assessment tools in their home regions, the Summer School reinforces a shared commitment to resilience worldwide. As part of this effort, GEM provided travel and accommodation grants to selected participants from lower- and middle-income countries, an ongoing initiative supported through GEM’s commercial funds to strengthen capacity where resources are most limited. No images found. GALLERY 20250909_090720.jpg 20250908_153519.jpg IMG_7583.JPG 20250909_090720.jpg 1/12 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

NATIONAL SEISMIC REGULATIONS Understanding the evolution and code-compliance of seismic regulations are fundamental for the development of exposure models, for the purposes of probabilistic seismic risk modelling and development of earthquake scenarios. This database aims at sharing information about current and past design regulations for specific countries, as well as the expected enforcement, and seismic zonations associated with each regulation. This information has been compiled within the scope of GEM products, bilateral collaborations, data collected through surveys and by reviewing the literature. We provide this information to support earthquake engineers and risk modellers in the development and calibration of earthquake loss models. However, we note that this information does not replace the official regulations, maps and other resources made available by the public authorities of the respective countries. To access the seismic regulations information from each country, click on the country of interest on the global map. We organize the different design regulations according to four categories, as proposed by Crowley et al. (2021) . These categories are described below. Code level Description No code Codes that followed weak seismic provisions or no provisions at all. Some codes used allowable stresses and very low material strength values and considered predominantly the gravity loads. Low code First generation of design regulations. These codes considered the seismic action by enforcing values of the seismic coefficient (typically called a lateral force coefficient). Structural design for these codes was typically based on material specific standards that used allowable stress design or a stress-block approach. Moderate code Second generation of design regulations. These codes include modern concepts of ultimate capacity and partial safety factors (limit state design) and/or with better detailing to improve global ductility. The seismic action was also accounted for in the design by enforcing values for the lateral force coefficient. It is noted that the distinction low and moderate code is often not straightforward and varying interpretations could be made by different engineers. High code Third generation of design regulations. These codes refer to modern seismic design principles that account for capacity design and local ductility measures. We classify the enforcement level of each regulation according to five categories (from no enforcement to fully enforced), as illustrated below. Enforcement level Description A Fully enforced (100%) B Mostly enforced (75%) C Partially enforced (50%) D Poorly enforced (25%) E Not enforced (0%) Contact Us Send us your feedback or observations

Repository with the inventory of residential, commercial and industrial buildings in Central Asia Products Central Asia Exposure Repository with the inventory of residential, commercial and industrial buildings in Central Asia Share Facebook 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 the information pertaining the following countries/territories: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan How to cite this work If you make use of this work, please cite both the publication and the data. Publication: 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 Data: Yepes-Estrada, C., Calderon, A., Costa, C., Crowley, H., Rao, A., Paul, N., & Silva, V. (2026). Global Exposure Model (2026.0.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8117363. Available Versions An open version (v2026.1) of the model, agreggated 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". Facebook LinkedIn Share Latest Version v2026.0 License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Available resources Open Repository License Request text Map View Search Popup title Close Country/Region Available Resources Afghanistan Exposure Africa Exposure Alaska Exposure Country/Region Available Resources Afghanistan Vulnerability Africa Vulnerability Alaska Vulnerability Country/Region Resource Url Afghanistan Risk Profile Africa Risk Profile Alaska Risk Profile Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Afghanistan Exposure Africa Exposure Alaska Exposure Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Afghanistan Vulnerability Africa Vulnerability Alaska Vulnerability Preview Preview is not available. Search Found Country/Region Resource Url Afghanistan Risk Profile Africa Risk Profile Alaska Risk Profile Preview Preview is not available. Related products GEM Building Taxonomy Global Seismic Embodied Carbon Risk Global Seismic Hazard Map Global Liquefaction Hazard Global Exposure Model Global Vulnerability Model Global Map of Road Exposure to Ground Shaking and Liquefaction Global Seismic Risk Map Country-Territory Seismic Risk Profiles 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.

Publications A summary of hazard datasets and guidelines supported by the Global Earthquake Model during the first implementation phase Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2015 | Peer-reviewed The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) initiative promotes open, transparent and collaborative science aimed at the assessment of earthquake risk and its reduction worldwide. During the first implementation phase (2009-2014) GEM sponsored five projects aimed at the creation of global datasets and guidelines toward the creation of open, transparent and, as far as possible, homogeneous hazard input models. These projects concentrated on the following global databases and models: an instrumental catalogue, a historical earthquake archive and catalogue, a geodetic strain rate model, a database of active faults, and set of ground motion prediction equations. This paper describes the main outcomes of these projects illustrating some initial applications as well as challenges in the creation of hazard models.

License Request Form You have chosen to get more information about: Global EarthquakE ScEnarios (GEESE) Hazard Please check the link below to see if this product already meets your your requirements before submitting your request for a license. Thank you. DOWNLOAD THE OPEN VERSION Summary of steps to obtain a license for the requested product. Fill in the application form below. Click Submit. Please check your email Inbox or Spam folder for the summary of your request. You will then be contacted by the GEM Product Manager with either a request for more information, or a request to sign the license. If you do not hear from us within 2 weeks, please send an email to product@globalquakemodel.org . REQUEST DETAILS A. Requesting party information First Name Last Name Role/Job Email Business type Business type Other business Sector Sector Other sector B. License agreement signatory information The signatory must be someone who is authorised to sign license agreements on your behalf such as your immediate supervisor, manager or legal officer. If you’re a PhD student, the signatory must be your adviser or a university officer in charge of license agreements or similar legal documents. Full Name of Signatory Position Company Email of Signatory Organisation name Complete Address C. Purpose of request GEM is able to offer products for free because of the support of our project partners, national collaborators and institutional sponsors. All of GEM’s products are freely available for public good, non-commercial use, but with different license restrictions. In most cases we release products under an open license (e.g., CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA), which permits (re)distribution. In this case, we are granting access under a more restricted license that forbids distribution or disclosure and requires signing by GEM and the licensee in order to better assure accountability for the confidentiality of the information. In order for GEM to properly assess your request, please answer the following questions below. 1. Explain briefly how will the GEM product be used e.g. project, research including the expected results and the foreseen public benefit. Minimum 60 words. 2. Will you be able to share the results of your work with GEM? YES NO 3. Will you be able to provide feedback to GEM on the quality and usefulness of this product via a survey? YES NO D. Privacy Policy By submitting this form, you consent to the processing of your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are committed to safeguarding your information and ensuring it is only used for the purpose outlined in this form. You have the right to access, rectify, or delete your data at any time. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. I agree Words: 0 Email us at product@globalquakemodel.org if you're experiencing problems submitting your application. Thank you. Submit Thanks for submitting! You will be contacted as soon as possible Incomplete data. Please fill in all required fields. Thank you.

License Request Form You have chosen to get more information about: OpenQuake Engine All Please check the link below to see if this product already meets your your requirements before submitting your request for a license. Thank you. DOWNLOAD THE OPEN VERSION Summary of steps to obtain a license for the requested product. Fill in the application form below. Click Submit. Please check your email Inbox or Spam folder for the summary of your request. You will then be contacted by the GEM Product Manager with either a request for more information, or a request to sign the license. If you do not hear from us within 2 weeks, please send an email to product@globalquakemodel.org . REQUEST DETAILS A. Requesting party information First Name Last Name Role/Job Email Business type Business type Other business Sector Sector Other sector B. License agreement signatory information The signatory must be someone who is authorised to sign license agreements on your behalf such as your immediate supervisor, manager or legal officer. If you’re a PhD student, the signatory must be your adviser or a university officer in charge of license agreements or similar legal documents. Full Name of Signatory Position Company Email of Signatory Organisation name Complete Address C. Purpose of request GEM is able to offer products for free because of the support of our project partners, national collaborators and institutional sponsors. All of GEM’s products are freely available for public good, non-commercial use, but with different license restrictions. In most cases we release products under an open license (e.g., CC BY-SA or CC BY-NC-SA), which permits (re)distribution. In this case, we are granting access under a more restricted license that forbids distribution or disclosure and requires signing by GEM and the licensee in order to better assure accountability for the confidentiality of the information. In order for GEM to properly assess your request, please answer the following questions below. 1. Explain briefly how will the GEM product be used e.g. project, research including the expected results and the foreseen public benefit. Minimum 60 words. 2. Will you be able to share the results of your work with GEM? YES NO 3. Will you be able to provide feedback to GEM on the quality and usefulness of this product via a survey? YES NO D. Privacy Policy By submitting this form, you consent to the processing of your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). We are committed to safeguarding your information and ensuring it is only used for the purpose outlined in this form. You have the right to access, rectify, or delete your data at any time. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. I agree Words: 0 Email us at product@globalquakemodel.org if you're experiencing problems submitting your application. Thank you. Submit Thanks for submitting! You will be contacted as soon as possible Incomplete data. Please fill in all required fields. Thank you.

News 100 Resilient Cities CoLab Workshop in Cali, Colombia By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook 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