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

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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

News GEM marks 15 years of the OpenQuake Engine during UN disaster risk reduction day By: Dec 16, 2025 Oct 13, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation marked the 15th anniversary of the OpenQuake Engine with a global webinar held on 13 October 2025, aligning the event with the United Nations International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDRR). The webinar reflected the 2025 IDDRR theme, “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters”, which emphasises the importance of investing in forward-looking, science-based approaches to reducing disaster losses. The event brought together 130 participants from 45 countries, underlining the global reach of the OpenQuake community. The webinar featured a presentation by Anirudh Rao, author of the paper underpinning the event, who reviewed the evolution of the OpenQuake Engine from its early development into a widely used open-source framework supporting seismic hazard and risk assessment in both research and operational contexts. His presentation outlined how the Engine has expanded over time to support a growing range of applications, while maintaining transparent and reproducible scientific workflows. The session opened with a recorded contribution from Jenty Kirsch-Wood, Head of Global Risk Management and Reporting at the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). Her remarks framed the discussion within the objectives of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction and highlighted the role of evidence-based tools in guiding resilience-focused investment decisions. A video recording of the full event, including the opening remarks and panel discussion, is available on GEM’s website. https://www.globalquakemodel.org/gemevents/oq-engine-15-iddrr2025 The webinar was moderated by Prof. Iain Stewart, University of Plymouth-UK, and featured a panel discussion with GEM scientists closely involved in the development and use of the OpenQuake Engine, including Catalina Yepes Estrada and Kirsty Bayliss. The discussion reflected on lessons learned from 15 years of open development, the challenges of maintaining scalable and reliable risk models, and the role of open-source tools in supporting disaster risk reduction across different national and regional contexts. External perspectives were provided by Chung-Han Chan, Deputy Director of the E-DREaM Centre at National Central University in Taiwan, and Ana Beatriz Acevedo, Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at EAFIT University in Colombia. Han described how OpenQuake has supported collaboration across disciplines and applications, noting that “from the beginning of the Taiwan Earthquake Model, we chose to work closely using the OpenQuake Engine because it allows hazard scientists and risk modellers to work together using a common framework.” Ana highlighted the importance of usability and real data for training and practice, saying that “OpenQuake makes a difference because it allows us to work with real data and to show how changes in hazard, exposure or vulnerability affect the results.” The webinar was built around the recently published paper “Evolution of the OpenQuake Engine: Enhanced Capabilities, Collaborative Development, and Global Adoption”, published in Earthquake Spectra by Anirudh Rao and co-authors. The discussion linked the evolution and global adoption of the OpenQuake Engine to the 2025 IDDRR theme, highlighting how open, science-based risk models can support more informed investment decisions and contribute to reducing disaster losses over the long term. ## No images found. GALLERY Screenshot 2025-10-13 161805.png Screenshot 2025-10-13 154722.png Screenshot 2025-10-13 153319.png Screenshot 2025-10-13 161805.png 1/15 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM tools well-received in Risk Workshop By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn With capacity building and technology transfer as part of the GEM Foundation's four key strategic priorities, it was heartening to see the enthusiastic and positive response to a range of improvements in both technology and training material at the annual Risk Training Workshop in Pavia in late October, 2015.In a full and intense programme, the GEM Risk Team, led by Vitor Silva, introduced guest speakers from our collaborative partner organisations to inspire participants with practical applications of the GEM tools. For instance, Julia Schaefer explained how our products have been applied by Hannover Re in insurance loss modelling; Barbara Borzi demonstrated how the EUCENTRE uses them for earthquake loss estimation and Surya Shrestha, from Nepal's National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), presented their potential applications in post-earthquake recovery. With over 30 participants from around the world, attendees had the chance to not only test the new tools in action, but also to apply them with their own local data in the practical aspects of the training. In a novel approach to post-training support, the Risk Team has developed video materials as an adjunct to the existing technical manuals, to reinforce and refresh the learning once the participants return home. Additionally, discussion with participants has paved the way for further collaborative efforts, with Indonesia, Iran, South Africa and Australia expressing interest in starting or expanding partnerships which will lead to better understanding of earthquake risk and its integration into disaster risk reduction (DRR) planning. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS