News Vitor Silva et al. receive the 2020 Outstanding Paper Award for Development of a Global Seismic Risk Model from Earthquake Engineering Research Institute By: Dec 13, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn The paper which describes the Global Earthquake Hazard and Risk maps released by GEM in December 2018, was a result of a long and extensive collaboration with local, national, regional and international institutions worldwide. Download link: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F8755293019899953 Authors: Vitor Silva, Desmond Amo-Oduro, Alejandro Calderon Carpio, Catarina Costa, Jamal Dabbeek, Venetia Despotaki, Luis Martins, Marco Pagani, Anirudh Rao, Michele Simionato, Daniele Viganò, Catalina Yepes Estrada, Ana Beatriz Acevedo, Helen Crowley, Nick Horspool, Kishor Jaiswal, Murray Journeay, Massimiliano Pittore. EERI official announcement: https://www.eeri.org/about-eeri/news/11477-vitor-silva-et-al-receive-2020-outstanding-paper-award-for-development-of-a-global-seismic-risk-model David Wald, Editor-in-Chief, Earthquake Spectra: “This is a wonderful recognition for GEM as a milestone - the global risk model was just a vision—an aspiration—when GEM started. Now it's a reality, that is well summarized by this paper. GEM has really accomplished great things, and this recognition is so well deserved. I think this is going to be a highly cited paper. So for the journal, this is a great paper to have and we're proud to publish it. I congratulate all of you.” EERI citation for the award: The Development of a Global Seismic Risk Model was a mammoth undertaking that involved hundreds of people and for the first time presented a detailed view of seismic risk at the global scale. For some developing countries, this was the first time that a seismic risk map was produced, and the associated country profiles are being used by the local authorities. The development and delivery of a modern global seismic risk model required unprecedented technical, algorithmic, coding, databasing, and collaborative research and development - all well documented by Silva et al. Noting its importance, all three reviewers recommended this seminal paper for an award. Vitor Silva, lead author and GEM Risk Team Coordinator: “On behalf of all the co-authors, I would like to thank all our partners and collaborators for your invaluable contributions. Without your support, this would not have been possible. The collaboration across public, private and academic sectors worldwide has been truly exceptional. We share this award and honor with you.” John Schneider, GEM Secretary General: “It has been more than a decade now since GEM started this initiative. Hundreds of collaborators from diverse organizations around the world worked together for many years to produce the global maps. This award from EERI is another testament to the impact of GEM’s work in the global earthquake hazard and risk assessment space.” This paper was released as a part of the 2020 Earthquake Spectra Special Issue titled GEM's 2018 global hazard and risk models. “Although the paper was released only last year, it has already garnered 44 citations and 1,800 views on the Earthquake Spectra SAGE portal.” - David Wald on the paper’s online performance to date. For more information about the Outstanding Paper Award, visit the EERI awards page . No images found. GALLERY 1/1 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News New GEM-USAID Project Forecasting and Communicating Earthquake Hazard and Risk (FORCE) launched By: Dec 6, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn On the heels of the successful completion of the TREQ project partnership this year, GEM and USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) are embarking on a new project called Forecasting and Communicating Earthquake Hazard and Risk or FORCE . The project aims to strengthen the capacities and understanding to manage and respond to future earthquake risk by: introducing future growth or change into national and global exposure models to enable the quantification of future disaster losses, including those associated with climate change; developing communication and dissemination tools to maximize the uptake of disaster risk information in policy-making bodies; and improving the reliability of earthquake hazard and risk assessment, in particular in regions that lack information. The project has five implementation components aimed at enhancing the reliability and usefulness of the earthquake hazard and risk information produced by GEM and its partners and expanding GEM product applications to multi-hazard risk assessment considering the current and future conditions of the built environment. These components are: Predicting the evolution of the built environment and population Forecasting future disaster risk due to earthquakes Incorporating infrastructure in exposure modeling for risk assessment Modeling earthquake hazard and risk for small communities Advancing communication and dissemination of risk information The 2.5 year-project, will be implemented in collaboration with local scientists and stakeholders in El Salvador, Nepal, and Bhutan (components 1, 2, and 3), as well as small communities in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans (component 4). “USAID is excited to support this project which targets some of the most seismically vulnerable communities in the world. The project activities, which are designed to evaluate current and future impacts of earthquakes, will not only benefit the project sites but other nations with similar needs and gaps as well,” Lindsay Davis, Earthquake Disaster Assistance Team Manager-USAID/BHA. The GEM Foundation has worked with USAID-BHA over the past years on several projects ( SSAHARA , CRAVE , TREQ ) to develop local and national capacities for earthquake hazard and risk assessment, and to communicate results to the broader community. An event held from November 21-25 in Cali, Colombia to present the results of the TREQ project risk assessment for the city, marked the start of FORCE project’s commitment to keep and improve the training component for technical and non-technical audiences that GEM started in the TREQ project. “With the implementation of the FORCE project, USAID-BHA and GEM will be able to continue its work and build from the outcomes of TREQ project, leading a wider community in building local to regional capacity for assessing and reducing risk,” Catalina Yepes, GEM FORCE Project Manager. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News IDF Report identifies how barriers to Global Risk Understanding can be overcome By: Oct 20, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn The Insurance Development Forum (IDF), a partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by the UN, World Bank, NGOs and other international organisations, is calling for an international collaboration to share and propagate capabilities in disaster risk understanding where it is needed the most. This call to action is the message of the IDF’s latest white paper – – a truly cross-sector report bringing together risk expertise from more than 30 organisations across private sector, development agencies and specialists, academia and international NGOs. The paper demonstrates how the adoption of open risk modelling principles and frameworks can help countries and cities integrate invaluable local knowledge with global research, and most importantly develop their own view of risk for strategic risk management and operational risk finance. The report assesses the powerful contribution of risk quantification in the context of the 17 , and how the use of open risk analytics principles and platforms can overcome cost and other barriers to access, while increasing confidence in the analysis. This empowering capability is critical as vulnerable economies seek to build social, environmental and financial resilience in the face of increased climate risk, pandemic and other threats. Specific country case studies build the case for local empowerment through building national and city risk functions. A deeply evidence driven chapter describes the distinct experience of women and girls in disasters, and how gender considerations can – and must - be integrated in the process of understanding and managing risk. Providing compelling evidence from all sectors and from across the globe, the paper recommends that the way to accelerate risk understanding at scale is through public, private and academic collaborations, made possible through shared use of open source platforms and data standards. The private sector has developed risk understanding as a survival skill and stands ready to work with sovereign ministries, development partners and humanitarians in strategic risk prevention, residual risk transfer and anticipatory action. Critically, this will build a shared language of risk across providers and users of risk capital. Between them, the expert contributors identify that disasters and climate risk are intensifying, and their impacts – as we have seen recently with COVID-19 – are a global concern. As the authors suggest, to better prepare for these scenarios we need to move from managing disasters to managing the risk itself. “Our subjective personal experience and observations will always be a factor in complex decision-making, and we all know that no model will ever be completely correct. However the public-private programme applying open source principles and standards, where risk analytics can become accessible as a strategic resource to all nations and cities at risk.” “Development is about empowerment; risk owners are understandably keen to move from aid dependency to sustainable local capacity, capable of responding to the differentiated needs of communities, genders and vulnerable groups. However it is hard for a nation or city to achieve this while barriers remain to building local risk understanding, and to integration of local experience and research. Governments and cities increasingly need to integrate strategic risk thinking into their resilience planning and financing frameworks, but to do so they need accessible tools and methodologies. The re/insurance sector can bring significant risk modelling and risk management expertise to help unlock sustainable investment. This paper shows how cross-sector collaboration, open standards and enabling technology can harness these strengths for public good and economic development.” "This report relates compelling evidence that women and men face different climate and disaster risks and vulnerabilities. People centred metrics are crucial to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. To ensure risk prevention and resilience programmes are gender-responsive, the report shows the value of gender-information and sex-disaggregated data. Empowering more women in technical and leadership positions will be key to generate and apply these insights: from national climate and disaster risk planning to the design, implementation and regulation of all types of risk transfer mechanisms." ----- END ----- The IDF is a public/private partnership led by the insurance industry and supported by international organisations. The IDF was first announced at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21) Paris Climate summit in 2015 and was officially launched by leaders of the United Nations, the World Bank and the insurance industry in 2016. Helen Wright, Lysander PR Roddy Langley, Lysander PR No images found. GALLERY 1/3 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Swiss Re (Institute and Group Underwriting Cat Perils) and Global Earthquake Model (GEM) renew partnership to improve earthquake risk models for better risk quantification By: Mar 6, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn Building from the success of Swiss Re Foundation and GEM’s collaboration in the South America Risk Assessment (SARA) project from 2013-2015, Swiss Re Institute and Swiss Re Group Underwriting (Cat Perils) and GEM have joined forces on a project to evaluate and improve GEM’s risk models for use by the insurance and reinsurance industry. The new partnership will focus on enhancing the interoperability of GEM’s models, leveraging the OASIS Loss Modeling Framework for risk quantification. The project will also aim to promote transparency in risk modeling - a component that both organizations believe is vital in generating mechanisms to transfer and mitigate risk at various scales. Patrice Tscherrig, Peril Lead Earthquake at Swiss Re, says “The local ownership of GEM tools and risk models in the SARA project has been a big motivation for our continuing trust and partnership with GEM. The collaborative and participatory approach of GEM is of great value to Swiss Re’s efforts in earthquake risk awareness and mitigation.” Swiss Re Foundation, a separate legal entity, funded the SARA project. It focused mainly on risk assessment capacity development in South America. Local experts and stakeholders with GEM scientists and engineers carried out activities such as compilation of earthquake catalogues, creation of risk metrics and country risk profiles, and estimation of social vulnerability using GEM tools and products. The new agreement will focus more on the technical aspect and transparent approach in loss estimation using GEM models and tools. John Schneider, GEM Secretary General, says “Swiss Re has been a long-time supporter of GEM’s open and transparent approach to risk modeling. We are happy that this new project will continue to pursue that goal by assisting GEM to bring models to the broader insurance and reinsurance industry.” No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Zurich Insurance Group Joins GEM Foundation as Private Governor Sponsor By: Dec 14, 2023 Dec 19, 2023 Share Facebook LinkedIn December 19, 2023. Pavia, Italy. Zurich Insurance Group has instated its affiliation with the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, assuming its role as a private Governor sponsor. Zurich was one of the founding members of GEM at its inception in 2009 and served as a private Governor sponsor until the end of 2018. Following a formal approval during GEM's Governing Board meeting held from November 30th to December 1st, 2023, Iwan Stalder, Head of Accumulation Management, Group Risk Management at Zurich, will be representing the company in this partnership. The core objective of this alliance emphasises a commitment to improving global modelling and understanding of seismic hazard and risk, enhancing risk awareness, and fortifying communities against the repercussions of seismic activities. Zurich's decision to join GEM underscores a shared dedication to global disaster risk resilience. Iwan Stalder, commenting on Zurich's entry, stated, "We are excited to work with GEM, aligning our commitment to global resilience and the pursuit of risk mitigation strategies." Welcoming Zurich to the GEM family, Helen Crowley, GEM Secretary General, expressed, "We extend a warm welcome to Zurich Insurance Group. We look forward to their continued contributions that reinforce an improved understanding of global seismic risk, and that strengthen our shared goal of creating a more resilient world." Zurich's support as a private Governor sponsor signifies an essential step towards reinforcing international efforts in mitigating seismic risks and reducing the protection gap. Furthermore, this partnership highlights the potential impact of Zurich's return in promoting innovative insurance solutions, and strengthening risk assessment methods within the collaborative efforts facilitated by GEM. The GEM Foundation and Zurich Insurance Group remain dedicated to advancing earthquake resilience, fostering innovation, and promoting sustainable solutions worldwide. About Zurich Insurance Group Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) is a leading multi-line insurer serving people and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. Founded 150 years ago, Zurich is transforming insurance. In addition to providing insurance protection, Zurich is increasingly offering prevention services such as those that promote wellbeing and enhance climate resilience. Reflecting its purpose to ‘create a brighter future together,’ Zurich aspires to be one of the most responsible and impactful businesses in the world. It is targeting net-zero emissions by 2050 and has the highest-possible ESG rating from MSCI. In 2020, Zurich launched the Zurich Forest project to support reforestation and biodiversity restoration in Brazil. The Group has about 60,000 employees and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd (ZURN), is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Further information is available at www.zurich.com . Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation GEM was formed in 2009 as a non-profit foundation in Pavia, Italy, and is funded through a public-private sponsorship with the vision to create a world that is resilient to earthquakes and other natural hazards. GEM is funded by public and private institutions globally, and is advised by many international organisations ( https://www.globalquakemodel.org/partners ). GEM is also recognized by the UN as an NGO, operating under UN guidelines for a humanitarian organisation. Through global partnerships, GEM’s mission is to continue to be the world’s official, most complete source of earthquake risk resources and a globally accepted standard for risk assessment. Further, GEM aims to ensure that its products are applied broadly in disaster risk management/reduction and its services are available and accessible to public, private and academic institutions worldwide. Helen Crowley and Iwan Stalder No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GIROJ releases Japanese version of the OpenQuake engine user manual By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn Mr. Suguru Fujita during the March hazard modelling workshop in Pavia, Italy. Mr. Fujita has a background in applied mathematics and led the translation of GEM’s OpenQuake engine manual into Japanese. The General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan (GIROJ) has completed the translation of the OpenQuake engine user's manual into Japanese and released it last July 31 through GIROJ’s website http://www.giroj.or.jp/news/2017/170731-2.html. The translation was completed in cooperation with Oyo Corporation. Earlier this year, during GEM’s Hazard Modelling Tools workshop in March, Mr. Suguru of GIROJ shared why they embarked on this project, “GEM’s OpenQuake engine is the global standard tool for seismic hazard and risk analyses. We are translating the manual so more of our partners and colleagues can use the engine.” The Japanese version of the OQ engine manual is expected to reach modellers, scientists and engineers in universities, government, and private engineering and insurance sectors in Japan. GIROJ has been a GEM partner since 2012 and OYO Corporation has been a partner since 2013. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News OpenQuake Workshops in Nepal and India By: May 23, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn Surya Shrestha, NSET Executive Director gives the opening remarks for the Nepal workshop. Photo credit: NSET Nepal More than 20 people representing government, academic institutions and civil society organizations in Nepal participated in the interactive seminar on "Potential Applicability of Global Earthquake Hazard and Risk Models in Nepal" held at NSET auditorium hall in Lalitpur on March 22, 2019. The seminar was jointly organized by The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation and National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) - Nepal. Vitor Silva, GEM Risk Coordinator, and Anirudh Rao, Physical Risk Engineer, presented GEM and demonstrated OpenQuake and related tools, highlighting their specific applicability to improving earthquake risk assessment in Nepal. Participants of the seminar included the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC), Institute of Engineering (IOE), Nepal Geological Society, Society of Nepalese Architects (SoNA), Department of Geology at Tribhuvan University, Nepal Government, Survey Department, Department of Mines and Geology, Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Build Change, and NSET among others. Prior to the seminar, Vitor and Anirudh met with the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Building Division of the DUDBC to discuss the potential applicability of the national earthquake risk model for informing ongoing risk mitigation efforts in Nepal. Anirudh also participated in an "Earthquake Vulnerability Walking Tour" of Kathmandu organized by NSET structural engineers, which involved visual inspection and qualitative identification of the various factors contributing to the high vulnerability of buildings in the dense neighborhoods of the city centre. In Gujarat, India, GEM conducted its first OpenQuake training workshop of 2019, co-organized with the support of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) professors Svetlana Brzev and Manish Kumar. About 20 faculty members and graduate students from IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, and IIT Gandhinagar participated in the workshop held at IIT Gandhinagar from 18-19 March 2019. More details here . No images found. GALLERY OQ workshop Nepal 2019 OQ workshop Nepal 2019 OQ workshop Nepal 2019 OQ workshop Nepal 2019 1/9 OpenQuake workshop in Nepal. Photo credit: NSET Nepal VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM Hazard Modeling Tools Workshop By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn The workshop, held at GEM’s Headquarters in Pavia, Italy from March 15-17, 2017 gathered more than 20 experts and scientists from different parts of the world – Europe, Nepal, China, Thailand and Japan – representing public and private sectors. Speaking on behalf of the Chinese Earthquake Administration participants, Mengtan Gao, Deputy Director of the Institute of Geophysics, underscores the importance of the workshop saying, “This workshop is important for China Earthquake Administration because we learned new techniques and methodologies in seismic hazard assessment, particularly those being used here in Europe”. He adds further, “Our young seismologists can take these learnings back to China and apply them to the next generation of seismic hazard maps that China plans to develop next year”. Mengtan Gao (R) has served the China Earthquake Administration for 36 years. He hopes to build the capacity of his young colleagues in seismic assessment through GEM’s OpenQuake engine. While other participants are just beginning to understand and appreciate OpenQuake Engine, the General Insurance Rating Organization of Japan (GIROJ) has started translating the users’ manual into Japanese. Mr. Suguru of GIROJ says, “GEM’s OpenQuake engine is the global standard tool for seismic hazard and risk analyses. We are translating the manual so more of our partners and colleagues can use the engine.” Mr. Suguru has a background in applied mathematics and is leading the translation of GEM’s OpenQuake engine manual into Japanese in GIROJ. Capacity development is one of the major activities of GEM to help build national and local technical capacities in hazard and risk assessment around the world. Being at the cusp of completing Work Programme 2, GEM is gearing up to implement a training program on how to use various tools freely available at OpenQuake platform for its various partners and stakeholders at national and regional levels. Participants from NSET Nepal discuss with John Schneider, GEM Secretary General, plans to re-echo what they have learned from the workshop at national level. Sujan Raj and Kapil believe that translating the OpenQuake manual would help their colleagues in adapting the tool for analyzing seismic hazard and risk data of Nepal.Maria del Puy of ZAMG, “We are a small organization and just starting up. We participated in this workshop because of OpenQuake engine’s open and transparent development approach. This is what attracted us to use and try it. So far this workshop has given us a good idea of what the engine can do.” No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Geociencias SURA magazine features GEM By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn Suramericana’s new magazine Geociencias SURA featured GEM, OpenQuake and SARA Project (South America Risk Assessment) in its inaugural issue. The magazine, which is intended particularly for South America, aims to share its knowledge and experience of more than 70 years in the insurance industry with its partners and the public. The editorial board believes that Geociencias SURA will be an efficient means to contribute to better management of risks associated with natural disasters, and help public and private organizations become more resilient and sustainable. John Schneider, GEM Secretary General imparts GEM’s collaboration strategy with Geociencias Sura saying, "We believe that the alliance between state, academic and private organizations worldwide is critical in managing natural disasters and preserving lives.” He added that building synergies where everyone involved is convinced of the importance of sharing, being open and working together is as important, if not more important as developing the tools or gathering information itself. The launching of Geociencias SURA magazine is a welcome development in the field of risk information and knowledge sharing and one that GEM, as a long-time partner of Suramericana, is committed to support. The magazine is managed by a specialized team within Suramericana and includes international experts on the relationship between nature and society. Check Geociencias SURA magazine inaugural issue here. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Methods and Tools Innovation for Seismic Risk Assessment project By: Jul 25, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn GEM is set to start a 3- year project called METIS or Methods and Tools Innovation for Seismic Risk Assessment funded by the European Commission. The project is part of the program. Electricite De France (EDF), a GEM technical collaborator, is coordinating the project which will be implemented in collaboration with 14 other organizations. The project will start in September 2020 and end in August 2024. The objective of is to translate research into practice through rigorous and efficient methodologies and tools to assess seismic safety of NPP (nuclear power plants). It also aims to innovate current practice by combining simulation with experimental data. The research will develop methods to improve the ability to define safety limits for extremely rare events, which go beyond current design analyses (i.e. design extension for earthquakes). The refined seismic PSA (probabilistic safety assessment) is expected to provide meaningful support in defining regulations for safe design of NPP, as well as for assessing plant safety in real-time in case of temporary unavailability of relevant safety equipment or structures. GEM will contribute to the task on seismic hazard assessment and the one on PSA Tools and Methodology. In the hazard task, GEM will implement into the OQ Engine methods such as vector-valued probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA), cluster-based PSHA as well as new methods to propagate epistemic uncertainties. Research will also be carried out in the context of processing earthquake catalogues to remove aftershocks and foreshocks and on testing PSHA models. GEM’s contribution to the PSA Tools and Methodology will concentrate on testing risk results. The participation of GEM in this high-level program will not only enhance GEM’s scientific advancement of earthquake hazard analysis using the OpenQuake engine, but will also promote a two-way sharing of knowledge and skills with other project collaborators for the advancement of earthquake hazard assessment to critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants. The results of this project will help nuclear operators in their periodic safety reviews and to respond to the high-level EU-wide safety objectives of the amended EURATOM nuclear safety directive (stress tests). The considered accident scenarios will provide input for updating severe accident management guidelines (SAMG). No images found. GALLERY 1/2 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS