News Advancing Seismic Hazard Assessment: GEM-INGV Knowledge Exchange on OpenQuake By: Apr 5, 2025 Mar 19, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn GEM recently led a knowledge exchange at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) headquarters in Milan, focusing on the latest capabilities of the OpenQuake Engine and the Model Builder’s Toolkit (OQ-MBTK) . The sessions were aimed at discussing seismic hazard assessment methodologies, particularly in the context of developing Italy’s next national seismic hazard model. The event brought together experts from GEM and INGV to explore how OpenQuake’s advanced functionalities can support more accurate and comprehensive seismic risk assessments. Marco Pagani, GEM Head of Seismic Hazards, Senior Software Developer Michele Simionato, Seismic Hazard Scientist Christopher Brooks, and Senior Active Faults Specialist Richard Styron led the training sessions. The programme featured hands-on exercises demonstrating how to develop and analyse model components for Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) using the OQ-MBTK. During the interactive sessions, participants explored practical applications of the OpenQuake tools, including how to build and refine seismic hazard models tailored to Italy’s specific seismic landscape. The discussions highlighted the importance of integrating diverse data sources and advanced modelling techniques to improve risk assessment accuracy. One of the key takeaways from the exchange was the emphasis on collaboration between scientific institutions to advance earthquake risk science. Marco remarked: “Working with INGV on improving seismic hazard modelling shows how public institutions can leverage open tools and data to enhance hazard and risk assessment and decision-making processes.” The workshop underscored the significance of partnerships between research entities and public institutions in translating scientific progress into practical solutions for seismic risk management. By promoting technical collaboration, GEM and INGV aim to develop robust hazard models that better inform disaster risk reduction strategies. The session also reinforced GEM’s commitment to supporting national efforts in seismic safety through open, science-based tools. The insights gained from this exchange are expected to play a pivotal role in shaping more resilient infrastructures and communities. Learn more about the Model Builder’s Toolkit: OQ-MBTK No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Aon Joins the Global Earthquake Model Foundation as Governor Sponsor to Advance Collaborative Risk Analysis By: Dec 6, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn LONDON, 8 December 2022 - Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today announced that it has joined the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation – a non-profit public-private partnership that develops and distributes models and data for a transparent assessment of earthquake risk worldwide - as Governor Sponsor. Comprising public, private, academic and non-government organizations, GEM delivers state-of-the-art earthquake risk reduction solutions through relevant data, tools and information as well as hazard and risk assessments that are designed to improve understanding of earthquake hazard and risk globally. Economic losses from catastrophic events are projected to increase exponentially by 2030 due to the increasing global population, rapid urbanisation and extreme weather events. Earthquakes, which made up only 8 percent of all disasters in the past 20 years, are the deadliest of all sudden disaster events. The peril constitutes one of the top causes of economic disruption and of disaster deaths, due to building collapse. In its new role as Governor Sponsor, Aon and its Impact Forecasting catastrophe model development team will lead the firm’s collaboration with GEM scientific teams in developing advanced tools to analyze the financial impacts of earthquakes for effective reinsurance, underwriting and exposure management strategies. Furthermore, Aon will work with GEM to bring together a range of collaborations to enhance earthquake risk understanding globally, further drive the usage and adoption of earthquake models and expand the domain of potential scientific collaborators to assist and inform model development. The collaboration will assist Aon’s clients and the wider re/insurance industry and stakeholders to make better risk decisions while navigating volatility and building operational resilience. In addition , GEM’s own earthquake modelling platform, the OpenQuake Engine , provides an opportunity for the development of standardized approaches in seismic hazard analyses, and to share the same technology within the rapidly growing society of users from across the re/insurance industry. John Schneider, GEM secretary general, said: “We welcome Aon to the GEM Governing Board as a voting member. GEM and Aon, through its Impact Forecasting team, have been collaborating for several years now on the development of earthquake loss models, and Aon’s new three-year sponsorship of GEM will allow us to work together across a broader range of topics and to share high-quality open risk information for improving risk reduction strategies worldwide.” Adam Podlaha, head of Impact Forecasting at Aon, said: “We are excited to continue our close collaboration in developing new Impact Forecasting earthquake models, as well as enabling users to access GEM-developed models in our ELEMENTS platform. Our recently released Canada Earthquake model shows the collaborative power of our community – combining the sixth-generation seismic hazard model for Canada implemented by Natural Resources Canada natively in GEM’s OpenQuake platform, with Impact Forecasting enhancements for secondary perils, including liquefaction landslides, tsunami and fire.” GEM’s collaborative efforts have been an important contributor to Impact Forecasting’s own earthquake model development, helping the firm to assist clients in their understanding and analysis of the peril and navigate associated volatility. The GEM collaboration has helped the team improve its model development processes, strengthening the local and global credibility of Impact Forecasting models and increasing the domain of potential scientific collaborators for client-based projects. For more information about Aon’s Impact Forecasting models, visit https://www.aon.com/reinsurance/impact-forecasting/default . ----- About Aon Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Our colleagues provide our clients in over 120 countries with advice and solutions that give them the clarity and confidence to make better decisions to protect and grow their business. Follow Aon on Twitter and LinkedIn . Visit the Aon Newsroom and sign up for News Alerts . ----- About GEM GEM was formed in 2009 as a non-profit foundation in Pavia, Italy, funded through a public-private sponsorship with the vision to create a world that is resilient to earthquakes. GEM is funded by public and private institutions globally, and is advised by many international organizations ( https://www.globalquakemodel.org/partners ). GEM is also recognized by the UN as an NGO, operating under UN guidelines for a humanitarian organization. GEM’s mission is to become one of the world’s most complete sources of risk resources and a globally accepted standard for earthquake 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. ----- Media Contact Andrew Wragg +44 07595 217168 andrew.wragg@aon.com Aon UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for the provision of regulated products and services in the UK. Aon GEM Governor Sponsor - media advisory final 071222 .pdf Download PDF • 75KB No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News News Briefs: May-August 2021 By: Aug 30, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn IDF Summit 2021 https://idfsummit.insdevforum.org/ GEM joined its partners, the Insurance Development Forum for the inaugural IDF Summit 2021, held on June 7-8. The theme was Building resilience in a riskier world. Global leaders and hundreds of participants from around the world participated in the event. In case you missed it, you can still visit GEM’s dedicated booth @ Knowledge Hub bit.ly/3ghuJph . Governing Board meeting, June 2021 GEM would like to thank all the sponsors and partners for making the first virtual Governing Board meeting of 2021 a great success. The bi-annual meeting was attended by sponsors from public and private sponsors, as well associate and project partners. The meeting featured the usual (and highly appreciated) progress reports on GEM Secretariat activities, advances in the development of GEM products, including commercial risk models, and initial progress on the development of a new GEM Strategic Plan for 2021 to 2030. European Commission and World Bank Dialogue - Economics for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness https://ec.europa.eu/echo/field-blogs/videos/economics-disaster-prevention-and-preparedness_en https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2021/06/04/economics-for-disaster-prevention-and-preparedness-in-europe The European Commission and World Bank held a Dialogue on June 7th for the release of reports providing an in-depth look at the economics for disaster, prevention and preparedness in Europe. GEM provided research and analytics support on earthquake risk, exposure and vulnerability. Vitor Silva represented GEM in the dialogue. COMPDYN: 8th International Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering https://2021.compdyn.org/ GEM’s Vitor Silva participated as a panelist in the round table on fragility curves for existing buildings: open challenges in their definition and use for seismic risk analyses. Vitor presented the Global Risk Assessment: mistakes from the past and promises for the future. GEM at GAGE SAGE 2021 Community Science Workshop https://gage-sage-2021.us2.pathable.com/meetings/virtual/ToWA2isYjG7gxhAhF GEM joined the virtual GAGE SAGE 2021 Community Science Workshop on August 16th. GEM’s Catalina Yepes shared GEM’s experiences on the challenges and strategies in training and local collaborations in the International Panel for the Americas. GAGE, the Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geosciences, is a facility funded by the US National Science Foundation and NASA and operated by UNAVCO. SAGE is operated by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS). South Africa Model release GEM has completed the development of its earthquake risk model for South Africa into the Oasis Loss Modelling Framework and the AIR Touchstone formats. The model will be available soon for licensing from the Nasdaq Risk Modelling for Catastrophes Service (contact Nasdaq ) and the AIR Touchstone platforms (contact AIR ). The risk model may be used to assess potential financial losses to commercial, industrial and residential buildings due to earthquake ground shaking. GEM’s South Africa earthquake risk model was generated using the hazard model for South Africa developed by the South Africa Council for Geoscience as the national hazard model, and for input to South Africa building design regulations. The vulnerability and exposure models and data were developed by GEM and cover the residential, commercial and industrial building stock. In the commercial models, OpenQuake is used to generate a stochastic set of hazard footprints (i.e., the spatial distribution of ground motion for each scenario event in the stochastic set). The suite of hazard footprints is translated into the Oasis or Touchstone formats, together with the building vulnerability curves to produce ground up losses, which are then fed into the financial module to compute (re)insured losses. Portfolio analyses may be conducted using industry standard occupancy classes. The original OpenQuake (OQ) version of the South Africa model (hazard, vulnerability and exposure components) is available from GEM under a Creative Commons open license (CC BY-SA). See https://www.globalquakemodel.org/product/south-africa-model for licensing and access to the models and data, as well as model documentation. The OQ version provides a much more detailed view of hazard and risk than the commercial models, but provides risk in terms of ground-up losses (i.e., cost of direct physical damage), not insured losses. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News News briefs: June-September 2022 By: Sep 15, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn Cities on Volcanoes Conference and Volcanic Risk Scenario assessment using OpenQuake On June 16th, Catalina Yepes of the Risk Team presented virtually “Towards a Uniform Approach for Risk Assessment due to Volcanoes and Earthquakes at the 11th Cities on Volcanoes (CoV11) hybrid event held from June 12th-17th in Crete, Greece. Her presentation featured how to generate volcanic scenarios in OpenQuake . You can download Cata’s presentation here: https://cloud-storage.globalquakemodel.org/public/wix-new-website/newsletter/20220616_COV11.pdf GEM team conducted an online training on July 8th on how to estimate the impact of a hypothetical volcanic eruption using the OpenQuake Engine, and run an example to visualise damage and loss maps (economic and human impact). The event was an off-shoot of the CoV11 international conference. X Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería Sísmica Bogotá On Jun17th, GEM and its TREQ project partners (SGC, EAFIT, UNGRD and the Municipality of Cali) presented virtually the paper “ Exposure Model for Catastrophic Risk Assessment of Santiago de Cali ” at the X Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería Sísmica of Colombia, in Bogotá. The presentation featured the methodology and results of the collaborative exposure model developed in collaboration with local stakeholders and that is currently being used in the formulation of the risk emergency plan of the city, as a result of the TREQ project. Launch of Seismica journal GEM is proud to support the launch of Seismica, an independent journal, designed and built by a global team of researchers to make research in earthquake science and engineering freely available. GEM’s Vitor Silva is a member of the core editorial team. More information at: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/GEMNews/seismica-free-access-journal-launch-2022 . 3rd European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology Vitor Silva presented ‘The Evolution of Future Earthquake Risk’ and Luis Martins presented ‘A single deep learning model for portfolio risk analysis’ in the Third European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology held in Bucharest from 4-9 September, 2022. Vitor’s presentation focused on identifying the drivers of earthquake risk such as global population, economic growth, climate change, and ageing infrastructure, and how risk reduction measures can be designed and implemented to achieve specific risk reduction targets. Luis’ presentation focused on a novel end-to-end deep learning algorithm to estimate building and contents losses of a portfolio of assets directly from simple earthquake features (i.e. magnitude, distance to rupture, and ground shaking intensity) and an encoding of the building class. You can download a copy of the proceedings at https://3ecees.ro/3ecees-publications/ . No images found. GALLERY 1/4 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News New guidelines for contributing to the GEM Global Active Faults Database By: Mar 20, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn New guidelines for contribution to the GEM Global Active Faults Database have been published on GitHub. They are reproduced below. The GEM GAF-DB is a public, open-data project and contribution is quite welcome. The GEM GAF-DB is a compilation of a set of regional and global fault datasets; most of these are not produced by GEM, but instead have been collected from external sources. The final database is built with a Python script that handles the compilation. Therefore, there is no single, permanent dataset that one can modify to contribute. Instead, contribution can take several forms: Addition to the 'miscellaneous' dataset. This dataset is intended to capture individual faults that are not present in the regional dataset for an area, though the dataset has worldwide scope. If you have studied a fault that isn't present, or you have new data on a fault that is already present, this is likely the best option. Modification of a regional dataset. This option is best if you have data for faults in an area that is covered by one of the fault catalogs maintained by GEM or that is otherwise open for modification (e.g., HimaTibetMap or the Active Tectonics of the Andes catalogs). Addition of a new regional dataset. If you have a dataset that covers some region with higher fidelity or more data than the existing coverage of that region, it's easy to incorporate this data into the GAF-DB compilation. For the full information, click here . No images found. GALLERY 1/2 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Guy Carpenter and WTW upgrade partnerships with GEM to Governor Sponsors By: Dec 6, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn Willis Towers Watson and Guy Carpenter (with participation extended to its parent company, Marsh McLennan) have both upgraded their sponsorship agreements from Advisor Sponsors to Governor Sponsors. The change provides each organisation with a voting position on the Governing Board. It also provides an opportunity for them to allocate a portion of their sponsorship funds toward projects that are of particular interest to them, and are in line with GEM’s strategic priorities. Willis Towers Watson is one of the founding members of GEM from the private sector. GEM and WTW have been working together for more than a decade to develop and promote a better understanding of earthquake risk through research and the application of science. WTW is now represented by Stuart Callam, Programme Director, WTW Research Network & Climate and Resilience Hub. We thank Hélène Galy, Head of Willis Research Network (WRN), for representing WTW as an Advisor Sponsor for the past 4 years and for developing a strong collaboration between GEM and the WRN during that time. Guy Carpenter joined GEM in 2019 as Advisor Sponsor. Over the last three years, Guy Carpenter and GEM have collaborated to enhance both organisations’ earthquake risk analysis by sharing access to specific technical and scientific expertise, and also contributed to a better understanding of earthquake risk for the benefit of society at large. In the new agreement, Guy Carpenter and the broader interests of MarshMcLennan, are represented by Matthew Eagle, Head of Global Model Solutions and Advisory at Guy Carpenter. GEM offers flexible mechanisms to enable potential partners to contribute to its ongoing and future work programs. Partners and collaborators can enter into sponsorships, project partnerships, and service agreements, and can select the level of engagement based on their needs and requirements. GEM’s sponsorship structure and fees have been designed to incentivize the participation of public and private organizations. Public Governors may propose to contribute directly to the work program via an in-kind project to offset the *GERD-based sponsorship contribution. For more details on how to support our work, please visit: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/get-involved . No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Nepal seeking self-sufficiency in Integrated Risk analysis By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn It is time for bold thinking in Nepal and a greater understanding of the importance of resilience is making its way. In a country where the recent Gorkha earthquake had a significant impact on GDP leaving 2.8 million people displaced and more than 8,000 dead, and where the possibility of a fast economic recovery is not high, the only way out is to build a long-lasting resilience. "Nepal developed the Building Code in 1994 with assistance from the international community” – remembers Surya Shrestha from the National Society of Earthquake Technology, NSET-Nepal, one of GEM’s public sponsors – “and even after more than 15 years, in 2009, the Code had found organized enforcement only in 3 out of 58 municipalities. Local governments at the time were unable to generate consensus on the use of the Code, nor the implementation of compliance mechanisms. Also, the population didn’t have a clear understanding of the benefits of prevention. Today, I believe the conditions are ripe for a wider collaboration among all stakeholders of disaster risk reduction actions, and I am convinced that the idea of building resilience has started to include concepts like local desire and indigenous knowledge, institutional commitment and international scientific expertise."After the April 2015 Gorkha earthquake, GEM’s Governing Board allocated priority to activities in Nepal, with early discussions on collaboration resulting in a one-month visit to GEM headquarters by a four-member Nepali delegation: two Nepali governmental officers from the Department of Mines and Geology and the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC) and two senior professionals of NSET. An outcome of the visit was the drafting of a long-term plan for GEM-Nepal collaboration that was presented to – and endorsed by – the GEM Governing Board, and officially presented to the Nepali government agencies on December 6-12, 2015 in Kathmandu. The plan envisages updating and consolidating the current knowledge on seismic hazard, risk and social vulnerabilities utilizing frontier scientific knowledge and implementing scientific analyses, with NSET providing coordination, in close collaboration with the Nepali Government agencies. Training and capacity development remain fundamental factors in GEM’s collaboration and the agreed plan includes bringing three Nepali PhD students to work in Pavia on the development of the national hazard model and other components. "We would like to see Nepali tertiary institutions involved as much as possible on the use of OpenQuake, with the aim of adapting GEM tools to local needs, testing their applicability and replicability, and incorporating them in the education of new local professionals. Having some students collaborating with us would not only allow them to learn the methodology and application of GEM tools, but it would also teach GEM scientists about the local needs and priorities in Nepal”, says Carlos Villacis, GEM Regional Programme Manager and Strategy Coordinator. "Before coming to visit GEM I didn’t know much about OpenQuake.” – says Monika Jha, Senior Geologist from Nepal’s Department of Mines and Geology – "We used to rely on external consultancies for data collection and we didn’t know much about open data and open source technologies, but now I see the potential of GEM for building up our own scientific and technical autonomy, and I hope we can soon initiate our collaboration." No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Celebrating Achievements and Way Forward By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn As GEM’s first Working Programme (2009-2013) draws to a close, the GEM Foundation presents to partners, collaborators and stakeholders worldwide, ”Celebrating achievements & looking forward”, GEM vision document for global earthquake risk assessment and a sustainable future for GEM. ”The document celebrates GEM’s journey from the idea of a handful of determined individuals, to what has now become a global community, a solid reality and an authoritative voice in earthquake risk assessment globally” said Rui Pinho, GEM Secretary-General. Right from its inception, GEM chose the less travelled road to increase earthquake resilience, building its work and community around the principles of openness, transparency, inclusiveness, equitable access, solid science and collaborative work across sectors, geographies, and disciplines. At the end of GEM’s first Working Programme, GEM’s unique approach has proven to be the right one; the breadth and wealth of tools and resources developed and being developed, through the involvement of global scientists and stakeholders, is advancing the science and technology needed for global state-of-the-art seismic hazard and risk modelling, data collection, and risk assessment at scales from global, to regional and national. This strategic document shares the successes but also the challenges and the issues that GEM needs to address as it moves towards its second Working Programme (2014-2018). Long-term impact and sustainability are crucial for the achievement of GEM’s mission. From 2014 onwards, GEM’s focus will shift towards practical implementation, public communication and development of datasets and tools at a local scale, to increase the applicability of the products in the OpenQuake platform for reliable risk mitigation. GEM will look at different collaboration opportunities in order to permeate different levels of risk management, and transfer and translate GEM products into accessible resources at different levels of governance from global to regional, to local. With the support of current and future partners, collaborators and stakeholders worldwide, GEM will continue to engage in a wide range of partnerships to advance the science required to assess the risk of the complex interconnected systems within which we live, and increase resilience to earthquakes globally. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Earthquake Science for re/insurance decision makers By: Nov 25, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn Leveraging GEM vulnerability database in loss modelling: a comprehensive approach towards risk quantification. On September 23rd Willis Towers Watson - Willis Research Network organized a webinar on Earthquake science for (re)insurance decision-makers: Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry where close to 200 attendees participated. The webinar featured GEM’s Marco Pagani and Vitor Silva to discuss how the industry can leverage the latest research outputs from GEM. Marco Pagani, GEM Hazard Team Coordinator discussed leveraging the GEM model for probabilistic loss estimation and presented the GEM Global Earthquake Model 2020 updates and future program. Vitor Silva, GEM Risk Team Coordinator presented the GEM exposure and vulnerability updates with focus on a region where GEM has utilized high resolution data for model development, and on non-residential areas to highlight relevance to the insurance industry. Marco and Vitor were joined by Myrto Papaspiliou, Massimiliano Arizzi and Crescenzo Petrone - Willis Re’s earthquake experts who further discussed scientific developments in seismic hazard and risk analysis, and their translation into (re)insurance business applications. After presenting and discussing how to use GEM exposure and vulnerability databases to enhance loss assessment and leverage GEM model for probabilistic loss estimation, the panelists arrived at two conclusions: - analytics and the input from academia will play a significant role in managing risk under current market conditions; and - leveraging GEM outputs in business decision-making can significantly improve capital management and control earnings volatility. For more details on the webinar, visit WTW’s blog at https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-GB/Insights/2020/11/earthquake-science-for-re-insurance-decision-makers . No images found. GALLERY 1/3 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News The Global Earthquake Model 2018: A step toward earthquake resilience By: Mar 6, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn Since 2009, GEM has been developing collaborations around the world to assess earthquake hazard and risk. In 2015, GEM released the OpenQuake-Engine, a software program that is rapidly becoming the standard worldwide for calculating earthquake hazard and risk. Later that year, GEM committed to completing the Global Earthquake Model, leveraging its global collaborations of hundreds of experts and several regional programs using a common methodology and open analysis tools to coordinate the completion of a global mosaic of hazard and risk models. Combined, this represents the culmination of a 10-year effort to bring a comprehensive and globally complete set of information about earthquake hazard and risk together into a suite of products for use by the entire community of risk modellers, risk management professionals, and the public. On December 5th in Pavia, Italy, the GEM Event will feature: release of the global earthquake hazard and risk maps, presentations on new directions from public, private and academic perspectives panel discussions to explore development, uses, drivers and future of maps and models posters and demonstrations showing the development and application of GEM tools and models You will get an insider’s look on how the GEM2018 map was made and its applications in risk management, on interactive tools specially developed for the map, and on the strategic drivers, demands, and future directions for research and applications. You will find out what has changed in our global understanding of earthquake hazard since the release of GSHAP in 1999; you will learn how we have assembled information on the exposure and vulnerability of population and the built environment to assess the risks of economic loss and human mortality at national level globally. Further, you will see how these risks are distributed around the world and gain insights for a wide range of risk management applications and resilience planning. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX