News TREQ capacity building: OQ online training updates By: Feb 19, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn The TREQ project is assessing earthquake risk at community level in three metropolitan centers in Latin America: Quito, Ecuador; Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; and Cali, Colombia. In order to cope with the current pandemic, the GEM team shifted the capacity training and on-site workshops to online activities. Aiming to continue and strengthen the local participation in the project activities, 12 OpenQuake online training sessions (3 hours each) have been conducted for more than 200 people in several Latin American countries, with predominant participation from the three TREQ countries (Ecuador, Colombia, and Dominican Republic). The online workshops have increased the reach of the training sessions beyond its original scope. Free online working sessions are available through a dedicated website available in English and Spanish, https://www.training.openquake.org/, allowing participants around the globe to engage in OpenQuake training activities for earthquake hazard and risk assessment. The online sessions are divided into four modules that cover the basic concepts: Introduction to OpenQuake and Open Source Tools for Earthquake Hazard and Risk Assessment, Earthquake Scenarios, Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA), and Probabilistic Event-Based Risk Assessment. All the materials generated for the workshops have been incorporated into the training website. The project team has collected more than 200 responses with excellent and encouraging feedback, which helped the team to shape and improve the material and content of the training. Below is some of the feedback from the participants. “A great course! Very useful for us to start doing work using this great powerful software.” - Zivko Terzic, Melbourne, Australia "I really liked the experience and I would like to take this workshop to my students of the Master's Degree in Earthquake Engineering so that we can do research projects." - Maribel Guzman, PUCMM, Dominican Republic "Delighted with the information presented and the material is excellent, including the modeling software" - Hernán Suárez, Risk Management Unit - Municipality of Quito, Ecuador "Congratulations on the development of the tool and your training! Very very interesting and useful." - Srahyrlandy Rocio Díaz, Risk management secretariat, Cali, Colombia "Excellent explanations. Excellent materials and Excellent speakers" - Jonatan Arreola, CENAPRED, Mexico This year, the project completed the first part of the Earthquake Scenarios training on February 15th. Upcoming OpenQuake online training workshops are scheduled for February 22 and March. For more details, visit https://www.training.openquake.org/register. No images found. GALLERY 1/4 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Social Vulnerability Index Construction: Accessing Open Data from National Censuses By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn Miguel Toquica - GEM Social Vulnerability and Resilience Specialist shares his insights on GEM's experience in accessing socio-economic data from national censuses and public online databases. When it comes to accessing the demographic characteristics of the population of a country, researchers usually consider national population and household censuses as reliable sources of information. Ideally, most countries should update their national census data and procedures every 10 years. The need to keep track of socio-economic factors and statistical measures of societies is recognized globally to better understand the living conditions and characteristics of the population in a specific country. In this regard, national censuses are considered as the most reliable source of such type of information at specific level of territorial organization, i.e. regions, states, parishes, and local level. A national population and housing census has several uses for a country. It provides not just the total number of population and households but also the demographic information for population estimates and specific information for national agencies in the fields of education, health and economy. A national census also gives quantified information of socio-economic conditions of a specific subdivision and groups of people in a country.At GEM we are collecting and processing national census data for our research on what socio-economic conditions could contribute to the population’s vulnerability to natural hazards, i.e. earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, flooding, hurricanes, and droughts. In most cases, our research using census data have led us to information on the pre-existing characteristics i.e. average household size, unemployment rates, etc. that relate directly to why differential impacts from natural hazards occur across space. Social vulnerability helps to explain why some areas, such as a country’s sub-national parishes or city neighbourhoods, will experience the consequences of a natural hazard in different ways. Understanding the varying impacts of a natural hazard through social vulnerability assessments is a critical element for risk reduction, elaboration of mitigation plans, and the development of public policies to reduce the risk. To measure social vulnerability, the starting point is to capture the contextual conditions within the social structure of the study area. This social structure includes characteristics of the population and factors that increase or decrease the impact of natural hazards in the community. These factors include access to basic needs (potable water, electricity, and sanitary services), access to education and health, and characteristics of specific groups within the society that makes them vulnerable, e.g. the elderly population, children, population with disabilities, ethnic groups and so forth. As an example, indigenous people, like the women working in the crafts industry belonging to the Wayuu ethnic community in Colombia (Figure 2), typically live in isolated regions where access to financial means and basic public services like potable water, electricity, as well as public infrastructure is difficult or non-existent. These conditions may compromise their capacity for disaster preparedness and make it harder for government agencies to respond and conduct recovery efforts, thereby increasing their vulnerability in case of an emergency. In this context, information obtained from national censuses in Latin America has allowed the Social Vulnerability and Resilience (SVR) team at GEM (i) to develop databases for indicators of social vulnerability, and (ii) to construct social vulnerability indices for over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. This task has been possible thanks to the online access to national census databases made available by several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean such as the CELADE-Redatam. To start the development and construction of social vulnerability indices, GEM’s SVR team obtained the most recent socioeconomic data from available national population and housing censuses from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The collected raw values within the population, economy, infrastructure, health, and education dimensions were then processed to obtain standardised values using percentage, per capita, and density functions that can be used for country comparisons. In addition, a statistical multivariable analysis has been conducted to select a consistent set of indicators for all countries. The socio-economic variables obtained are then standardised and rescaled to create a set of indicators with the same measurement. The analysis also includes a correlation analysis, which is used to quantify the association between two continuous variables, hence narrowing the data to be selected for the regional set of variables that are acceptable to represent the social vulnerability, economic resilience and recovery capacity of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean. Figure 3 provides an example of the Social Vulnerability Index for Central America and the Caribbean region. Challenges Even though the process of collecting, processing and building SV databases and indices seem quite straight forward, accessing the data from censuses and other sources can prove to be challenging and sometimes frustrating. In some cases, the censuses are not fully available, or they are not provided in the desired working format. Some of the most common challenges we have encountered and possible solutions are outlined below:- There is lack of common data processing techniques that are compatible across all countries. Trying to keep the standards of data and indicators selected for all countries may not always work as most censuses are conducted on different basis and using different techniques. This may result in slightly different social vulnerability datasets per country, and therefore the final indicator selection and index composition may differ from country to country. This challenge has been minimized by performing multivariate and correlation analyses on the full set of socio-economic indicators. This technique allows the SVR team to carefully select a set of indicators that better represent the themes of social vulnerability, maintaining the robustness and composition of the index in all cases.- Not all statistical services in each country make the entire census available using a simple database or accessible format. This fact makes accessing and post-processing of data difficult. Some countries do not even make censuses open and available online. Nonetheless, new techniques of data extraction have been implemented so indexes are built with the most reliable and recent sets of data.- Accessing the most recent data from national censuses can be difficult. Some census data can be as old as early 2000’s and late 1990’s. The use of old data must be considered with caution as final results may be skewed. Keeping information of up-to-date country statistics may provide proxies of specific indicators, for example the total population and employment rate can be updated on a yearly basis for some countries. However, processing quantities using data from different time periods can drastically change the unit of measure of comparable values so special care is fundamental when doing so. The GEM social vulnerability team has been overcoming the challenges presented, and we keep improving data collection for index construction. We are also proud to produce and make available to the public the subnational social vulnerability databases and indices. The work is fundamental and a pivotal component for other risk information products developed at GEM. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News GEM’s Vitor Silva receives ASCE civil engineering research prize By: Dec 16, 2025 Oct 10, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn Vitor Silva, Head of Risk Engineering at the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, has received the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The award was presented on 10 October 2025 during the ASCE Annual Convention in Seattle, United States. The Walter L. Huber Prize is one of ASCE’s recognised mid-career research awards and honours notable contributions to civil engineering research. Vitor was recognised for his research contributions, which have raised the state-of-the-art of regional seismic risk assessment of the global built environment through worldwide collaborations, open data/software and machine learning algorithms. Vitor leads GEM’s risk engineering activities and has played a central role in the development and application of seismic risk methodologies used in national, regional and global assessments. His work supports GEM’s broader objective of improving the availability and use of science-based risk information for disaster risk reduction and resilience planning. Further information on the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize is available on the ASCE website. https://www.asce.org/career-growth/awards-and-honors/walter-l-huber-civil-engineering-research-prizes ## No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News GEESE Algorithm Delivers New Tools for Earthquake Scenarios and Post-Event Analysis By: Oct 6, 2025 Jul 29, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn How can we test if a seismic hazard input model is capable of producing a sufficiently realistic rupture for a significant event? A study led by Christopher Brooks (GEM Seismic Hazard Scientist) introduces the Global EarthquakE ScEnarios (GEESE) rupture matching algorithm, an OpenQuake Engine-based tool that retrieves appropriate ruptures (in terms of hypocentral location, magnitude, rupture geometry and style-of-faulting) from seismic hazard input models. Alongside the evaluation of seismic hazard input models, the GEESE algorithm can be used within post-event response to generate an initial finite rupture when other data required to perform a detailed inversion has not yet been disseminated. Building a Global Database The GEESE algorithm retrieves finite ruptures from a seismic hazard input that sufficiently match the queried magnitude and hypocentral location. Applied to version 10.0 of the ISC-GEM earthquake catalogue, the method produced a publicly available database (GEESE version 1.0) of finite rupture models for past earthquakes. Events with a moment magnitude greater than 7.0 and a hypocentral depth less than 200 km were selected. From these, the algorithm retrieved the best matching ruptures from GEM’s Global Hazard Mosaic, providing both rupture models and corresponding ground-motion fields. The OpenQuake format inputs (including the retrieved finite rupture) are provided for the user to perform their own scenario hazard calculations. The database offers researchers and practitioners a resource for scenario-based hazard and risk analysis applications, helping to bridge historical seismicity with contemporary modelling needs. Testing Models and Supporting Response The GEESE algorithm can also serve as a tool for the verification of a model’s seismic source characterisation, given it can test whether a model can generate ruptures sufficiently representative of known events – with matching ruptures identified for approximately 90 percent of the ISC-GEM catalogue events tested. If no ruptures are retrieved, it can provide information on seismic sources which would be expected to be capable of generating a matching rupture based on the admitted information for the given earthquake. The tool is also of considerable use in post-event response when initially only limited information is often available. Unlike other rupture retrieval algorithms in the literature, the GEESE algorithm is not dependent on additional data to obtain an initial finite rupture, because the geometries are determined by the predefined seismic sources within the seismic hazard input models. Examples of this capability are demonstrated for the 2023 Morocco earthquake and the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake within the recently published journal paper about the GEESE algorithm and associated database. Implications for the DRR Community According to Christopher, the tool offers significant benefits for science and practice: “With GEESE, we can generate finite ruptures for events of interest with minimal information - only the event hypocenter and moment magnitude, because we are leveraging the predefined geometries contained within OpenQuake format seismic hazard input models. This capability is highly useful in post-event response when consideration of a detailed geometry (as opposed to a more crude point source) within scenario risk calculations can significantly alter the suggested allocation of emergency response resources. The algorithm is also useful for evaluating the seismic source characterisations of OpenQuake format seismic hazard input models.” The study reinforces GEM’s commitment to open science by making the GEESE algorithm and its rupture database publicly accessible. By providing finite rupture models and scenario hazard calculation input files for the largest events in the ISC-GEM catalogue, a systematic means of evaluating hazard models and a capability for retrieving initial finite ruptures in post-event response, the tool strengthens the resources available to the global disaster risk reduction community. Accessing the Database Version 1.0 of the GEESE rupture database is openly available under a CC BY-NC-SA license through GEM, offering finite rupture models and associated ground-motion fields for almost 1000 large historical earthquakes. This resource is intended to grow with further data and applications, enhancing global capacity for hazard testing and rapid post-event analysis. Explore the GEESE resources here. Study – https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/article/view/1654 Database – https://zenodo.org/records/14981706 No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Seismic Moment: From Rupture to Recovery By: Sep 15, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn Close to 200 online and in-person participants from 70+ countries joined the International Symposium on Hazard, Risk and Recovery Modelling: Seismic Moment – From Rupture to Recovery. The event, held at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Aveiro, Portugal on July 14th discussed cutting-edge science and ground-breaking technology in earthquake engineering. Vitor Silva - GEM Seismic Risk Coordinator and Xavier Romao - FEUP/CONSTRUCT moderated the discussions on new advancements in seismic hazard modelling in Europe, latest developments in vulnerability and risk assessment and factors influencing long-term impact and recovery after an earthquake. Vice Rector of the University of Aveiro Artur Silva, and Director of RISCO Romeu Vicente opened the symposium. It was followed by presentations on the new European seismic hazard model (Laurentiu Danciu, ETHZ); and the new European seismic risk model (Helen Crowley, EUCENTRE). The second part of the morning session focused on earthquake early warning in Europe (Carmine Galasso and Gemma Cremen, UCL); and the NASA Insight Mission - Seismicity of Mars ( John Clinton, ETHZ). The afternoon sessions explored more on the experiences of the presenters in vulnerability and risk assessments such as addressing the issues and challenges in clustered seismicity risk assessment (Paolo Bazzurro, IUSS Pavia); the impact of and recovery from the Croatian Earthquakes of 2020 (Mario Uros, University of Zagreb); and research and implementation of seismic risk mitigation in schools through low-cost sliding foundations (Anastasios Sextos, University of Bristol). Speakers shared more on the ground experiences in post-earthquake community recovery processes and modelling (Laurie Johnson, Laurie Johnson Consulting USA); and changes in the upcoming update of the Eurocode 8 (Antonio Correia, National Laboratory of Civil Engineering, Portugal). The event was capped with a discussion on what’s missing in earthquake risk assessment, which featured a presentation on future directions in earthquake risk assessment: high-fidelity optimization, a numerical modelling approach for predicting the seismic wave of complex earthquake scenarios from the fault to the epicentre site. The topic was presented by a surprise speaker - Professor Jack Baker of Stanford University. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Future directions for PSHA at local, national and transnational scales workshop By: Jul 2, 2018 Share Facebook LinkedIn More than 160 leading experts on Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) from around the globe participated in the PSHA Workshop held at Lenzburg, Switzerland from September 5th-7th, featuring presentations and posters on practical aspects and currently developing issues on the PSHA process. Discussions revolved around time-dependent analysis, source model validation, and site-specific PSHA within the framework of new engineering requirements and communication of hazard results to both scientific and non-scientific communities. The workshop also provided the chance for the PSHA community to interact and share information about ongoing and future research projects, which were discussed in specific thematic meetings. Marco Pagani, Hazard Coordinator, and Valerio Poggi, Senior Hazard Scientist, attended the meeting on behalf of GEM. Marco, a keynote speaker, also presented ‘Exploring GEM’s Global Mosaic of Hazard Models: Hints for Regional Hazard Modelling’ as an input to this year’s theme: PSHA - Future directions for probabilistic seismic hazard assessment at local, national and transnational scales. The participants received the presentation with much interest sparking a passionate scientific debate on the use and treatment of epistemic uncertainty in regional models, which appears to still be a controversial issue within the community. Though the use and treatment of epistemic uncertainty in regional models was a hotly discussed topic, GEM’s OpenQuake engine received overwhelming positive feedback from the participants. Many of the studies presented by the keynote speakers and posters used the OpenQuake engine. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News GEM Services page is now online By: Jun 3, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn GEM is happy to announce the launching of its ! Contributing to its mission to promote earthquake resilience, GEM offers collaborative services, products and resources that can be used for public and commercial purposes by organizations or individuals worldwide. GEM's products and services are transparent, accessible, credible and applicable not only for disaster prevention and preparedness, but also for applications that focus on response and recovery. Check out these services and share the page with your contacts and networks. Development of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, fragility and risk models and risk scenarios at various scales (city, province, country) using GEM datasets and OpenQuake tools. This service focuses mainly on model development for third-party model providers, insurance and engineering companies. Assessment of earthquake hazard, risk and social vulnerability and resilience at various geographical scales through project partnership, consultancy and technical cooperation agreements. This service focuses mainly on earthquake hazard and risk assessment in collaboration with a wide-range of stakeholders at the city/town, country or regional levels. GEM provides customization, development and maintenance of the OpenQuake (OQ) engine and it's associated toolkits; and bespoke OQ engine applications. Clients can request specific enhancements to OQ engine and toolkit functionality or performance tailored to their particular applications. Information technology support and provision of technical assistance specific to OpenQuake engine, plugins, hazard and risk toolkits. Clients can request support in the use of existing OQ engine and toolkits for specific applications. Combined with the development of hazard or risk models, we can help clients build a system to publish interactive hazard maps + graphs. This service is also applicable to non-earthquake hazards and for visualization of a wide variety of spatial information, such as exposure data from the METEOR project. In addition to the online OpenQuake training workshops provided as part of the TREQ project, GEM offers customized sessions on earthquake hazard, risk and social vulnerability assessments using the OQ engine, GEM models and datasets. Interested? Contact us at and let us know your needs. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News GeoPython Conference 2019: GEM’s innovations in QGIS By: Jul 31, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn Paolo Tormene, Senior Developer, presents enhancements to the IRMT QGIS plugin at GeoPython Conference 2019. GEM Senior Software Developers Matteo Nastasi and Paolo Tormene presented their respective innovations at GeoPythonConf 2019 in Basel, Switzerland on June 25. Matteo presented HyBridge, a smart web app solution for OpenQuake engine, Input Preparation Toolkit and QGIS users. It automates sending input files directly to the OQ engine rather than having to save the file and upload it manually. Check details at: https://submit.geopython.net/geopython2019/talk/W3K8TQ Paolo presented IRMT or Integrated Risk Modelling Toolkit: a QGIS plugin that allows users to drive the OpenQuake engine calculations of physical hazard and risk, and to load the corresponding outputs as QGIS layers. Check details at: https://submit.geopython.net/geopython2019/talk/8ZJWPS To watch the full presentations, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67C5jsmfE2s starting from 7:14:47 No images found. GALLERY 1/5 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News Call for proposals and paper abstracts: EERI and SSA annual meetings 2024 By: Sep 29, 2023 Share Facebook LinkedIn EERI Annual Meeting 2024 The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is delighted to announce that the 2024 Annual Meeting will take place in Seattle, WA from April 9-12, 2024. The meeting theme is Uniting Earthquake Science and Engineering for a More Resilient Future. The main meeting, including a technical program with plenary, special, and poster sessions, the EERI awards ceremony, and the 2024 Seismic Design Competition Shaking Day, will take place on Wednesday, April 10th and Thursday, April 11th. Pre- and post-meeting activities will include a reconnaissance workshop and partner-hosted workshops on April 9 and a Seattle-focused reconnaissance field exercise hosted in coordination with the Washington Geological Survey on April 12. View the call for session proposals and paper abstracts (due October 17th) and register here today ! SSA 2024 Annual Meeting Join your colleagues next Spring in Anchorage, Alaska at the SSA 2024 Annual Meeting . Led by Co-chairs Carl Tape and Michael West, University of Alaska Fairbanks, the meeting will be a dynamic week of in-person collaboration, learning and networking. Session Proposal Deadline: 30 September, 5 p.m. Pacific. Shape the SSA Annual Meeting by submitting a session proposal. We are seeking session proposals from across the fields of geotechnical and earthquake engineering, earthquake science and seismology. SSA encourages all conveners to assemble a diverse group of co-conveners. Early-career members are encouraged to submit session proposals. Take the career-advancing leap and begin reaching out to collaborators today! A few key policies: Session proposals should include conveners from at least two institutions. Every session is required to have at least one non-U.S. government co-convener. Submissions require a session name, a short description of the session and the name, affiliation and contact information of at least two conveners. Find the full guidelines here . For questions about submitting your session proposal, please contact SSA at abstracts@seismosoc.org . No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX

News GEM2020: Year in Review By: Jan 7, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn The year 2020 was a milestone year for GEM, because of the significant advances made in capacity development, new projects and partnerships, products released and participation in virtual events, which were accomplished during a difficult period of time due to the ongoing pandemic. Close to 300 individuals were trained online on seismic hazard and risk analysis using OpenQuake engine software under the USAID-supported – officially launched in Quito, Ecuador in March. The online training workshops given in Spanish and English versions reached more than 30 countries worldwide. GEM collaborated with , , and the for various new projects that ranged from developing a new disaster risk transfer facility in Central Asia, to an advanced approach for seismic risk assessment of nuclear power plants; and from building capacity and risk understanding in Georgia to building a public-private partnership to protect public schools from natural hazards in Peru. Five new partners teamed up with GEM to work in several related but different areas of research and application: innovative disaster resilience - One Concern; enhancement of loss modelling capabilities for better decision making - EdF and AXAXL; utilization of seismic sensors to assess building vulnerability - Safehub; and development of high-performance computing in the field of geophysical hazards - CHeeSe. Four public and private institutions also renewed their respective commitments to support GEM in the years ahead. Last July, GEM launched its to reach a wider range of stakeholders. A new was launched in April and has accumulated more than 2800 downloads of open products as of November. On October 13th, UN’s IDRR Day, GEM released giving open access to seismic hazard and risk data to the public. In a special edition released on October 22nd, Earthquake Spectra published documenting the . On World Bank’s Understanding Risk Forum 10th year anniversary (December 3rd), GEM launched aimed at better understanding the various socio-economic factors that can exacerbate the impact of earthquakes. In addition, GEM also released population and building the METEOR project. Due to the ongoing pandemic, Vitor put together an to show areas where a damaging earthquake could cause increases in COVID-19 cases due to displacement of people from damaged buildings or where health care systems may be further stressed due to human injuries. GEM also contributed to two major publications: two case studies on risk analytics and seismic hazard assessment for the , and the co-published by UNDRR and the International Science Council. This year also marked the . About 250 people participated in a special GEM webinar marking the celebration. GEM also released three OpenQuake engine software updates, adding various features to enhance performance and capability to analyze multi-perils. No images found. GALLERY 1/6 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS FACT BOX