OpenQuake Engine certified user page This is to certify that Alexandru Tiganescu has successfully completed the requirements to become a Certified OpenQuake Engine User for Scenario Assessment demonstrating the required knowledge and skills as assessed by the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation. GEM Foundation Secretary General Helen Crowley (signed) Date of Completion: Valid until: September 12, 2025 September 11, 2028

Publications Africa Earthquake Model: brochure Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2019 | Brochure The Africa Earthquake Hazard and Risk model underpin the African portion of GEM’s global maps released in December 2018. The Africa Model is composed of North Africa, West Africa, Eastern Sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa regional models, developed in collaboration with various African public and private institutions, national governments, and individual experts using the OpenQuake engine.

Publications A Seismogenic Slab Source Model for Aotearoa New Zealand Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2023 | Peer-reviewed Intraslab seismicity within the Hikurangi and Puysegur subduction zones constitutes >50% of recorded (⁠Mw _> 4.0 events) earthquakes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here, we develop a source model for intraslab seismicity using recently augmented datasets including models of subduction interface geometries, an earthquake catalog, and a regional moment tensor catalog. For the areal zones of uniform seismicity, we consider the whole of each slab, as well as demarcations between shallower (depth ≤40 km) and deeper regions. Thereafter, we evaluate the magnitude–frequency distributions in each zone. To compute smoothed seismicity distributions, we apply a novel quasi‐3D approach that involve: (1) delineation of midslab surfaces (defined by regions of maximum earthquake density), (2) orthogonal projections of hypocenters onto the midslab profiles, (3) uniform gridding of 0.1° down‐dip on the midslab, and (4) application of smoothing kernel on the projected hypocenters. We also develop a model to characterize the focal mechanisms of the intraslab earthquakes using the regional moment tensor catalog. This model has median strike angles subparallel to subduction trenches and median dip angles ≥60° in both the subduction zones. The distribution of rake angles suggests that the Hikurangi slab has an extensional regime in the shallower parts but a compressional regime in the deeper parts, indicative of slab flexure. In contrast, the Puysegur slab predominantly exhibits a compressional regime.

Publications GEM brochure Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2013 | Brochure Vulnerability to earthquakes is increasing, yet reliable risk assessment tools and data are out of reach in many areas of the world. There are few global standards that allow us to compare seismic risk, yet recent events have taught us that we need to work together globally to improve our understanding of earthquake behaviour and consequences.

Publications Report on the workshop for the participatory evaluation of earthquake risk and resilience in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2017 | Report An essential step to understand and enhance the resilience of cities to earthquakes is to measure the concept. Measurement is vital not only to evaluate and benchmark the baseline conditions of what makes communities resilient but also to help communities to understand the factors that lead to losses and the differential ability of populations across and within communities to recover when damaging events occur. To address this, GEM and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) collaborated to facilitate the Resilience Performance Scorecard (RPS) workshop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The RPS is a multi-level and multi-scale self-evaluation tool that empowers stakeholders to assess earthquake resilience parameters based primarily on qualitative information. Here, an interactive voting system is used in a workshop setting to identify priorities where activities may be pertinent for earthquake risk reduction or where existing initiatives may be improved to increase earthquake resilience in different sectors of society. Six dimensions of earthquake resilience are encompassed to address key areas that mainstream risk reduction namely; planning and decision-making processes, 10 social capacity, awareness and advocacy, legal and institutional arrangements, planning and regulation, critical infrastructure and services, and emergency preparedness and response.

News Global Earthquake Model (GEM): Status, perspectives and use cases By: Mar 12, 2019 Share Facebook LinkedIn John Schneider, Secretary General (GEM) presented an update on the development of GEM's global earthquake hazard and risk model and other applications during this year’s edition of the OASIS Conference: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The annual conference, which focuses on issues in catastrophe risk modelling for application to the insurance and risk financing sector, attracted over 200 participants from across public, private and academic institutions to the event held in London from September 13-14, 2018. In particular, John’s presentation highlighted an overview of the Global Earthquake Model which will be completed and launched in December, and results of a pilot project to deploy a GEM risk model using the OASIS Loss Modelling Framework. Paul Henshaw, GEM Director of Technology and Development who was also present at the conference, noted particular excitement among participants in GEM’s new models, with particular interest in GEM’s open and transparent approach in model development. “The OASIS conference was an excellent forum for us to demonstrate not just GEM’s products but also how GEM is delivering information and products of value to the industry,” John said. Joerg Steffensen, Hannover Re General Manager of Group Risk Management Modelling, and concurrent GEM Governing Board member presented a user's perspective on the application of GEM's OpenQuake tools and risk models. He highlighted that GEM’s full model transparency on data, assumptions and parameterizations perfectly meets the demand of new initiatives, markets and consumers of Hannover Re and is in line with expectations and interests of the industry. Paul Della Marta, Head of Catastrophe Research, PartnerRe and GEM Governing Board Advisor, presented valuable perspectives on risk modelling transparency sensitivity analysis, in respective sessions. In addition, based on his conversations with many participants, Paul said “there is increasing interest in the cat risk community to work with, and support GEM and to use GEM’s models and tools to help inform their view of risk. We are looking forward to the pending completion of the global model in a few months time.” The 2-day conference concluded with a panel discussion on the future of Cat modelling emphasizing the implications of technology for model developers and users, and how it will affect the way models are developed, calibrated and validated. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

Publications Earthquake loss assessment of precast RC industrial structures in Tuscany (Italy), Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2017 | Peer-reviewed A seismic loss assessment for structural, non-structural, contents and business interruption is presented for precast reinforced concrete industrial buildings located in Italy. The correlation that exists between the performances of such spatially distributed buildings (i.e. spatial correlation) given a seismic event should be considered when estimating losses at a local or regional level. Loss assessment is thus performed herein using the OpenQuake-engine, an open-source tool capable of including the spatial correlation of ground-motion residuals and uncertainty in building vulnerability. The annual probability of structural collapse is employed as an initial risk measure, in which each industrial facility is considered as an individual asset. Then the economic loss for 300 buildings in the province of Arezzo is computed using a probabilistic event-based risk approach and presented in terms of annual average losses and losses at given annual rates of exceedance. The impact of the losses due to business interruption is also explored, and the extent of customer base is used as a prioritization metric for risk mitigation. It is observed that risk reduction should be applied as a priority in the facilities that are compromising the current level of acceptable risk, and the results show that business interruption has a significant contribution for economic losses, whose repercussions go beyond the regional level. Although this application is confined to the province of Arezzo, the same methodology can be used in other regions in Italy with similar building stock.

Publications Advancing the Understanding of Earthquake Risk in Portugal Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2024 | Peer-reviewed The assessment of earthquake risk at the national scale is crucial for the design and implementation of risk reduction measures. Due to its location in the southwest of the Eurasian plate, Portugal is exposed to moderate to strong seismic events, such as the well-known 1755 Lisbon earthquake. We reviewed existing studies covering exposure, seismic hazard, vulnerability, and risk assessment for Portugal, and performed probabilistic seismic hazard and risk analyses for the country using new model components. These include a new exposure model developed for the residential building stock using the 2021 national Building Census Survey, a recent exposure model for commercial and industrial buildings, updated vulnerability functions for 116 building classes, and the recently released European Probabilistic Seismic Hazard model. The seismic risk results include average annual economic losses, fatalities, buildings with complete damage, and population left homeless. These results allowed the identification of the regions in Portugal with the highest earthquake risk, as well as which building classes contribute the most to the overall impact.

Publications Data Interchange Formats for the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2010 | Report Sixteen draft data interchange formats and 7 terminology standards (collectively referred to here as DIFs) are proposed here for use in GEM1. This initial draft includes several DIFs for hazard output (to be used as input to risk analyses), exposure (i.e., values exposed to seismic risk), vulnerability, and fragility. Samples are provided of each DIF, and in each case, each parameter is explained, assigned a variable type (e.g., integer, text string, double-precision floating point, etc.) and any constraints are specified (e.g., probabilities between 0 and 1). The proposed data standards in this draft draw primarily on OpenSHA, OpenRisk, PAGER, and to a limited extent HAZUS-MH, EMS-98, and the World Housing Encyclopedia. The DIFs presented in this draft are entirely human-readable, plain-text flat files (commas-and-quotes); no attempt has been made yet to define XML formats. The emphasis in these DIFs is on simplicity and universality over storage efficiency. It is not intended that these DIFs represent a complete or exhaustive set of what GEM1 will require. Later drafts may add XML format and DIFs for other I/O needs. GEM1 participants are encouraged to contact the authors to recommend additions, modifications, and clarification.

News GEM at EERI Webinars 2020 By: Nov 25, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn The Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) organized several webinars in October and November, two of which highlighted GEM’s work on the global earthquake model and a study on the potential impact of earthquakes during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. On October 23rd, EERI’s e-Meet the Leaders event featured GEM’s Vitor Silva as a special guest where he shared his experience in structural vulnerability and probabilistic seismic risk assessment in Europe, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East. He also talked about the development of the first comprehensive global seismic risk model released in December 2018. On November 19th, GEM, represented by Vitor Silva and Nicole Paul, participated in the EERI’s webinar on Earthquakes in Pandemics: Experiences from Earthquakes in Europe. The webinar focused on the potential impact of earthquakes on infection rates and disaster response, based on case studies in Europe (Portugal and Croatia). Vitor and Nicole presented their recent article in Earthquake Spectra titled, “Potential Impact of Earthquakes during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic.” Joining them were two other panelists who were in Zagreb during the March 2020 earthquake (M5.5) and were heavily involved with the impact assessment following the earthquake. The juxtaposition of a theoretical analysis with empirical observation of the coincident pandemic and earthquake impact in Zagreb demonstrated the importance of understanding the combined impact of natural disasters during the pandemic, or other events that can easily overwhelm local capacity to respond effectively. Founded in 1948, EERI's mission is to reduce earthquake risk by (1) advancing the science and practice of earthquake engineering, (2) improving understanding of the impact of earthquakes on the physical, social, economic, political, and cultural environment, and (3) advocating comprehensive and realistic measures for reducing the harmful effects of earthquakes. No images found. GALLERY 1/4 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS