News Board Approves New and Renewed GEM Sponsorships By: Jul 7, 2025 Jun 27, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn During its 27 June meeting, the GEM Governing Board approved a substantial slate of new and renewed sponsorships across both public and private sectors, alongside updates to sponsor representation. The continued and growing support underscores GEM’s role as a global platform for collaborative, science-based risk reduction. Under the Public Governor Scheme, Taiwan Earthquake Model signed a new three-year sponsorship agreement, represented by Chung-Han Chan. GNS Science, soon to be part of the newly formed New Zealand Institute for Earth Science (alongside NIWA and MetService), also renewed its three-year commitment, with Matthew Gerstenberger as representative. GEM additionally welcomed Morocco’s Fonds de Solidarité contre les Événements Catastrophiques (FSEC), GEM's first public sponsor from Africa. From Europe, Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) extended its support for four years, with Martin Kern continuing as representative. In the Private Governor category, Allianz renewed its sponsorship for a further three years, with Matthias Hackl as representative. Two new private sector sponsors also joined: Renaissance Re, with a two-year agreement represented by Andrew Dhesi, and Atlantic Re, which signed a three-year agreement. Abderrahim Oulidi will represent Atlantic Re, which has also expressed interest in supporting GEM’s work in Morocco alongside FSEC (see Top Story ). Additionally, a change in representation was noted under the Advisor Sponsor Scheme, with Alexandra Tsioulou appointed as the new non-voting representative for Gallagher Re. These new and renewed partnerships reflect a shared commitment to advancing earthquake hazard and risk understanding. With the support of its public and private sponsors, GEM is better positioned to collaborate on national and regional efforts, share open data and tools, and strengthen global resilience through inclusive science. To learn more about how to become a GEM sponsor: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/get-involved To view the full list of past and present GEM partners: https://www.globalquakemodel.org/partners No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM 2024: Year in Review By: Jan 7, 2025 Jan 7, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn Before fully immersing in the opportunities and challenges of 2025, the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation takes a moment to look back at 2024 - a year marked by milestones, innovations, and strategic collaborations that have strengthened global earthquake resilience. Revisit GEM’s key moments and milestones from 2024 by exploring the highlights below. Celebrating 15 Years of Progress GEM kicked off the year with its 15th-anniversary celebrations, a testament to its unwavering commitment to transforming earthquake science into actionable solutions. The milestone was marked by events that highlighted GEM’s achievements and introduced new collaborations, such as a partnership with PreventionWeb to broaden access to seismic risk profiles . Additionally, GEM’s first-ever sub-national earthquake risk assessment for Bangladesh , supported by UNDRR and the Government of Bangladesh, demonstrated its focus on tailored solutions for local resilience. Innovations in Seismic Risk Assessment Throughout the year, GEM advanced its mission through groundbreaking tools and initiatives. The launch of ATLAS 2.0 provided next-generation seismic hazard data services, while the Global Seismic Regulation Database offered valuable insights into building code impacts worldwide. The OpenQuake Engine saw significant enhancements with the release of versions 3.19, 3.20, and 3.21, delivering improved performance, expanded features, and cutting-edge models to the global community. Complementing these advancements, GEM staff led or co-authored key publications that provided valuable insights into seismic risk assessment methodologies, reinforcing GEM’s position as a trusted contributor to the field. Strengthening Global Partnerships GEM strengthened its partnerships with key stakeholders, including a new five-year collaboration with the USGS and renewed support from its public and private sponsors, a new partner, NormanMax, and product distribution partners, Climate Engine and Jupiter. Notably, GEM’s participation at the WFP Innovation Accelerator Pitch event in Germany, the OECD Science Forum in France, the Understanding Risk Global Forum (UR24) in Japan, and WCEE2024 in Italy underscored its leadership in seismic hazard and risk assessment. Adding to these achievements, GEM Secretary General Helen Crowley was honoured with the prestigious Joyner Memorial Lecture Award , recognising her exceptional contributions to bridging earthquake science and engineering. Empowering Through Education A highlight of the year was the GEM-EGU Summer School on GeoHazards Risk , which brought together experts and students to explore cutting-edge risk assessment techniques. The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction further emphasized the role of education in building a disaster-resilient future. Regional and Global Impact From the FORCE project’s activities in El Salvador , Bhutan , and Southwest Pacific to its contributions to the EMME24 Model at ASC 2024 , Albania's Updated National Seismic Hazard Model , and the Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Project in Malawi , GEM continued to address regional needs while shaping global standards. At INGV’s 25th-anniversary event in Rome, GEM presented “A Brief Overview of the Past, Present, and Future of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation.” This live presentation showcased GEM’s evolution, significant contributions to the field, and its vision for strengthening ties with public sector partners. To further enhance understanding of earthquake impacts and post-event analyses, GEM launched its Post Event Information webpage , a comprehensive resource offering detailed insights into recent significant earthquakes. The approval of a more inclusive public sponsorship scheme this year sets the stage for stronger collaborations in 2025. Looking Ahead As GEM prepares for 2025, its achievements in 2024 stand as a foundation for future innovations. Together with its partners, GEM remains committed to advancing seismic risk assessment and building safer communities worldwide. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News TREQ updates: OpenQuake online training, a success By: May 21, 2020 Share Facebook LinkedIn OpenQuake online training Thanks to the evolving tools for remote work, we have been adapting the activities of collaborative work from on site meetings and workshops to online video calls and trainings. The TREQ Project successfully conducted the first two OpenQuake online training for more than 50 participants from Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and El Salvador during April and May, 2020. The online OpenQuake training aimed to introduce and train educators in the use of the tool for scenario earthquake risk assessment. The workshops helped to identify and adjust online tools required to teach OQ remotely and maintain collaborations in the project. The results have now been used to design and customize upcoming OQ trainings for a wider audience, including students, professors and government officials in Latin America. The TREQ project team, Catalina Yepes, Alejandro Calderon, Ana Beatriz Acevedo and Daniela Gonzalez organized the online demo. The participants got the opportunity to use the OQ engine in their own laptops, and to review the basics and necessary tools for calculating seismic risk for scenarios. No images found. GALLERY 1/6 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GEM Governing Board reviews progress and confirms new and renewed partners By: Dec 16, 2025 Dec 5, 2025 Share Facebook LinkedIn The Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation held its Governing Board meeting on 4–5 December 2025, with the Advisory Board convening on 3 December. The meeting brought together Board members, advisors and the GEM Secretariat to review progress across the Foundation’s activities and to discuss priorities for the coming period. The first day focused on Secretariat reporting, with updates from the hazard, risk, information technology and communications teams, alongside reviews of ongoing partner activities. Discussions highlighted recent developments across GEM’s scientific programmes and operational platforms. Key governance decisions were taken during the second day of the meeting. The Board confirmed the appointment of NBRB Uganda as a new Public Governor, approved the joint Public Governor agreement (pending signature) of two bodies of the Croatian Centre for Earthquake Engineering, and welcomed Liberty Mutual as a new Private Advisor. Renewals of existing Governors were also approved, including Aon, NIED Japan, and NERC UK. The Advisory Board report was presented by its Chair, Laurie Johnson, whose term was renewed for a further two years, ensuring continuity in scientific and strategic advice to the Foundation. The meeting also featured a series of live demonstrations showcasing recent developments in GEM’s tools and platforms. These included updates to the PAPERS, AELO and oq-impact web platforms, demonstrations of RUBIC-AI, GEM’s algorithm for classifying buildings from images, and applications of augmented reality for earthquake risk communication. The meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on progress and to look ahead, as GEM continues to advance its scientific agenda and collaborations in support of improved seismic risk understanding and resilience worldwide. ## No images found. GALLERY 3.1.png 1 (10).png 2 (10).png 3.1.png 1/3 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News GRII agreement signing with UNDRR, University of Oxford, and GEM Foundation By: Jun 28, 2023 Share Facebook LinkedIn GEM Foundation has signed an important agreement between the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), the UNDRR, and Oxford University to collaborate on the Global Resilience Index Initiative (GRII). The GRII was established to make climate risk data available to governments and financial institutions to inform and foster climate-resilient investments worldwide. GEM’s inclusion in this partnership recognises that GEM’s expertise, tools, data and collaboration framework can also be applied to assessing climate change impacts and risks. I.T. represents an important link for GEM with the climate change risk assessment community. Zurich, Switzerland, 1 June 2023: Today at the IDF Summit 2023, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), the Insurance Development Forum (IDF), the University of Oxford, and the GEM Foundation signed a new agreement to advance the Global Resilience Index Initiative (GRII) and establish a Global Resilience Hub to help countries, financial institutions and investors, map and quantify their current and future climate and disaster risks and demonstrate the benefits of investing in resilience. The collaboration will prevent leaders from ‘flying blind’ on physical climate risk and focus vital investments on areas of greatest need. Combining the insurance industry’s unparalleled foresight and modelling expertise, with the best UN and scientific data, the GRII will work with financial institutions and governments and capacity building programmes such as the Global Risk Modelling Alliance to improve the metrics and analysis essential to mobilise finance for adaptation and to better understand potential future loss and damage. An Operational Launch is planned for COP28 in Dubai and has been enabled by new in-kind and funding support from Climate Arc, the World Bank and the ongoing support of the UNDRR, UKCGFI, UK Research and Innovation, and the IDF. Further upgrades are being planned for COP29 in Australia assuming additional resources become available. Announced at COP26 under the mandate of UN Special Envoy for Climate Action & Finance, Mark Carney, the GRII provides critical data and metrics to save lives, mobilise finance for adaptation and incentivise resilient development. The initiative has gained remarkable traction as concerns over climate resilience have grown in the wake of recent disasters across both developed and developing countries. The data challenge has required an unprecedented collaboration across public, private and academic sectors combining resources and sharing expertise. GRII will respond to this challenge and the growing demand and will work to provide metrics, tools and guidance to support financial institutions, businesses and governments to increase investment in adaptation. Speaking at the IDF Summit 2023 Summit in Zurich, Switzerland, GRII patron and UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Mami Mizutori, said: “Currently, we know that only about 4 percent of all official development assistance related to disasters goes into prevention; the rest goes into response and recovery. This is not sustainable in the face of growing climate risks. There must be a rebalance towards investing more in prevention. The GRII helps point to where investment is needed and can have the most impact. By directing investments and resources to reduce climate risks before they create disasters, countries can build a sustainable resilient future for all.”By December it is expected that the GRII will provide open-access data to support solutions to some of the biggest challenges at CoP28 including climate adaptation investment and loss and damage implementation. Meryam Omi, Chief Executive, Climate Arc, founding funder of the new Hub, said, “Climate Arc is proud to support GRII’s work to improve the availability of physical climate risk and resilience data. GRII’s open, transparent asset-level data will support public and private financial institutions in accelerating the mobilisation of finance for adaptation and resilience in emerging and developing economies. We look forward to seeing the initiative continue to grow and reach even greater scale and impact in the future.”The worldwide risk modelling collaboration and work with financial institutions is coordinated by a Global Resilience Hub, hosted by Oxford University . Dr Nicola Ranger, Director of the new Hub and Leader, Resilience and International Development at the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, said: “Oxford has a strong record of advancing frontier science to save lives through public private academic collaboration. The data we are collectively building and making available through the Global Resilience Index Initiative is urgently needed to close the gap in investment in adaptation and nature-based solutions to protect people, prosperity and the planet and align finance with climate resilient development. We’re delighted to be working with partners internationally to deliver this important initiative.” John Schneider, Secretary General of the GEM (Global Earthquake Model) Foundation , a public-private partnership that is committed to reducing the risk of earthquakes and other natural hazards worldwide, said: “GEM recognises that the tools for assessing earthquake risk can be leveraged to assist in assessing climate change impacts and risks. Moreover, an understanding of physical and socio-economic vulnerability and the evolution of our natural and built environment are fundamental to understanding all of these risks. It is exciting to be part of the GRI Initiative to bring our collective expertise and information to the table.”The GRII has been coordinated by the Insurance Development Forum the platform co-chaired by the UN, World Bank and Industry to support practical climate resilience measures. The GRII is seen as key to directing financial flows towards resilient investments including homes, schools and infrastructure. Michel Liès, Chair of the Insurance Development Forum and Zurich, said: “We are delighted that the GRII has reached this important milestone in its capabilities, resources and governance. Our thanks to all our partners and supporters who have joined this collective endeavour to solve this grand challenge on the Race to Resilience.” Link to the press release: https://www.insdevforum.org/press-release-un-insurance-and-academic-leaders-sign-agreement-to-draw-upon-insurance-data-and-expertise-to-advance-climate-and-disaster-risk-analytics-and-help-mobilise-finance-for-adaptation/ No images found. GALLERY 1/0 VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Hazard Information Profiles Launched By: Dec 13, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn This new supplement to the UNDRR-ISC Hazard Definition & Classification Review – Technical Report provides hazard information profiles (HIPs) for 302 hazards of concern for disaster risk reduction efforts. The report and accompanying HIPs are the result of the collaboration of hundreds of scientists globally. GEM hazard scientists Kendra Johnson, Richard Styron and Robin Gee provided the HIPs for earthquakes and associated or triggered hazards, and John Schneider participated in the working group that produced the 2020 report on the “ Hazard Definition & Classification Review: Technical Review . The supplement is the first ever compilation of definitions of over 300 hazards that are relevant to the 2015 United Nations landmark agreements of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Paris Agreement on climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals. This compilation of existing information provides a starting point for bringing together information on hazards that will need to be regularly reviewed and updated by the relevant international institutions in partnership with the scientific community in order to build an information ecosystem better suited to the risks of today and tomorrow. No images found. GALLERY 1/1 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

News Eigenrisk® adds GEM earthquake modeling resources to its global catastrophe risk management platform By: Mar 16, 2022 Share Facebook LinkedIn ANN ARBOR, MI, January 2022 – EigenRisk® today announced a new agreement with Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation, an international public-private partnership committed to the development of open-source hazard and risk assessment software, tools and data, to make GEM’s global earthquake exposure modeling resources available through the EigenPrism® catastrophe risk management platform. “Earthquakes continue to be among the most deadly and devastating natural catastrophes in all parts of the world,” said Deepak Badoni, president, EigenRisk. “Our relationship with the GEM Foundation enables our clients around the globe to integrate earthquake-related risk analytics into their key business processes and be more proactive in all aspects of catastrophe planning, monitoring and response.” GEM’s Global Seismic Hazard Map (version 2019.1) will be its first dataset added to EigenRisk’s extensive library of hazard models from public and private sources. Users can easily select and compare risk results from multiple sources on the platform. "We're pleased to offer our global earthquake modeling capabilities to the risk management and insurance community through EigenRisk's platform," said John Schneider, GEM Secretary General. “The expanded availability of our resources aligns with our objectives to widen the global understanding of earthquake risk, enhance related protection and safety measures, and facilitate the development of insurance products that address the economic consequences of seismic events.” Beyond the global assessment capabilities currently available on the EigenRisk platform, GEM’s array of earthquake hazard, exposure and vulnerability models as well as OpenQuake software tools can be used to simulate the seismic behavior of buildings, lifelines and critical facilities. In particular, it allows for the assessment of the probability of earthquakes occurring, and the consequent physical damage and economic loss, essential information for implementing a wide range of risk reduction and transfer mechanisms, including parametric insurance. Press release link: . EigenRisk, Inc., an independent insurance technology firm, helps (re)insurers, brokers and risk managers across the globe manage catastrophe risk, and drive higher growth, customer engagement and operational efficiency. The firm's cloud-based platform provides one-stop access to powerful data management, geo-visualization, analytics, reporting, modeling, alerts and APIs. These capabilities are integrated with hazard data, event projections and simulations curated from more than 20 leading public and private sources to provide a more dynamic and complete perspective of risk. Visit www.eigenrisk.com. No images found. GALLERY 1/0 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS

Publications Working together to assess risk from global to local: lessons from the Global Earthquake Model Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2015 | Peer-reviewed Reliable, high-quality risk assessment is the basis for an objective understanding of risk; priority for action 1 of the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-2030. It is the foundation of decisions and actions that effectively build resilience. Earthquake risk continues to rise, yet reliable data, risk information, and assessment tools are out of reach or under-utilised in many areas of the world. The Global Earthquake Model (GEM Foundation) was created to bridge these critical gaps. Through authentic collaboration across public and private stakeholders, the GEM community supports risk management and awareness by developing and implementing open risk assessment tools, compiling and generating risk information. GEM influences risk reduction by promoting technology transfer and developing risk assessment capacity. All GEM risk assessment resources are made freely available through its web-based OpenQuake platform. As input to the Sendai framework, this paper provides an overview of GEM's achievements to date, lessons learnt - emphasizing effective modes of collaboration and capacity development -, and presents opportunities and challenges in going forward. This paper is from the Global Risk Forum Davos Planet@Risk Journal, which is no longer available.

Publications Potential impact of earthquakes during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic Share Facebook LinkedIn Download 2020 | Peer-reviewed The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic caused a human and economic impact of unprecedented magnitude in contemporary history. In an effort to reduce the rate of infection, most governments implemented measures to increase social distancing and to strengthen the capacity of the healthcare system. The occurrence of earthquakes coincident with the pandemic may prevent the effective practice of such measures, and consequently cause an increase in the virus spread. This study analyzes the potential impact that seismic events may have on the infection rate within regions afflicted by both epidemics and earthquakes and explores open software packages that can be employed to simulate the impact of future destructive earthquakes on the spread of an emerging virus. Recent data on the number of confirmed cases at the national or subnational level were combined with a global seismic hazard and risk map to produce a combined index. This index highlights regions where preparedness and contingency plans should be developed to account for the possibility of COVID-19 outbreaks due to the earthquake impact.

News GEM’s updated Africa Exposure model is now available! By: Dec 13, 2021 Share Facebook LinkedIn The Africa Exposure Model covering northern, western, sub-Saharan and South Africa was first released in May 2019 as part of the Africa Earthquake Model, a mosaic of regional models which underpins the African portion of GEM’s global maps released in December 2018 . The update features major revision of residential, commercial, and industrial exposure across the continent; detailed review of national and regional statistics on construction materials and costs; spatial disaggregation of exposure to an evenly spaced grid of 144 arcseconds; and projection of exposure for future years (5-year increments from 2020 until 2050). The exposure model was developed for the African continent using a consistent approach across all countries. The model uses national statistics at the subnational level, and further disaggregates the exposure based on population distribution to a resolution of 144 arcseconds. Urban and rural buildings are disaggregated in different areas based on regional urban cluster data. The exposure was also projected for multiple years until 2050 considering both population growth and urban growth in anticipation of the significant population growth and rate of urbanization throughout much of Africa, making the projection of exposure to future decades critical. Currently, the vulnerability of Africa’s built environment remains relatively high, mainly because a large proportion of buildings are constructed using unreinforced masonry and adobe bricks, which are highly vulnerable to damage from ground shaking. The results of this updated exposure model can be used by risk managers, urban planners, emergency responders and humanitarian agencies for input to a wide range of disaster risk mitigation or reduction activities including monitoring of the Sendai Framework indicators. Results summary (refer to the image gallery) - Distribution of the main construction materials across Africa - Expected population increase in major regions in the world - Top 5 Countries by Building Count Access the paper for free @sciencedirect until March 25: https://bit.ly/3B1VpEL Download the following models at: Eastern Africa Exposure Northern Africa Exposure Western Africa Exposure Southern Africa Exposure Central Africa Exposure No images found. GALLERY 1/7 Gallery VIDEO RELATED CONTENTS