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The Governing Board of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM), a 5-year project initiated by the OECD Global Science Forum, met on November 21 to decide on the future site of its international secretariat. Following an independent expert evaluation of the bids, led by the Global Science Forum secretariat, the board decided in favour of the European Centre for Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering (EUCENTRE) situated in Pavia, Italy.
The GEM, scheduled to open in February 2009, aims to build an open worldwide standard for calculating and communicating earthquake risk. The GEM online tool will compute the likelihood of an earthquake, forecast the resulting losses in lives and property, and will enable users to evaluate the benefit of building code enforcement and of insurance coverage in any location. GEM will be developed by a multi-disciplinary and multi-national network of experts from science, engineering, industry, and economics.
A public-private partnership, GEM will be supported both by the public institutions and governments of participating countries and by private sponsors, including founding sponsor Munich Re (€5m), Zurich Financial Services (ZFS, €3m), the risk modelling company AIR Worldwide (€1m), and insurance broker Willis (€1m).
GEM website: http://www.globalquakemodel.org/
The issue of earthquake science was first addressed by the Global Science Forum, under the leadership of the Delegation of Germany, at a workshop on 1-2 June, 2006, in Potsdam. The aims of the workshop were to:
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review the history and current trends in earthquake science, with an emphasis on new developments and paradigms.
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compare and contrast national and regional approaches, plans, projects and priorities.
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identify potential new sources of data and the relevant needed infrastructures.
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examine the state of international cooperation and to explore prospects for new initiatives.
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agree on a set of findings and conclusions that would be included in a brief, policy-level report.
Chairman’s report
The principal recommendation of the Potsdam Workshop was the creation of an international “Global Earthquake Risk Map” initiative. The goal of the initiative would be to create a global earthquake risk analysis information resource, using internationally agreed standards.
Interested countries and stakeholders were invited to discuss how to move the initiative forward (defining an organisational model, a business plan, solutions for the continual updating of the information and long-term funding of the platform, solutions for data access, interoperability, etc.). An international Steering Committee was set up to prepare detailed documents for establishing the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) as an international public/private project.
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