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Proceedings of the International Conference on
Advances and New Challenges in Earthquake
Engineering Research, Hong Kong Volume
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THE MID-AMERICA EARTHQUAKE CENTER RESEARCH
PROGRAM TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OF CONSEQUENCE-
BASED SEISMIC RISK MITIGATION
D.Abrams 1 , A.Elnashai 2 and J.Beavers 3
1 MAE Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL, USA
2 MAE Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL, USA
3 MAE Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, EL, USA
ABSTRACT
A new framework for managing seismic risk, termed Consequence-Based Engineering (CBE), has been
adopted and articulated by the Mid-America Earthquake (MAE) Center. This entails undertaking rapid
assessment, comparing expected and acceptable consequences, re-assessing hazard, vulnerability and
inventory, investigating various possible vulnerability reduction measures and decision making regarding
benefit and cost of the various options. This process is not limited to structural systems, but rather to all
societal endeavors, including economic and social ramifications. Moreover, the framework, or paradigm,
of CBE is not limited to seismic nsk, but pertains to other forms of exposure and indeed to multiple
hazard scenarios. To elaborate this framework and to provide a comprehensive set of application
guidelines, the MAE Center has formulated a core research program comprising a number of fully
coordinated projects aimed at covering all aspects of seismic risk mitigation measures viewed from a
consequence-based perspective. The research program is described in this paper. The individual projects
are described and their role towards development of CBE is discussed. The intricate process of meshing
the various research projects, items of input and output and their inter-relationship is described. Finally,
the anticipated outcome of the MAE research program, namely (i) a complete and state-of-the-art seismic
risk mitigation environment, (ii) technical developments amenable to exploitation by industry and other
stakeholders and (iii) the advanced IT visualization system through which the technical developments are
projected to aid decision- and policy-makers, are presented.