A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

4Living with Risk: A global review of disaster reduction initiativesThe Earthquake Engineering Research Institute(EERI), in the United States is a nationalnonprofit, technical society of engineers, geoscientists,architects, planners, public officials,and social scientists, with the objective toreduce earthquake risk by advancing the scienceand practice of earthquake engineering.The organization seeks to accomplish thisobjective by improving the understanding ofthe impact of earthquakes on the physical,social, economic, political and cultural environments,and by advocating comprehensive andrealistic measures for reducing the harmfuleffects of earthquakes. EERI is recognized asthe authoritative source for earthquake riskreduction information in the USA, and in partnershipwith other nations, and is involved indeveloping earthquake risk reduction informationworldwide.The Institute is best known for its field investigationsand reconnaissance reports detailingthe effects of destructive earthquakes. OftenEERI serves as coordinator for the investigativeefforts of several organizations. EERImembership includes leading earthquakeinvestigators in all relevant fields from manycountries, and has been engaged for manyyears in a project, with National Science Foundationsupport, to maximize the learning fromdestructive earthquakes. Preliminary informationon the effects of destructive events is pub-Primary GFMC products include• early warning of fire danger• near-real time monitoring of fire events• interpretation and synthesis of fire information• archive of global fire information• facilitation of links between national and internationalinstitutions involved in fire research, developmentand policy development• support of local, national and international bodies todevelop long-term strategies or policies for wildlandfire management• emergency hotline and (restricted) liaison capabilitiesfor providing assistance in rapid assessment anddecision-support for responding to wildland fireemergencies.lished in the monthly Newsletter. Largerreports on major earthquakes are published assupplements to Earthquake Spectra, EERI'squarterly professional journal. EERI alsosponsors post-earthquake technical briefings,an effort to reach professional communitiesthroughout the United States.In addition to its publications, EERI has producedmore than 50 slide sets covering specificearthquakes and their impacts, earthquakeresistant design, seismicity, unreinforcedmasonry buildings, loss reduction measures,mitigation of earthquake hazards, and a newseries on earthquake basics. Videotapes producedby EERI include technical briefings onthe Armenia, Loma Prieta, and Hokkaidonansei-okiearthquakes. Further informationabout EERI and the availability of its informationmaterials can be found on the organization'swebsite at www.EERI.org.Volcanic HazardsWithin the volcanological community, theWorld Organization of Volcano Observatories(WOVO), a commission of IAVCEI, is startingto build a major database involving informationabout the former "Decade" volcanoes.(www.volcano.undp.nodak.edu/vwdocs/wovo)By providing both researchers and citizensalike more access to the details that scientistsare monitoring, it will help everyone proceedfrom overly simplistic considerations of"whether a volcano will erupt tomorrow ornot", to a more realistic availability of data withinterpretations provided along with theiraccompanying uncertainties. The system willalso convey information about what is beingmonitored to reduce those uncertainties, andclarify what else can and cannot be forecast.Initially, the database, WOVOdat will be an historicaldatabase so that observatories can conducttheir own research for two years beforeproviding data to WOVOdat, but eventually, itis anticipated that observatories may realize thebroader benefits to be gained by sharing data inreal-time.174