natural hazards
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California’s Other Drought: A Major Earthquake Is Overdue
California earthquakes are a geologic inevitability. The state straddles the North American and Pacific tectonic plates and is crisscrossed by the San Andreas and other active fault systems. Tragic quakes that occurred in 2017 near the Iran-Iraq border and in central Mexico, with magnitudes of 7.3 and 7.1, respectively, are well within the range of earthquake sizes that have a high likelihood of occurring in highly populated parts of California during the next few decades. The earthquake situation in California is actually more dire than people who aren't seismologists like myself may realize. Although many Californians can recount experiencing an earthquake, most have never personally experienced a strong one. For major events, with magnitudes of 7 or greater, California is actually in an earthquake drought. Multiple segments of the expansive San Andreas Fault system are now sufficiently stressed to produce large and damaging events.
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How Open Data and Open Tools Can Save Lives During a Disaster
If you've lived through a major, natural disaster, you know that during the first few days you'll probably have to rely on a mental map, instead of using a smartphone as an extension of your brain. Where's the closest hospital with disaster care? What about shelters? Gas stations? And how many soft story buildings-with their propensity to collapse-will you have to zig-zag around to get there? Trying to answer these questions after moving back to earthquake-prone San Francisco is why I started the Resiliency Maps project. The idea is to store information about assets, resources, and hazards in a given geographical area in a map that you can download and print out.
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National Science Foundation Creates $3M CONVERGE Center to Augment Natural Hazards Research
To enhance the diversity of research underway in natural hazards, the National Science Foundation recently created CONVERGE, a $3 million research center at the University of Colorado Boulder. The center is a resource for the 11-member, NSF-funded Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure, known as NHERI. One of the NSF 10 Big Ideas, "convergence" describes the merging of scientific disciplines in a coordinated, reciprocal way that fosters the robust collaborations needed for successful inquiry. For NSF, convergence research is driven by a compelling problem that can be solved by deep integration between disciplines.
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44th Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop
Since 1975, the Natural Hazards Center has hosted the Annual Natural Hazards Research and Applications Workshop in Colorado. Today the Workshop brings together over 500 federal, state, and local mitigation and emergency management officials; representatives of nonprofit, private sector, and humanitarian organizations; hazards and disaster researchers; and others dedicated to alleviating the impacts of disasters. Our Theme: This year, the Workshop will be organized around the theme of Convergence, which refers to the process of people joining forces to respond to pressing challenges and enduring problems. These connections often require the crossing of boundaries, whether they be disciplinary, organizational, geographic, cultural, political, or otherwise. This work can be challenging, but it is also where fundamental breakthroughs in science and application are most likely to occur.
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