AIR Sponsors Global Earthquake Model Project

Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide Corporation announced it is sponsoring the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) project, a five-year project led by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to produce the first global, open source model for seismic risk assessment. AIR scientists and engineers will collaborate with leading earthquake researchers in many aspects of earthquake risk quantification and will have access to new global data sets.

"The Global Earthquake Model project generates information of the highest standard through cooperation between many of the world's top earthquake experts," says Dr. Ross Stein, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey & GEM co-founder. "AIR's expertise and support will help ensure that GEM will be the critical instrument to support decisions and actions that reduce earthquake losses worldwide."

The GEM initiative brings together leading scientists from around the world to create open source models based on data sets and model components that are assembled using a systematic and uniform approach for all regions. Such data sets may include: clean historical catalogs and fault databases; data on ground motion observations for historical events; vulnerability of structures in different countries; and damage and loss information for historical events.

"In developing countries there often is little or no insurance and the financial burden is borne largely by the government," says Dr. Jayanta Guin, senior vice president of research and modeling at AIR Worldwide. "AIR's scientific and financial contributions to GEM are consistent with AIR's support for the private-public partnerships that are needed to help developing countries better plan, react and recover from natural catastrophes."