Reducing Seismic Hazard and Building Capacity Through International Cooperation
Abstract
During the last 50 years, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Caspian Sea regions have experienced several devastating earthquakes. While each country in the region has worked with its neighbors on small, ad-hoc projects to improve preparedness, deeply ingrained political and ethnic rivalries, and severely stressed economies have severely hindered sustained regional cooperation. Future damaging earthquakes are inevitable and without proper planning the negative impact on public safety, security, economics and stability in these regions will be devastating. We have, through twelve years of international scientific cooperation, focused on the development of an expanded skill base and infrastructure, through the installation of new, modern, digital seismic monitoring networks, building of historic databases, sharing seismic, geologic and geophysical data, conducting joint scientific investigations utilizing the new digital data and applying modern techniques, as well as the development of regional hazard models that the scientists of the region share with their governments and use to advise them on the best ways to mitigate the impact of a damaging earthquake. We have established specialized regional scientific task-force teams who can carry out seismological, geological and engineering studies in the epicentral zone, including the collection of new scientific data, for better understanding of seismic and geodynamic processes as well to provide emergency support in crisis and post-crisis situations in the Southern Caucasus countries. "Secrecy" in crisis and post-crisis situations in the former Soviet Union countries, as well as political instabilities, led to an absence of seismic risk reduction and prevention measures as well as little to no training of scientific-technical personnel who could take action in emergency situations. There were few opportunities for the development of a next generation of scientific experts, thus we have placed emphasis on the inclusion and development of young scientists who are able to advise their countries' decision makers in the future. By building a common and shared set of databases, making available new modern, scientific tools, and providing joint training field exercises we are working to enable the countries to make independent decisions about their infrastructures and to pool their resources in the event of another earthquake. Out of the earthquakes' devastation has come a positive outcome: a scientific partnership to address the seismic hazards along one of the world's most tectonically active regions. This is contributing to a rapprochement of the scientists, decision makers, and politicians in this region. This work was supported through the following international projects: ISTC A-1418 Project "Open Network of Scientific Centers for Mitigation Risk of Natural Hazards in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia", ISTC CSP-053 Project "Development of Communication System for Seismic Hazard Situations in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia", and NATO SfP- 983284 Project "Caucasus Seismic Emergency Response", with participants from the Southern Caucasus countries, the US, Greece, Turkey, and France. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in part under Contract W-7405-Eng-48 and in part under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.S43J..03V
- Keywords:
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- 7299 SEISMOLOGY / General or miscellaneous;
- 4300 NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4343 NATURAL HAZARDS / Preparedness and planning