The USGS Earthquake Hazard and Risk Information System

Date: 4/25/2019

Time: 06:00 PM

Room: Fifth Avenue

Federal, state, tribal, and local government agencies, architects and engineers, utilities, insurance companies and other private businesses, land use planners, emergency response officials, science enthusiasts and the interested public rely on the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for important hazard and risk information. In response to the informational needs of our many stakeholders, the USGS provides a continuum of products that convey information about earthquake hazards and risks. This “Earthquake Information System” is widely used in order to support risk mitigation, and also includes near-real-time earthquake information products aimed at situational awareness to support decision-making, response and recovery. Rapid earthquake notifications are delivered by email and text message to over 500,000 subscribers, and a spectrum of earthquake information products including ShakeMap, Did You Feel It?, rapid PAGER estimates of financial and human impacts, and scientific data are automatically delivered on the web and via geoJSON feeds. In addition to releasing periodic updates to its National Seismic Hazard Model, which underlies the national-scale building codes, the USGS partners with State and local experts to produce more detailed urban seismic hazard maps for high- to moderate-risk areas, which make it possible for local officials to make precise and informed zoning and building code decisions. New products include a nationwide library of scenario earthquakes, rapid post-earthquake ground failure estimations, and aftershock forecasts. We will explore why these products exist and what messages they communicate, what audiences they are aimed at, how they address our strategic objectives, meet the needs of our many stakeholders, and how these products are interconnected to comprise an earthquake hazard and risk information system for the USGS.

Presenting Author: Michael L. Blanpied

Authors