Strategy for National Earthquake Loss Reduction
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
It is likely that one or more severely damaging earthquakes will strike
the United States within the next decade. As the 1994 Northridge earthquake
showed, the cost of earthquake damage to buildings and infrastructure is
unacceptably high. The 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake provided a stark reminder
that earthquakes can be killers, even in countries that have undertaken
substantial earthquake mitigation. But while earthquakes are inevitable
natural hazards, they need not be inevitable disasters. Our nation can reduce
the losses of life, casualties, property losses, and social and economic
disruptions from future earthquakes through prudent actions.
Congress recognized this in 1977 with the passage of the Earthquake Hazards
Reduction Act which established the interagency National Earthquake Hazards
Reduction Program (NEHRP). NEHRP has been successful in conducting research
to increase knowledge about earthquake hazards and on engineering techniques
to reduce earthquake loss. However, risk reduction actions based on research
results, such as the adoption of earthquake resistant building codes by
state and local governments, have not kept pace with expectations.
The new National Earthquake loss reduction Program (NEP) is designed to
strengthen and extend NEHRP*. The NEP aims to focus scarce research and
development dollars on the most effective means for saving lives and property
and limiting the social disruptions from earthquakes, coordinate federal
earthquake mitigation research and development and emergency planning in
a number of additional agencies beyond those in NEHRP to avoid duplication
and ensure focus on priority goals, and cooperate with the private sector
and with state and local jurisdictions to apply effective mitigation strategies
and measures. Its goals are:
- Provide leadership and coordination for federal earthquake research;
- Improve knowledge of earthquake processes and effects;
- Continue to expand technology transfer and outreach;
- Improve engineering of the built environment;
- Improve data for construction standards and codes;
- Continue the development of seismic hazards and risk assessment tools;
- Analyze seismic hazard mitigation incentives;
- Develop understanding of societal impacts and responses related to
earthquake hazard mitigation;
- Analyze the medical and public health consequences of earthquakes;
and
- Continue documentation of earthquakes and their effects.
Leadership and coordination of the NEP will be conducted by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Coordination through FEMA will ensure
both increased attention to transfer of research results to the user community
and that the research remains focused on goals that can aid mitigation and
save lives and property. The NEP is budget neutral. No redirection of budgetary
authority between Federal agencies is implied or intended. The non-Federal
implementation of earthquake loss mitigation practices is not a direct fiscal
responsibility of the NEP. However, because most mitigation decisions are
made at the state or local levels of government, or in the private sector,
the ultimate success of the NEP largely depends on its effectiveness in
stimulating the actions of these groups to mitigate earthquake risks.
*The program was designed under the direction of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) by the National Earthquake Strategy
Working Group (NESW) which included representatives of over twenty federal
agencies that have a program interest in earthquake loss reduction. Recognizing
that implementation of earthquake loss mitigation occurs primarily at the
state and local level, the NESW held a national forum with engineers, scientists,
architects, building officials, social scientists, and emergency managers
from state and local government, academia, and the private sector to gain
their views, concerns, and recommendations which are reflected in this report.