NEED FOR CHANGE
Funding for NEHRP has focused on research to increase knowledge about earthquake
hazards and on engineering techniques to reduce earthquake losses. The mitigation
practices developed through research and development must be voluntarily
adopted by bodies largely outside the control of the federal government.
As a consequence, the degree of national earthquake risk reduction envisioned
by many has not been achieved (Appendix A2). There needs to be additional
education of people about the risk of earthquake hazards in their region
and the employment of steps which can be taken to mitigate these hazards.
NEHRP's research and development programs demonstrate that the cost of seismic
safety for protection of life rarely exceeds two percent of the construction
cost for well-designed new buildings. However, new construction changes
the entire American building inventory by as little as one percent each
year. This means that new construction reduces the potential number of casualties,
damaged buildings, and corresponding social/economic disruptions caused
by earthquakes by only a very small percentage each year. Furthermore, the
normal time required to research a new idea, move it through code acceptance,
and into widespread practice can be more than a decade. Thus even over several
decades, earthquake loss reduction will be modest in much of the United
States despite any great breakthroughs which have or may occur in science
and engineering--unless greater attention is given to improving the performance
of existing buildings and lifelines.
The initial NEHRP legislation envisioned the federal role as that of a provider
of information. Subsequent amendments to the legislation added the roles
of stimulating and promoting risk reduction actions. However, the actual
level of such actions as evidenced by the adoption of earthquake resistant
building codes by local or state governments has not kept pace with expectations.
This gap between risk reduction action to date and expectations has led
to the recommendation from the Advisory Committee of the National Earthquake
Hazard Reduction Program that NEHRP "incorporate a programmatic implementation
mechanism that creates strong incentives for the adoption of earthquake
risk reduction measures..." These issues are complex and require extensive
analysis to ensure that policies have the intended consequences; their resolution
will likely require legislation. Some of these issues are currently being
addressed by a working group led by the National Economic Council. Others
would be addressed by the Program Office envisioned in the new National
Earthquake loss reduction Program (NEP).
Besides the four agencies designated by the National Earthquake Reduction
Act, a number of other agencies also have a fundamental interest in, and
have significantly investigated, earthquake risk reduction. The Department
of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense (Army Corps of Engineers and
Navy), Department of Energy, Department of Transportation (Federal Highway
Administration), Department of Health and Human Services, Department of
Housing and Urban Development, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission all engage
in substantial independent hazard identification and risk reduction programs
for their mission-oriented programs, and the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) is active in earthquake process research as part of
its Mission to Planet Earth. The earthquake-related activities of these
non-NEHRP agencies have in the past lacked an integrating mechanism.
In November 1993 the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee
on Science, Space and Technology and a bipartisan group of eight other Representatives
signed a letter to the President outlining continuing concern about the
Federal government's efforts to reduce the nation's earthquake losses. Their
main concerns focused on NEHRP and were basically threefold: 1) a lack of
strategic planning; 2) insufficient coordination and implementation of research
results; 3) and a lack of emphasis on mitigation. The January 1994 Northridge
Earthquake gave a greater sense of urgency and importance to the issue.
To address the need to make NEHRP and our nation's earthquake research effort
more effective, Dr. John H. Gibbons, Presidential Science Advisor and Director
of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), directed in March
1994 that a study under the auspices of the Office of Science and Technology
Policy (OSTP) be undertaken to review the research and implementation issues
related to earthquake hazards. The review examined the performance and effectiveness
of the national earthquake program from two perspectives: 1) earthquake
research and development (R&D) performed under the sponsorship of the
NEHRP, and 2) the implementation of knowledge gained from this R&D in reducing
earthquake losses. The review was conducted under the direction of the President's
National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) and was coordinated with
the Subcommittee on Natural Disaster Reduction.
The review activities were conducted by the National Earthquake Strategy
Working Group (NESW), with membership drawn from over a dozen federal agencies
in addition to the four NEHRP agencies, and was sponsored and chaired by
OSTP (participation listed in Appendix B1). An important element of the
review was a National Earthquake Strategy Workshop convened by OSTP and
held in Washington, D.C., June 6-8, 1994. The workshop included representatives
from each of the NESW agencies and a full spectrum of the user community,
from architects, earth scientists, earthquake engineers, emergency managers
to social scientists, building officials, and facility owners (listed in
Appendix B2). The workshop was used to identify the user community's views
on priorities and goals for a National Earthquake Loss Reduction Strategy,
the level of effort required to meet these goals, and the necessary federal
coordination mechanisms.