Speaker Information: 6th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering
Punctuated Resilience, Climate Change and Bio-Geotechnics
Speakers and Abstracts
Alejandro Martinez
Associate Professor, University of California, Davis
Snakeskin-inspired piles and soil anchors: from bio-inspiration to field implementation
Abstract: Many aspects of the construction and performance of infrastructure rely on load transfer between soils and structures. Examples include deep foundations, soil anchors, and geosynthetics. This presentation will highlight the application of bioinspiration towards the transfer of load at soil-structure interfaces, with an emphasis on piled foundations and soil anchors. A dilemma in design exists: while large skin friction promotes a large capacity, it can also lead to difficulties during installation (i.e. refusal). To address this, surfaces with textures inspired by the belly scales of snakes were designed to assess the potential for mobilizing direction-dependent friction, and centrifuge and field load tests were performed to assess their effect the shaft capacity of piles and soil anchors. The laboratory, centrifuge, and field results reveal that greater skin friction is mobilized when the surfaces and piles are displaced in the cranial direction (i.e. soil moving against asperities) than when they are displaced in the caudal direction (i.e. soil moving along asperities). This direction-dependence is shown to be due to the greater soil deformation induced when the surfaces are displaced in the cranial direction. Cyclic interface shear tests and centrifuge load tests inform the degradation of skin friction mobilized by the bioinspired surfaces and piles. This presentation will discuss the potential benefits of the snakeskin-inspired surfaces in sites with sandy and clayey soils.
Bio: Alejandro Martinez is an associate professor at the University of California Davis. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from Georgia Tech in 2015 and 2012, respectively, and his B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2010. His research aims to further the understanding of soil behavior and soil-inclusion interactions involved in geotechnical engineering. His research interests include bio-inspired geotechnics, soil-structure interactions, offshore geotechnics, and fabric effects on soil behavior. His research employs a combination of experimental laboratory, centrifuge modeling, and numerical techniques. In 2020, he received the NSF CAREER award and in 2022 he received the ASCE Arthur Casagrande Career Development Award.
Thomas O’Rourke
Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Engineering Emeritus, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University
Presentation Title Coming Soon!
Abstract: The concept of punctuated equilibrium, as advanced by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge, is applied to infrastructure in this presentation. Professor O’Rourke will discuss how key infrastructure policies have been punctuated by hazards that affect the built environment. Just as the fossil record is composed of flash pictures that imply catastrophic change, so the record of hazards can provide a similar impression. Hazards that occurred once every generation, now occur almost yearly. Professor O’Rourke will explore how frequent hazards, such as hurricanes, affect resilience, and become a mechanism for improving the engineering and management of critical facilities. The agents of change that lead to improved policies and approaches are explored, including new technologies and the engagement of community support.
Bio: Tom O’Rourke is the Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Engineering Emeritus in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, Distinguished Member of ASCE, International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Member of the Mexican Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He authored or co-authored over 440 technical publications, and has received numerous awards for his research. His interests cover geotechnical engineering, earthquake engineering, underground construction technologies, engineering for large, geographically distributed systems, and geographic information technologies and database management.
J. Carlos Santamarina
Professor & G. Wayne Clough Chair, Georgia Institute of Technology
The Energy-Climate-Livability Challenge: New Roles for the Earthquake Engineering Community
Abstract: Climate change is rapidly emerging as a significant threat to daily life, with profound implications for livability and the infrastructure. Caused by our reliance on fossil fuels, climate change affects water and food security, urban development, migration and consumption patterns, and policy at both national and international levels. The multifaceted consequences of the energy-climate-livability challenge are already testing vulnerabilities across all sectors, disproportionately affecting the most susceptible populations. The earthquake engineering community has a role to play in addressing these evolving challenges. Key areas include the seismic design of new and retrofitted civil infrastructure, the reimagined transportation systems, new onshore and offshore energy infrastructure (wind, solar, and storage systems – ranging from household to grid-scale), and mining operations for critical minerals essential for the energy transition. Special attention should be given to seismicity induced by energy projects (geothermal and hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas) and the interaction between more frequent extreme climatic events and seismic activity (e.g., more pronounced debris flows). Furthermore, the earthquake engineering community’s expertise with cyclic loading can be extended to the analysis of energy infrastructure subjected to low-amplitude repetitive loads, including storage systems, wind turbines, and thermally active components.
Bio: J. Carlos Santamarina (Professor and Clough Chair, Georgia Tech) earned his bachelor’s degree from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba and completed graduate studies at the University of Maryland and Purdue University. Throughout his career, he has taught at NYU-Poly, the University of Waterloo, and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. His research team utilizes a combination of experimental and numerical methods to investigate geomaterials (sediments, fractured rocks, and complex fluids) within the context of energy geo-science and engineering, from resource recovery to energy and waste geostorage. He delivered the50th Terzaghi Lecture on Energy Geotechnology and is a member of both Argentinean National Academies.
Christopher Wills
Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego
Punctuated Equilibrium and How It Works
Abstract: In 1972, Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould introduced the term “punctuated equilibrium” to describe the bursts of evolution that follow sudden major changes in the Earth’s environment, and the long periods of relative stasis that lay between these giant events. Now, we realize that many groups of organisms have managed to survive even the severest punctuations, and that waves of extinction have taken place even during periods of slower evolutionary change. Major extinction events do put severe stress on the entire biosphere, but we will see how Darwinian evolution enables life to recover from these stresses. The powerful process of evolution often takes life in new directions even without the aid of giant environmental disasters.
Bio: Born in England, Christopher Wills grew up in Canada. From1972 until his retirement in 2010 he was associate and full professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego. He was the first to deliberately select for genetic variants in enzymes. He has explored the roles of genetic recombination in the maintenance of genetic variation in Drosophila and yeast, and the role of microsatellite DNA variation in the evolution of diseases and the evolution of our species. Most recently, he has organized a large group of ecologists from around the world to apply new analytical methods to the forces that are maintaining variation in complex ecosystems such as rainforests and coral reefs. He has written nine books for the general public on evolution and ecology, the most recent being “Why Ecosystems Matter” (Oxford University press, 2024). In 1999, he received the Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
6th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering
USGS Software Tools for Site-Specific Ground Motion Hazard Analysis
A Three-Quarter Day Short Course
Nicolas Luco, Supervisory Research Structural Engineer, U.S. Geological Survey
Peter Powers, Research Geophysicist, U.S. Geological Survey
Jorge F. Meneses, Senior Principal Geotechnical Engineer, Worley Consulting
Friday, September 13th, 2024, 8am-2:30pm
University of California, San Diego
This short course will demonstrate software tools from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for site-specific ground motion hazard analysis and will provide an opportunity for feedback from earthquake engineering users. The 2022 edition of the ASCE 7 Standard (Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures) includes changes to the site-specific ground motion procedures of Chapter 21. For example, the deterministic ground motions that cap the otherwise probabilistic (risk-targeted) values are now calculated via “scenario earthquakes” from hazard disaggregations. The new site-specific procedures are expected to be part of the 2025 California Building Code. Many of the USGS software tools are also useful for the AASHTO bridge design specifications.
MEET THE INSTRUCTORS
Dr. Nicolas Luco
Nico is a Supervisory Research Civil Engineer with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at its Geologic Hazards Science Center in Golden, Colorado. There he serves as the Project Lead for the National Seismic Hazard Model, as of 2024. He also serves as a USGS Liaison on numerous external engineering committees that develop the seismic provisions of U.S. building codes, including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Seismic Subcommittees for the ASCE 7 and 41 Standards. Prior to joining the USGS in 2004, he was a Senior Analysis Engineer with the insurance risk modeling company AIR Worldwide Corporation. He earned his PhD and BS in civil/structural engineering, and an MS in statistics, from Stanford University; his MS in civil/structural engineering is from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Peter Powers
Peter Powers is a research and development geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey. Peter started his career as a geologist and worked in both the mining and tech sectors before attending the University of Southern California, from which he received a PhD in geophysics and seismology. He began his time at the USGS in 2008 as a Global Earthquake Model (GEM) post-doc and developer of OpenSHA and the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast version 3 (UCERF3). He now develops software and tools to support updates to USGS national hazard models and related research.
Dr. Jorge F. Meneses
Dr. Jorge F. Meneses is a Senior Principal Geotechnical Engineer with Worley Consulting and has more than 30 years of consultancy, project management, research, and teaching experience, in both private industry and research institutions in the field of geotechnical and earthquake engineering. He has been involved in numerous projects serving as a technical lead in geotechnical earthquake engineering and foundation engineering across the country and various markets including water, nuclear, transportation, high rise buildings, energy, schools, hospitals, commercial and industrial. Dr. Meneses frequently acts as a peer reviewer for technical conferences and technical journal publications, is a guest speaker for domestic and international conferences, and has published more than 60 technical publications. He is currently a part-time faculty member in the graduate school of San Diego State University. He was the President and Founder of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) San Diego Chapter, California Seismic Safety Commissioner, Member of the EERI Board of Directors, Honorary Chair of the ASCE Geo-Institute San Diego Chapter, ex-Member of the ASCE 7-16 (Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures), member of the ASCE 1 (Geotechnical Analysis, Design, Construction, Inspection and Monitoring of Nuclear Safety-Related Structures) and ASCE 7-28 Committees, member of the Academy of Geo-Professionals, member of the Academy of Geo-Professionals, and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
PROGRAM
| Time | Topic/Speaker | |
|---|---|---|
| 8:00am | 9:00am | Registration and Breakfast |
| 9:00am | 9:15am | Welcome and Overview of Program |
| 9:15am | 9:45am | ASCE 7-22 Chapter 21 Site-Specific Ground Motion Procedures Jorge F. Meneses |
| 9:45am | 10:30am | USGS Application of Site-Specific Procedures for ASCE 7-22 Chapter 222 Ground Motion Maps Nicolas Luco |
| 10:30am | 10:45am | Break |
| 10:45am | 11:30am | Site-Specific Hazard Curves from USGS Earthquake Hazard Toolbox Peter Powers |
| 11:30am | 12:00pm | Updated USGS Risk-Targeted Ground Motion Calculator Nicolas Luco |
| 12:00pm | 1:00pm | Lunch |
| 1:00pm | 1:30pm | Site-Specific Disaggregations from USGS Earthquake Hazard Toolbox Peter Powers |
| 1:30pm | 2:00pm | Deterministic Response Spectra from USGS Earthquake Hazard Toolbox Peter Powers |
| 2:00pm | 2:30pm | Other Current and Future USGS Software Tools Peter Powers and Nicolas Luco |
VENUE
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093
REGISTRATION
Click here to register for the short course.
LODGING
Click here for a list of hotels near UCSD.
6th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering
Punctuated Resilience, Climate Change, and Bio-Geotechnics | Next-Generation Liquefaction Modeling of Liquefaction Triggering and Surface Manifestation
Thursday, September 12th, 2024, 8am-5pm
University of California, San Diego
This year’s Kenji Ishihara Colloquium will include the Next Generation Liquefaction (NGL) project (Steve Kramer, Jonathan Stewart, Scott Brandenberg, Ken Hudson, and Kristin Ulmer) and the topic of Punctuated Resilience, Climate Change, and Bio-Geotechnics (Christopher Wills, Thomas O’Rourke, J. Carlos Santamarina, and Alejandro Martinez).
PROGRAM
Session 1: Punctuated Resilience, Climate Change, and Bio-Geotechnics
| 8:00am | 9:00am | Registration and Breakfast |
| 9:00am | 9:05am | Welcome and Overview of Program |
| 9:05am | 9:35am | Christopher Wills |
| 9:35am | 10:05am | Thomas O'Rourke |
| 10:05am | 10:25am | Discussion |
| 10:25am | 10:40am | Break |
| 10:40am | 11:10am | Alejandro Martinez |
| 11:10am | 11:40am | J. Carlos Santamarina |
| 11:40am | 12:00pm | Discussion |
| 12:00pm | 1:00pm | Lunch |
Session 2: Next-Generation Liquefaction Modeling of Liquefaction Triggering and Surface Manifestation
| 1:00pm | 1:15pm | Project Overview and Database Overview John Stamatakos, Jonathan Stewart |
| 1:15pm | 1:40pm | Model Development Philosophy - Bayesian Framework Steven Kramer (Video) |
| 1:40pm | 2:05pm | Laboratory-Based Triggering Model Kristin Ulmer |
| 2:05pm | 2:30pm | Discussion |
| 2:30pm | 2:45pm | Break |
| 2:45pm | 3:20pm | Case History Processing Kenneth Hudson |
| 3:20pm | 3:45pm | Critique of Critical Layer Approach to Model Development Jonathan Stewart |
| 3:45pm | 4:00pm | Profile-Based Model Development Approach Scott Brandenberg |
| 4:00pm | 4:35pm | Proposed Manifestation and Triggering Models Kenneth Hudson |
| 4:35pm | 5:00pm | Discussion |
VENUE
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093
REGISTRATION
Click here to register for the colloquium.
LODGING
Click here for a list of hotels near UCSD.
Speaker Information: 5th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering
Advancing Earthquake Engineering and Functional Recovery in the Wake of the Turkey Earthquake
Speakers and Abstracts
Tristan E. Buckreis
Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, Los Angeles
Future Impacts of Ground Motions from the February 6, 2023 Türkiye Earthquake Sequence
Abstract: The 2023 Türkiye/Syria earthquake sequence is a once-in-a-century catastrophe, which includes the February 6 M7.8 mainshock followed approximately nine hours later by a M7.7 aftershock, and many smaller aftershocks. These events occurred in a region near the boundary of the Anatolian and Arabian plates (East Anatolian Fault), in the proximity of which numerous ground motion recordings sites had been installed north of the Türkiye/Syria border. As a result, the events were well recorded both near the fault where empirical databases generally lack observations, and at rupture distances up to 571 km. The repercussions of these events will have a lasting effect on the region, and their scientific and engineering impacts will prove to be influential for future ground motion related studies and efforts, such as the NGA-West3 project. In general, the data from this earthquake sequence will be useful for earthquake engineering applications, such as ground motion studies (e.g., ergodic and non-ergodic ground motion model, GMM, development), geotechnical studies (e.g., liquefaction), and structural dynamics. Preliminary spatial analyses of residuals have highlighted complex path effects in the region, likely related to differences in crustal properties between the Anatolian and Arabian plates. Since the events were well recorded over a wide distance range (0.6 – 571 km), the data produced from this sequence can be used to better capture these complex path effects. Furthermore, the M7.8 mainshock produced 25 usable records within 10 km of the rupture surface (38 within 25 km), which represents a magnitude-and-distance range of great interest to engineers. These near-source records are vital to ground motion studies of directivity and permanent-static displacements, and will also be used as input ground motions for response-history analysis of structures. It is the burden of the seismological and earthquake engineering communities to learn from this catastrophe to advance our knowledge and practice in order to mitigate the calamity of such events in the future.
Bio: Tristan E. Buckreis is a postdoctoral scholar in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received his B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from California State University, Long Beach in 2017, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil Engineering (Geotechnical) from UCLA in 2018 and 2022, respectively. His area of expertise is in geotechnical earthquake engineering, with emphasis on ground motion characterization of regional path effects and local site response. His work also includes applications of microtremor-based horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) in site response prediction, and curation and development of the NGA-West3 Project relational database.
Riccardo Cappa
Senior Consulting Engineer, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH)
Presentation Title Coming Soon!
Abstract: Coming soon!
Bio: Riccardo Cappa, Ph.D., P.E., has more than 10 years of professional experience in performance evaluation of power and water infrastructures. His academic research examined the seismic hazard and failure potential of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, through a combination of geotechnical centrifuge experiments and numerical studies. He is currently a Senior Consulting Engineer at SGH in the Newport Beach (CA) office and specializes in seismic probabilistic risk assessment methods for industrial and power generating plants, with a focus on nuclear power facilities. Riccardo has co-authored more than 30 papers and standards, including several research reports for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). He has recently received the 2022 Heki Shibata early career award from the International Association for Structural Mechanics in Reactor Technology (IASMiRT) for his nuclear research and the 2022 Thomas Middlebrooks award from ASCE GI for his academic contribution to advancing the understanding of the seismic response of organic soils. He has collaborated with EPRI to develop improved equipment seismic capacities based on experience data and Bayesian inference, and has contributed to update and expand the SQUG online database, one of the largest collection of post-earthquake investigation data, including observations from 200+ large facilities subject to 35+ earthquakes. He has performed post-earthquake investigations of power and water infrastructures in Alaska (2018 M7.1), Ridgecrest (2019 M7.1), and Puerto Rico (2020 M6.4), and has recently led the EERI Lifelines reconnaissance team in Turkey following the February 2023 M7.8 earthquake.
Louise K. Comfort
Professor Emerita and Former Director, Center for Disaster Management, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh
The Gap Between Knowledge and Action: The 6 February 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes
Abstract: Coming soon!
Bio: Louise K. Comfort is professor emerita and former director, Center for Disaster Management, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh. She is a Visiting Researcher at the Policy Lab, Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), University of California, Berkeley. She is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration since 2006 and received the 2020 Fred Riggs Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Section on International Comparative Administration, American Society for Public Administration (SICA-ASPA). Her recent books include: Comfort, L.K. 2019 The Dynamics of Risk: Changing Technologies and Collective Action in Seismic Events, Princeton University Press; Comfort, L.K. and M. L. Rhodes, Eds. 2022. Global Risk Management: The Role of Collective Cognition in Response to COVID-19, Routledge Publishing; and Comfort, L.K. and H. P. Rahayu, Eds. 2023. Hazardous Seas: A Sociotechnical Framework for Early Tsunami Detection and Warning, Island Press. She has done field studies of 24 earthquake response systems in 14 countries, including a small social science reconnaissance study following the 6 February 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye. Her research focuses on decision making in response to natural hazards and other urgent events: earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, wildfire, and COVID-19.
Rupa Garai
Senior Associate Principal, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Lessons Learned from Turkey Earthquake
Abstract: Coming soon!
Bio: Rupa Garai, P.E., S.E., LEED AP, is a Senior Associate Principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with 20+ years of experience in structural engineering services. She has lead the design of new and retrofitted structure, including mixed-use towers, commercial buildings, airports, courthouses, spec laboratories, education, residential, and office towers. Rupa is interested in exploring innovative concepts and ideas and is actively involved in the research and development of energy-dissipating technologies. She has published 25+ papers and is an active member of American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Technical Committee and BSSC 2026 Provisions Update Committee (PUC) and Issue Team (IT), where she chairs and co-chairs various committees.
Kit Miyamoto
Global CEO, Miyamoto International, Inc.
2023 Türkiye Earthquake: State of the Art Rapid Assessment and Reconstruction of Damaged Structures to Reduce Internally Displaced Population
Abstract: 2023 Turkey earthquake caused 35,000 mid-rise buildings collapse, killed 51,000 people and 4.1 million people homeless. The program conducted by the largest municipality in the affected area, Gaziantep provided innovative rapid shelter solutions for Internally Displaced Population by assisting them in returning to repairable buildings.
Twenty-four hours immediate after earthquake, a team of international and Turkish engineers dispatched to understand damage context and assess ongoing emergency response and early recovery efforts. The Jet Proportion Lab (JPL) provided satellite data showing geographical point changes comparing pre and post-disaster imagery. This data was used to develop damage proxy maps for earthquake-affected cities and towns in the disaster impacted areas of southern Turkey and identify the areas for response attention. Using the remote satellite images, the urban areas within the damage zone was computed.
Next, the program provided technical assistance on cost-efficient, rapidly implementable repairs required to make light and moderate damaged building stock habitable. The program conducted state of art app-based vulnerability assessment surveys to identify the vulnerability classification and cost-efficient repair method based on locally available materials and labors for each damage type. BOQs and repair cost estimates generated enabled households to repair their homes rapidly. 3,100 structures were assessed, supporting an estimated 75,000 people.
Bio: Click here to read about Dr. Miyamoto.
Osman Ozbulut 
Associate Professor, University of Virginia
Bridging the Gap: Understanding Turkey’s February 6 Earthquake Ground Motions Through a Structural Lens
Abstract: The 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence included two very high-magnitude earthquakes that occurred approximately 9 hours apart on neighboring fault lines, affecting a wide region in southeastern Türkiye. Not only did the seismic activity exceed expectations, but also the damage observed after these earthquakes surpassed all predictions. In this presentation, we will discuss the damage observed in reinforced concrete (RC) frame and shear wall buildings, as well as the performance of seismically isolated RC buildings. This discussion will take into account the seismic demands imposed on such structures, estimated from ground motion measurements obtained from the nearest seismic stations. We will also explore the effects of changes in seismic hazard maps and construction practices on the observed structural performance. The lessons learned from these events can be applied to the design and construction of future buildings, enhancing their resilience in the face of seismic activity and contributing to the overall safety of our built environment.
Bio: Osman Ozbulut is a Professor of Civil Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on advancing a new generation of resilient and sustainable civil infrastructure through innovations in structural systems, materials, and sensing technologies. He has conducted extensive research on developing and characterizing shape memory alloy (SMA)-based self-centering passive energy dissipation and seismic isolation devices, aimed at mitigating damage and enhancing the post-event functionality of buildings exposed to seismic hazards. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)Infrastructure Resilience Division (IRD) Emerging Technologies Committee, the ASCE Structural Engineering Institute(SEI) Seismic Effects Committee, and the Structural Control and Sensing Committee. Additionally, he serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Intelligent Material Systems & Structures, showcasing his commitment to advancing the field.
Grace Parker
Research Geophysicist, United States Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center
Characterization of Source, Path and Site Effects on Ground Motions From the 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, Earthquake Sequence
Abstract:We seek to understand the physical processes that generated the strong ground motions observed during the 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, earthquake sequence, reasons why recorded motions may differ from existing ground motion models (GMMs), and factors controlling the observed variability. The devastating 2023 Türkiye earthquake sequence, including the M7.8 Pazarcik mainshock and the M7.5 Elbistan aftershock, occurred in the Eastern Anatolian Fault Zone. Because these destructive earthquakes represent an unprecedented set of near-source ground-motion records, understanding their genesis could improve GMMs and hazard estimates in Türkiye and worldwide. We perform an ensemble GMM residual analysis, examining ground motions from the 2023 sequence as well as other previous regional earthquakes, using a total of 63 M5+ events recorded on 1116 stations. Using many smaller earthquakes allows for robust sampling of source, site, and path effects, including consideration of more complex spatially varying and azimuth-dependent effects that we might expect to be present on a nationwide scale. We consider ground-motion residuals relative to the reference GMMs of Boore et al. (2014) and Kale et al. (2015) for spectral acceleration between 0.05s and 10s and peak ground motions. This talk will describe the partitioning and analysis of residuals into components representing repeatable source, path, and site effects towards understanding the relative contributions and physical implications of each.
Bio: Grace Parker is a research geophysicist at the USGS Earthquake Science Center. Her focus is understanding and modeling earthquake ground motions, with a special interest in seismic site response. She has developed models as a part of the NGA-East and NGA-Subduction projects that have been adopted for use in the USGS National Seismic Hazard Model. She is also involved in the USGS-led Shake Alert earthquake early warning project, where she works to determine the best real-time methods to estimate shaking intensities used to generate alerts. She holds a B.S. in Applied Geophysics and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from UCLA.
Esra Zengin
Senior Researcher, Natural Hazards Risk and Resiliency Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles
Investigation of Damage Potential of Ground Motions of the 6 February 2023 Pazarcik Turkey Earthquake by Developing Spatial Distribution of Inelastic Spectra
Coauthored by Yousef Bozorgnia, Aidin Tamhidi, Silvia Mazzoni
Abstract: On February 6, 2023, a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck the southeastern part of Turkey, followed by a powerful aftershock with a magnitude of 7.7. Extensive damage in southern Turkey and northern Syria posed significant challenges for modern seismic design and existing structures’ resilience. This study primarily focused on evaluating the destructive potential of ground motions resulting from the Pazarcik mainshock, with a key emphasis on analyzing inelastic strength demand spectra. These spectra provide invaluable insights, particularly when considering the yield coefficient, denoted as “Cy”. The Cy represents the ratio between a structure’s yield strength (the point where it starts to undergo plastic deformation) and its total weight. In seismic design, engineers ensure the Cy value matches the desired ductility level, which characterizes a structure’s capacity to deform and absorb energy without failing. This Cy-ductility relationship is vital in creating earthquake-resistant buildings by balancing strength and ductility. Inelastic constant-ductility spectra were constructed by utilizing recording stations located within 100 km of the rupture distance (i.e., the closest distance to the fault plane). The results showed that, for structural periods of 0.5 seconds and 1.0 seconds, the Cy demand at a ductility level of 3 exceeded the Cy levels specified in the seismic design code for the 475-year return period, particularly when the rupture distance was less than 10 km. Given recorded ground motions, we generated time series for non-instrumented sites using a Gaussian Process Regression model (Tamhidi et al. 2023). Subsequent inelastic analyses were conducted, employing simulated ground motions to examine the variation in ductility demand across the area. The study concluded by comparing its outcomes with the observed damage patterns.
Bio: Dr. Esra Zengin holds a Ph.D. in Structural and Earthquake Engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul, and received a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. She joined UCLA’s Natural Hazards Risk and Resiliency Research Center in 2022, following research positions at UC Davis and UC Berkeley, and a faculty position at Beykent University, Istanbul. Her research interests include characterization and modeling of ground motion, probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, seismic performance and risk assessment of structures.
Reid Zimmerman
Technical Director, KPFF
Recovery Lessons for the U.S. in the Wake of the Kahramanmaraş Turkey Earthquake Sequence
Abstract: Southeastern Turkey and northern Syria were struck by two significant magnitude earthquakes on February 6th, 2023 that led to widespread severe building damage and collapse and an earthquake-affected area of 14 million people. Reid traveled to the earthquake-affected areas as part of an ASCE Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) team approximately seven weeks after the earthquakes. He will share his and the team’s observations from reconnaissance conducted over 10 days and more than eight cities, especially focusing on implications for recovery following a major earthquake in the U.S.
Bio: Reid Zimmerman is the Technical Director for the Portland, Oregon office of KPFF and has focused his career on advanced structural systems (e.g., seismic isolation, energy dissipation, rocking systems, etc.) and complex analytical techniques for assessing the effects of extreme hazards on structures. He is active in U.S. code development through ASCE 41, ASCE 7 and the Building Seismic Safety Council including chairing subcommittees on functional recovery and seismic isolation and energy dissipation.
Ali Sumer
Chief Intelligence Officer, Emergency Operations Center, California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI)
2023 Turkiye Earthquake Sequence: Performance of Hospitals
Abstract: The 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes provide an unprecedented learning opportunity due to the strong earthquake shaking affecting modern engineered buildings. A hospital reconnaissance team, consisting of engineers from USA and Türkiye and a medical doctor from Türkiye, visited many hospitals in the earthquake area. The team collected structural and nonstructural data to identify what conditions allowed hospitals to continue to serve the community and which prevented the continuity of care. Of particular interest was learning the impediments to functional recovery.
Bio: Ali is the manager of hospital seismic retrofit program at California Department of Health Care Access and Information (formerly called OSHPD). He is a licensed structural engineer with a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering. He plays an active role on Emergency Operations Center at HCAI, acting as chief intelligence officer. Prior to joining the state, Ali worked in private industry for 9 years. He has performed several seismic retrofit projects, and has experience in performance-based design using nonlinear analysis techniques, building collapse risk analysis, and equipment shake table tests. He served as president of SEAOC Central. He is the co-creator of seismicmaps.org website to serve the engineering community.
5th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering
Advancing Earthquake Engineering and Functional Recovery in the Wake of the Turkey Earthquake
October 2023
Virtual Webinars
Join us for this free three-part webinar series on the lessons learned from the 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Turkey Earthquake Sequence. Researchers, expert engineers, and social scientists will come together in this Kenji Ishihara colloquium to discuss structural engineering and the far-reaching social implications of the Turkey earthquake sequence. Experts will share their insights on the lessons learned from the Turkey earthquake and how these are shaping the future of earthquake engineering, disaster preparedness, and response to enhance engineering practices and expedite seismic functional recovery.
Click image on right to view event flyer.
PROGRAM
Webinar #1: Thursday, October 5th, 2023, 11am-2pm PDT
Lessons Learned from Processing Ground Motions & Code Comparisons
Panelist 1 – Grace Parker, USGS Earthquake Science Center, Characterization of Source, Path and Site Effects on Ground Motions From the 2023 Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, Earthquake Sequence
Panelist 2 – Tristan E. Buckreis, UCLA, Future Impacts of Ground Motions from the February 6, 2023 Türkiye Earthquake Sequence
Panelist 3 – Osman Ozbulut, University of Virginia, Bridging the Gap: Understanding Turkey’s February 6 Earthquake Ground Motions Through a Structural Lens
Panelist 4 – Esra Zengin, UCLA, Investigation of Damage Potential of Ground Motions of the 6 February 2023 Pazarcik Turkey Earthquake by Developing Spatial Distribution of Inelastic Spectra
Webinar 2: Thursday, October 12th, 2023, 11am-2pm PDT
Functional Recovery of Buildings
Panelist 1 – Ali Sumer, HCAI
Panelist 2 – Reid Zimmerman, KPFF, Recovery Lessons for the U.S. in the Wake of the Kahramanmaraş Turkey Earthquake Sequence
Functional Recovery of Lifelines
Panelist 3 – Riccardo Cappa, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH)
Panelist 4 – Ezra Jampole, Exponent
Panelist 5 – Rupa Garai, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, Lessons Learned from Turkey Earthquake
Webinar 3: Friday, October 27th, 2023, 11am-2pm PDT
Impacts to Social Recovery
Panelist 1 – Louise K. Comfort, University of Pittsburgh, The Gap Between Knowledge and Action: The 6 February 2023 Türkiye Earthquakes
Panelist 2 – Kit Miyamoto, Miyamoto International, Inc., 2023 Türkiye Earthquake: State of the Art Rapid Assessment and Reconstruction of Damaged Structures to Reduce Internally Displaced Population
REGISTRATION
Click here to register for the colloquium.
SDXEAA & EERI PE Seismic Design Workshop
Saturday, September 30th, 2023
9:45am-1:45pm
College-Rolando Branch Library
6600 Montezuma Road
San Diego, CA 92115
San Diego Chi Epsilon Alumni Association (SDXEAA) is teaming up with EERI San Diego to co-host a free introductory workshop to seismic design for the California Seismic Principles Exam of the PE. Topics to be covered include spectral response, base shear, ASCE 7-16 seismic design criteria, and shear wall design, with example problems. This workshop will provide an overview of key concepts meant as a starting point for participants in their exam preparation. Light refreshments will be provided.
This event is open to members of the public, including non-members of SDXEAA or EERI SD.
Click the image on the right to view the event flyer.
REGISTRATION
Click here to register for the workshop. Space is limited.
ASCE EERI Joint Luncheon 2023
WHAT’S NEW IN THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF NONSTRUCTURAL COMPONENTS?
Tuesday, September 26th, 2023
11:30am-1:30pm
Stone Brewing Liberty Station
2816 Historic Decatur Road, Unit 116
San Diego, CA 92106
ASCE San Diego Section is co-hosting their September Lunch Program with EERI, featuring guest speakers Dr. Gloria Faraone, Assistant Professor at SDSU, and Dr. Roberto Nascimbene, Associate Professor at IUSS Pavia. The luncheon will review damage of non-structural elements from various international earthquakes, as well as results of post-installed anchors undergoing testing at UCSD.
For members of EERI and ASCE = $45.00
For non-members = $55.00
For public agency workers = $30.00
For more information, click the image to the right to view the event flyer.
REGISTRATION
Click here to register for the luncheon.
Registration is required as no walk-ins will be allowed.
The Keller Seismic Knowledge Lecture Series
June to August 2023
Virtual Webinars
Spend your summer with Keller Group! A longtime and valued supporter of EERI events, they are hosting a series of seismic seminars featuring geotechnical experts showcasing their novel research and work. Below is their remaining webinar schedule. You will earn 1 PDH credit per lecture for attending.
PROGRAM
June Lecture: Thursday, June 15th, 2023, 12pm-1pm PDT
Seismic Stability of PG&E’s Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
Jeff Bachhuber, C.E.G.
Click here to register.
Description: Jeff Bachhuber, C.E.G., will discuss the history of seismic studies and ongoing earthquake monitoring under the PG&E Long Term Seismic Program. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant generates 9% of California’s electric power and 20% of its carbon-free electricity. It is located in a seismically active area with a potential M7.5 earthquake. The seismic design of the plant is among the highest of any nuclear facility in the world and has a substantial safety margin. The plant has undergone multiple seismic studies, including a reassessment after the damages to the Fukushima nuclear power plant after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
July Lecture: Wednesday, July 19th, 2023, 12pm-1pm PDT
Application of the CPT to Evaluate Soil Liquefaction
Peter K. Robertson, Ph.D.
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Description: Peter K. Robertson, Ph.D., will present a brief overview of advances made in the evaluation of soil liquefaction using the CPT. Examples will be presented to illustrate how the CPT is used to evaluate both seismic and flow liquefaction. The presentation will also discuss the role of uncertainty and risk as it applies to liquefaction assessment.
August Lecture: Tuesday, August 15th, 2023, 12pm-1pm PDT
A New Probabilistic Approach to Liquefaction Susceptibility
Kevin Franke, Ph.D., PE,
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Description: Kevin Franke, Ph.D., PE, will present a new probabilistic procedure to assess liquefaction susceptibility and triggering for CPT-compatible soils. It eliminates the need for fines content adjustment, identifies a threshold for fine-grained soils not susceptible to liquefaction, and differentiates the liquefaction resistance of clean sands with varying mineralogy and compressibility. However, it may overpredict liquefaction-induced settlements if clean-sand volumetric strain models are inappropriately applied to clayey soils. Practical guidance is provided for handling clayey soils predicted to “liquefy.”
EERI Distinguished Lecture
From Ductility to Repairability: Evolution of Building Design in the Wake of the Christchurch Earthquake
A Joint Event with EERI UCSD
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
4pm-7pm
SME 248, University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA
New Zealand and many other countries around the world adopted ductility-based design concepts in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The adoption of these design concepts is likely the single most important advancement in our design philosophy in terms of protecting life safety in future earthquakes. Ductility, however, cannot be achieved without damage to the structure and its contents. Recent earthquakes have openly challenged the engineering community as to whether our focus on ductility has delivered what society intrinsically expects from its buildings during and after strong earthquakes. Recognizing that building design is best driven by observations from real earthquakes, we will use the 2011 Christchurch Earthquake as a case study to explore if it is time for another fundamental shift in our approach to building design; from ductility to repairability.
How we design and construct buildings will clearly influence building performance in future earthquakes, which will in turn influence outcomes for occupants (injuries and deaths), as well as for the buildings themselves (demolition, repairs, abandonment). But it is the economic, environmental and social impacts resulting (in part) from these human and building outcomes which leave a lasting impression on our communities. Managing these impacts from future earthquakes should be the driver behind future changes to how we design buildings. Eleven years after the Christchurch earthquake we are now in a better position to appreciate such impacts including business losses, insurance costs and delays, environmental impacts, urban blight, and wellbeing. We will review some of these impacts and reconsider if our building design targets are suitable for managing these impacts in future earthquakes. We argue a need to change our focus from just life-safety to serviceability in frequent earthquakes and repairability in design level ground motions. Component deformation limits for concrete buildings which enable structural repair without loss of structural safety will be discussed and the repairability of current structural designs will be assessed.
Click the above image on right to view event flyer.
REGISTRATION
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PROGRAM
4:00pm – Reception (light snacks provided)
4:30pm – Distinguished Lecture
6:00pm – Reception at Dirty Birds (limited pizza provided)
SPEAKER
Professor Ken Elwood, University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand
Ken is a Professor in Earthquake Engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is currently seconded to New Zealand Government as Chief Engineer (Building Resilience). Through this role, Ken champions the resilience of New Zealand’s built environment, by promoting collaboration between relevant research, policy, and practice players.
VENUE & PARKING
Room SME 248
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093
Click here to view directions to Room SME 248 and Gilman Parking Structure.
Click here to view parking rates.
Speaker Information: 4th Kenji Ishihara Colloquium Series on Earthquake Engineering
Impact of Climate Change on Community Earthquake Resilience
Speakers and Abstracts
Daniel Armanios
BT Professor, University of Oxford
The Role of Physical Infrastructure on Inequality
Abstract:When we think of physical infrastructure, we often focus on the assets themselves, such as bridges, pipelines, transmission systems, and roads, amongst others. However, we often think less about the role of the people and organizations that influence and guide the design and management of such systems. At the same time, when we think of structural inequality, we think about long-standing institutional norms and practices that advantage one group over another. However, we do think less about how such practices can become physically embodied in infrastructure systems that allow such inequality to scale and to persist. In other words, perhaps inequality is not just “structural” metaphorically (via institutions) but also literally (via physical infrastructure). My talk will bring together these views. First, we will demonstrate that access to infrastructure does not evenly accrue to everyone, unlike how prevailing models incorporate infrastructure. Second, we will demonstrate the deleterious ramifications of this uneven access, namely that certain disadvantaged groups may be systematically shut out from the U.S. high-tech economy. Third, we show one possible mechanism for how this may occur – infrastructure as “institutional relics”. Infrastructure is “institutional” in that they are sited and designed based upon the authoritative standards of the time and/or location. They are relics in that given their long design life, these systems often persist, even after their standards are later updated and changed. Finally, I will discuss some possible strategies for addressing these challenges and their implications and framing with regards to earthquake resilience.
Bio: Dr. Daniel Armanios is the BT Professor of Major Programme Management at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School as well as a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership at Tsinghua University’s Schwarzman College. He was formerly an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. Daniel’s current research interests lie at the intersection of institutions, engineering systems, and public policy & entrepreneurship. More specifically, he focuses on the social processes that influence how physical and scientific infrastructure is built and subsequently used to achieve entrepreneurship, innovation, and sustainable development outcomes.
Sahar Derakhshan
Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES)
University of California, Los Angeles
Intersection between climate change and earthquake resilience: Community resilience
Abstract: One common ground for the impacts of climate change and earthquakes is the community itself and its adaptive capacity, existing vulnerabilities and inherent resilience. This translates into the disproportionate impact of hazard events across communities, which we have seen in previous disasters and will observe more if we do not include this important aspect in our resilience and mitigation planning. What are the current trends in measuring social vulnerability and community resilience, how can these merge with earthquake engineering designs, and where are the research/practice gaps in this union? We will explore the answer to these questions through some examples from previous events and mitigation plans.
Bio: Dr. Sahar Derakhshan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES), UCLA and an affiliated researcher at the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute (HVRI), University of South Carolina. She is a civil engineer (B.Sc.), has received her doctorate in geography from University of South Carolina, and holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from University of California, Berkeley. Her work experience extends from industry to research institutions including projects for the World Bank for risk assessment and National Academy of Sciences (Gulf Research Program). Her research interest is to study and assess the effect of geospatial inequalities, social and economic status, and institutions in taking action to foster change in mitigation planning and disaster recovery, for a safer and more resilient community.
Susan Cutter
Carolina Distinguished Professor, University of South Carolina
Director, Hazards Vulnerability and Resilience Institute (HVRI)
Disaster Inequality and Equitable Risk Reduction
Abstract: The presentation examines the evidentiary basis for equitable risk reduction in an era of increasing risk inequality. Changes in the nature of hazards and their management have created a new normal of extreme events, increasingly complex and cascading hazards and fostered persistent disaster inequalities. Recognizing such inequalities is not the same as showing proof of them and integrating the empirically based evidence into practice and policy. Examples from South Carolina’s recent disasters experience illustrates how to translate and integrate research into disaster mitigation and resilience policy and practice at local, state, and federal levels.
Bio: Dr. Susan Cutter is a Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina and director of the Hazards Vulnerability and Resilience Institute (HVRI). She has authored or edited 15 books, 150+ plus peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and mentored more than 60 masters and doctoral candidates. Her research focusses on disaster vulnerability and resilience science with specific reference to methods, models, and metrics. Her scientific contributions include the hazards of place model of vulnerability, the disaster resilience of place (DROP) model, as well as tools for assessing spatial and temporal variability in vulnerability (Social Vulnerability Index or SoVI®) and resilience (Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities [BRIC] Index). Her policy-relevant work focuses on the evidentiary basis for hazard mitigation and disaster recovery policy and practice at local, state, national, and international levels. In particular, she continues to lead investigations of the disproportionate spatial and temporal impacts of disasters on vulnerable populations and the places where they live. Dr. Cutter is an elected fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She received an honorary doctorate from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (2015) and elected as a foreign member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. She was also the recipient of her discipline’s three highest awards: American Association of Geographers (AAG) Lifetime Achievement, Presidential Achievement, and the Wilbanks Award for Transformational Research.
Negar Elhami-Khorasani
Associate Professor, University at Buffalo
Planning for fire following earthquake considering interconnected infrastructure systems
Abstract: Fire following earthquake is a cascading multi-hazard event in seismic-prone regions and can lead to significant social and economic losses. Past events, such as the 1994 Northridge earthquake with 110 earthquake-related fire ignitions, confirm the increased likelihood of post-earthquake fires. The impacts of cascading events become more acute in modern communities with interdependent infrastructure systems, where disruption in one system could affect the operability of other infrastructure systems. This presentation discusses the impacts of fire following earthquake on dense urban communities. The proposed framework incorporates the effects of earthquake damage on electric, water, transportation, and building inventory. A decision-making algorithm is implemented to guide the response of the fire department to locations of ignition considering available resources in terms of fire engines and water pressure, delayed response time, and fire spread within and between buildings. The proposed framework is applied to a case study and the results are demonstrated in terms of the efficiency of suppression action by the fire department and direct economic losses. The developed framework can benefit public safety and community resilience to cascading multi-hazard events.
Bio: Negar Elhami-Khorasani is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at the University at Buffalo. Her primary areas of research are performance-based design and resilience assessment of structures and communities under extreme hazards including structure fires, wildfires, earthquakes, and cascading multi-hazard events, such as post-earthquake fires. The outcomes of her research enhance safety by developing codes and guidelines, and minimize losses by optimizing mitigation, preparedness, and response strategies. Elhami-Khorasani is the co-Chair of the ASCE/SEI Fire Protection Committee and led the Fire Following Earthquake Task Group in charge of publishing a book on procedures for analysis of buildings for post-earthquake fires. She serves as an associate editor for Fire Technology by Springer Nature. She is also a member of the fib, IAFSS, and the SEAoNY Resilience committees. She was the recipient of the 2020 AISC Early Career Faculty award and the Fire Protection Research Foundation Medal. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Department of Transportation, United States Geological Survey, National Fire Protection Association, and ASCE Structural Engineering Institute.
alex grant
Research Civil Engineer, United States Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center
The Impacts of Sea Level Rise on San Francisco Bay-area Liquefaction Hazard
Abstract: The San Francisco Bay area (SFBA) in California is a densely populated, low-lying coastal region built on alluvial sediment and fill situated between the highly active San Andreas and Hayward fault systems. The region has repeated demonstrated the damaging effects of liquefaction in past earthquakes, and the prediction of future liquefaction potential throughout the Bay Area remains an important topic of research. Motivated by requests from emergency managers in response to the USGS ‘HayWired’ earthquake scenario (a M7.0 earthquake on the Hayward fault), we explored how liquefaction likelihood and impacts are expected to change over the coming decades with climate change driven sea-level-rise. This talk will discuss the results of our study on how future ‘HayWired’ earthquakes may develop greater coseismic (liquefaction) impacts due to sea-level-rise.
Bio: alex grant is a Research Civil Engineer at the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Science Center with an interest in regional-scale seismic and coseismic hazards, with emphases on subduction zones and the effects of climate change. alex got his Ph.D. from the University of Washington and B.S.E. from Tufts University in Civil and Environmental Engineering studying earthquake-triggered landslide hazard and risk.
Hussam Mahmoud
George T. Abell Professor, Colorado State University
Resilience of Healthcare Systems Under the Compounding Impact of Pandemics and Climate-Intensified Wildfires
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has graphically underscored the limitations and weaknesses of the ability of healthcare systems to effectively deal with a novel virus outbreak. Natural disasters in the U.S. further compound the effect of pandemics with conflicting mitigation strategies. Considering the compound impact of natural disasters and pandemics is particularly important given the predicted increase in intensity and frequency of climate-driven natural disasters and the increasing frequency of novel infectious diseases. To date, frameworks for quantifying the collective impact of pandemics and climate-intensified wildfires on hospitals are nonexistent. Moreover, analytical methods for capturing the dynamic spatiotemporal variability in capacity and demand of healthcare systems posed by different stressors are lacking. In this presentation, the combined effect of wildfire, inisfied by climate change, and pandemics on a network of hospitals will be investigated. Wildfire spread model will be used to evalaute the vulernability of the built-environment at the community level while accounting for how future climates might intensify structural vulnerabilities. Structural damgage from the wildfire scenarios will be combined with varying courses of the spread of COVID-19 to evaluate the effectiveness of different strategies for managing patient demand. The results show that losing access to medical care is a function of the relative occurrence time between the two events and is substantial in some cases and is likely to worsen in the future due to climate events. By applying viable mitigation strategies and optimizing resource allocation, patient outcomes could be substantially improved under the combined hazards.
Bio: Hussam Mahmoud is the George T. Abell Professor in Infrastructure in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University (CSU). He is Director of the Structural Laboratory at CSU and the academic advisor for the AISC Student Steel Bridge Competition. He obtained his BSc and MSc in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota and his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he was the manager of the NEES Earthquake Laboratory at the UIUC and a research scientist at Lehigh University. Dr. Mahmoud has authored over 250 publications and has given more than 140 presentations including 100 invited talks at national and international conferences and workshops. He is the current chair of the ASCE Committee on Multi-Hazard Mitigation and has chaired and served on other ASCE and AASHTO technical committees. He is the recipient of various awards, including the American Institute of Steel Construction early faculty career award, the American Iron and Steel Institute Robert J. Dexter Memorial Lecture Award, and the Air Force summer faculty fellowship award. He has been invited to various symposia by the U.S. National Academies, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Institute of International Affairs and has recently been selected by the NASEM among the New Voices Cohort. His research has received media coverage through citations and interviews in numerous venues, including Nature Climate Change, The U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNN.
Therese McAllister
Community Resilience Group Leader and Program Manager, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Enabling Community Resilience through Design Practices
Abstract: Communities are embracing resilience planning to prepare for future hazard events and ongoing stressors. Resilience addresses the ability of a community to recover its services and functions within a specified timeframe, averting potential disruptions, and to make improvements for future events and conditions. Built infrastructure plays a key role in community resilience.
Resilience builds upon well-established concepts that include urban planning, hazard characterization, reliability, life safety, risk management, mitigation, and emergency response. It provides a framework to integrate these and other concepts, such as functional recovery.
An overview of community resilience and its relevance to the built environment will be provided as context for considering resilience in the design process. Resilient buildings and infrastructure minimize damage and losses and help identify damage that is repairable within a specified time to support their role in recovering social and economic functions. While this is an active area of research and development, principles and available guidance for designing resilient buildings and infrastructure will be presented. An update on current progress and challenges will be presented, as well as the contributions that engineers can make to help communities become more resilient, with a focus on performance-based design and other tools.
Bio: Dr. Therese McAllister is the Community Resilience Group Leader and Program Manager in the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). She is also the NIST Technical Liaison for the NIST-funded Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, led by Colorado State University. She conducts research on community resilience, with a focus on the integrated performance of physical infrastructure and social and economic systems. She has expertise in structural reliability, risk assessment, and failure analysis of buildings and infrastructure systems.
She was recognized with the 2021 ASCE Walter P Moore, Jr award and 2018 ASCE Ernest E Howard Award for her research on structural codes and standards and on resilience. Dr. McAllister is a Distinguished Member of ASCE, a Structural Engineering Institute Fellow, and serves on the ASCE/SEI 7 standard committee, Infrastructure Resilience Division, the Technical Council on Life-Cycle Performance, Safety, Reliability and Risk of Structural Systems, and the SEI Board Level Resilience Committee.
Kit Miyamoto and Amir Gilani
Global CEO, Miyamoto International, Inc.
Manager, Miyamoto International, Inc.
Impact of climate change on the performance of the built environment
Abstract: Natural disasters have caused significant damage to the built environment in recent years. The 2005 Hurricane Katrina, the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the 2021 Western state wildfires in the US, and the 2022 Appalachia floods resulted in loss of life, damage to infrastructure and significant financial losses. The adverse impacts of climate change execrates the natural hazard vulnerability to infrastructure—sea level rise could inundate roads; larger and more frequent hurricanes could cause damage and increase the risk of flooding; higher rainfalls increase the probability of landslides; and higher temperatures results in additional fire damage. Many of the climate change effects also have adverse impacts on the seismic vulnerability of infrastructure: i) increased temperatures could result in closure of expansion joints for roadway and railroad bridges and induce additional demand into the columns; ii) increased flooding could undermine foundation of structures and bridges; cause scour and undermine their seismic performance; iii) increased fire danger could result in underground electric conducts that can be vulnerable to seismic loading; and iii) and increase rainfall could cause builders in developing counties to use thicker and heavier roofs causing building damage in the earthquakes.
In this presentation, the authors will focus on two recent events; collapse of the 2021 Surfside Condominium collapse in Miami, Fl; and ii) performance of buildings in recent earthquakes worldwide. Structural design mitigation to manage the risk posed to buildings will be discussed.
Steve Moddemeyer
Principal, CollinsWoerman
Command and Control is for Emergencies. Shared Values is for Adaptation and Recovery
Abstract: Before the floods of November, 2021, the Whatcom County Tribes, farmers, small cities, and Whatcom County River and Flood engineers had years of collaboration in the Nooksack River. The Floodplain Integrated Planning (FLIP) brought together conflicting interests to work together to reduce flood damage to farms and cities while also creating and supporting restoration of lost endangered fish habitat. FLIP successfully managed millions of dollars of well-designed solutions with multiple benefits by deploying shared values, good listening, advanced monitoring, and joint project proposals. On November 12, 2022 five atmospheric rivers hit the region in quick succession pouring trillions of gallons of rain into the Nooksack watershed causing widespread flooding in Whatcom and British Columbia. Damage in the billions of dollars took place as the river flooded wide areas of Whatcom as well as an ancient river course heading north to Canada’s Frazier River system. Response to the floods required quick action and multiple rescues. What was once a collaborative partnership between different interests shifted to command and control during and immediately after the flood. Trust built before the disaster was deeply stressed as major real-time decisions with potential long-term impacts were rushed toward implementation under extraordinary conditions. Yet once the floods retreated, two things remained: damage and the command and control mindset. Well-meaning state and federal emergency management agencies who excel in first response stepped into the community with a mix of opaque processes, acronym-heavy procedures, non-intuitive programs and regulatory expectations. At what point in a disaster is it appropriate to transition from command and control to collaboration? How can federal and state entities with disaster response priorities leverage local trust and rely on shared values collaborations to enhance the adaptive capacity of locally diverse communities as they recover from extreme events?
Bio: Steve Moddemeyer is a principal of CollinsWoerman with 31 years’ experience leading governments, land owners, and project teams towards increased sustainability and resilience. He creates tools, policies and programs that empower communities to implement resilience principles into planning for land use and urban infrastructure. He works on climate change adaptation, sustainability strategies for large urban redevelopments, and advanced sustainability strategies for land owners, cities, counties, and utilities. Steve is currently serving as Chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Hazard Mitigation and Resilience Applied Research Topics. He is an Advisor to the John Hopkins Center for Health Security on the Post-Pandemic Recovery Project. He is a past member of the National Academies of Sciences Resilient America Roundtable (two terms). He serves as an advisor to the University of Washington Masters in Infrastructure Management and Planning, Member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature: Resilience Theme Group, and founding member of The Little Think Tank, a group of academic and policy experts that focus on resilient recovery actions for American communities. Trained as a landscape architect, Steve creates multi-benefit implementation strategies that bring together natural and human systems by applying socio-ecological principles to system design, urban design, policy design, and industrial symbiosis development.
Adam Rose
Professor, University of Southern California
What Businesses Can Do to Plan for Recovery from Earthquakes and Climate Change Impacts Simultaneously
Abstract: Concern over climate change is increasing as evidence mounts about its destructive forces. This includes the effects of short-term climate variability (e.g., droughts, wildfires, more intense hurricanes) in addition to longer-term threats (e.g., temperature increases, sea-level rise). Many are quick to point to a supposed dichotomy between climate-disasters and earthquakes. This is the case when one considers the distinct causes and some of the impacts, but is much less so when it comes to recovery. If a factory with damage to its roof cannot produce at its pre-disaster level or if it no longer has access to one of its critical production inputs because one of its suppliers is damaged, the cause of the damage is irrelevant. Factories, and any other businesses and institutions, are essentially the same boat in terms of repair and reconstruction, as well as coping with the critical input disruption in the meantime.
Resilience is often defined broadly to include all actions to reduce risk, ranging from mitigation to emergency planning to emergency management to recovery. However, the Latin root of the term is to “rebound”. This presentation will focus on that aspect and present important concepts related to static and dynamic aspects of resilience, as well as inherent and adaptive ones. It will present 11 tactics the businesses can use to cope with supply disruptions in ways that repair and reconstruction can be accelerated so as to reduce business interruption (BI) losses. While property damage is often the emphasis of risk reduction, and the primary target of pre-event mitigation, BI just begins when the disaster strikes and continues until the entity has recovered. In fact, BI, typically measured in terms of gross domestic product or employment, can often exceed the level of property damage (e.g., the 2001 World Trade Center Attack Hurricane Katrina). Resilience in this context is all about business continuity and reducing BI.
The presentation will also present results of recent research to estimate the cost-effectiveness of 11 resilience tactics. The estimation is based on surveys of victims of Hurricanes Sandy Harvey. It will also present a decision-support tool known as the Business Resilience Calculator (BRC), which small and medium-sized businesses can use to identify and implement the most cost-effective resilience tactics.
Bio: Adam Rose is a Research Professor in the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy, and Senior Research Fellow at USC’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Threats and Emergencies (CREATE). He has spearheaded the development of CREATE’s comprehensive economic consequence analysis framework and has done pioneering research on resilience at the level of the individual business/household, market/industry and regional/national economy. He is the author of several books and more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. He is the recipient of several honors, including the Distinguished Research Award from the International Society for Integrated Risk Management.
Luis “Vance” Taylor
Chief, Office of Access and Functional Needs, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
The Whole Community: We Succeed or Fail Together
Abstract: Integrating every phase of the emergency management process to address the needs of individuals with access and functional needs before, during, and after disasters furthers preparedness, builds resilience, and empowers the whole community.
Bio: Luis “Vance” Taylor is the Chief of the Office of Access and Functional Needs at the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Vance is responsible for ensuring the needs of individuals with disabilities and persons with access or functional needs are identified before, during and after disasters and integrated into the State’s emergency management systems.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Vance was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy as a child and uses a power wheelchair. He has worked in Washington, D.C. as an advisor for two different members of Congress, directed security policy at a national water association and been a principal at a top-ranked homeland security and emergency management consulting firm. Vance is a nationally recognized public speaker and advocate for individuals with disabilities.
Vance has a Master’s degree in homeland security from the University of Connecticut and an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University in communications. He is married to his sweetheart, Casey, and they have two wonderful daughters.
Vance and his family live in Rancho Cordova, CA.
Benjamin Zaitchik
Professor, Johns Hopkins University
Anticipating and addressing complex climate hazards
Abstract: Both climate extremes and earthquakes can present severe shocks to human and natural systems, bringing the potential for substantial harm during the event and continued burden during the recovery period. This presentation will introduce three themes from the study of climate risks that may be relevant to thinking about earthquake resilience in the context of global change. First, I will review recent updates to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change framework for evaluating risk as a function of vulnerability, exposure, impact, and response. Next, I will consider case studies in propagating risks, in which an initial climate extreme has spatially or temporally distal impacts via its impacts on markets and other networks. Finally, I will address concepts of compound and cascading hazards, which may be relevant to earthquake resilience both as an analogy and as multi-hazard processes in which climate and earthquake risks interact to affect outcomes.
Bio: Dr. Benjamin Zaitchik is a Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. He is an Earth scientist whose work includes study of fundamental atmospheric and hydrological processes as well as application of this knowledge to problems of water resources, agriculture, and human health. In this context, Dr. Zaitchik leads multiple projects focused on the propagation of climate stresses through complex coupled natural-human systems. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Zaitchik was a Research Associate at NASA and a AAAS Fellow at the U.S. Department of State. He is currently the President of the GeoHealth Section of the American Geophysical Union, Chair of the World Meteorological Organization Research Board Task Team on COVID-19 and climate, meteorological, and environmental factors, and a Commissioner on the City of Baltimore Sustainability Commission.
