The objectives of this project are to organize and support multidisciplinary reconnaissance teams composed of volunteer field researchers to collect perishable data and observations immediately after significant earthquakes throughout the world and disseminate the collected data and lessons learned from field observations to the earthquake engineering community at large. These activities organized by EERI since 1973 have led to increased understanding of earthquake ground motions and their effects on built and natural environment, to fundamental changes in building codes and construction practices, and to improved procedures for response, recovery and preparedness. These continued activities have provided bases for continuing research in many different disciplines, by providing initial scientific and engineering observations upon which in-depth research projects are based. Post-earthquake teams provide data, observations and lessons that are used to pose critical research questions that merit further research to prove or disprove scientific hypotheses, and calibrate laboratory-based models of building performance, wave actions, and tectonics, among others.
Field observations-based research has enabled the scientific and engineering communities to develop better tools and techniques to improve design and construction practices for increased life safety. They have led to improvements in emergency planning and response efforts, resulting in a reduction in earthquake losses and improved recovery. The efforts have also led to enhanced earthquake awareness in general public to enhance post-earthquake societal resilience. While many critical advances have been made, the continuing loss of life, as well as escalating social and economic impacts, underscore the fact that much remains to be learned from post-earthquake damage surveys.
award supported a number of earthquake reconnaissance activities in the period July 2008--June 2011 (the award period extended to June 2012, but funds were depleted in 2011 because of the large number of significant earthquakes in 2010 and 2011). During the life of the award, funds supported 8 reconnaissance teams, including to L'Aquila, Italy, Padang, Indonesia; American Samoa and Samoa; Offshore Northern California; Haiti; Chile; Baja California; and Darfield (Christchurch), New Zealand. These teams documented the poor performance of masonry (Italy), poor performance of concrete (Indonesia and Haiti), importance of community education (American Samoa and Samoa), good performance of retrofit structures (Northern California), basic resilience of a country with stable institutions and risk reduction programs (Chile), and good performance of modern codes (Darfield NZ). EERI, as the professional associaiton for earhquake engineering in the U.S., has a strong commitment through many of its activities to enlist, nurture, and mentor future leaders of the profession. Each of the teams included EERI Young Professional Members and in most cases students. The L'Aquila, Italy team included two young professionals, one a newcomer to the earthquake field. The Padang, Indonesia team incuded several members of Stanford University's Engineers for a Sustainable World chapter (paid for by Stanford University), who had been working in Padang the previous summer on a vertical evacuation study. The Eureka, California team included a graduate student from UC Berkeley, who was also the EERI student chapter president. The first Haiti team (an advance team sent in with the USGS) included a young professional faculty member, fluent in French adn with military experience in Iraq that proved invaluable in working with SOUTHCOM (our hosts in Haiti). The second Haiti team included three young professionals. The Chile reconnaissance team included seven young professionals as well as a graduate student, all of whom were paired with senior investigators. The Baja California team included primarily graduate students from UC San Diego, teamed with senior faculty and professionals from the San Diego area, including the EERI president of the newly-formed San Diego Chapter. The Darfield, New Zealand team included four young professionals. The young professionals and students brought familiarity with new technologies as well as enthusiasm and passion for engineering to the teams. Technical briefings were held after most of these events--these presentations are available online at www.eeri.org/projects/learning-from-earthquakes-lfe/reconnaissance-briefing-videos/. In addition, EERI developed virtual clearinghouses for these events, where information was quickly posted from the field, and in most cases was continuously updated during the first few months after the event. These clearinghouses are available here: www.eqclearinghouse.org/ Many disciplines are recruited and engaged on each of the reconnaissance teams and in the preparation of reports. Advances and new knowledge exist for each of these disciplines, as each earthquake is different and presents new learning opportunities. Advances range from increased understanding of the basic science of earthquake ground motion and fault mechanics to fundamental changes in building codes and construction practices, to the adoption of improved prcoedures in preparedness, response and recovery. Although experimental and simulation capabilitites hold potential, field observations continue to challenge and enlighten fundamental impacts. Every earthquake provides a full scale experiment of large complex constructed systems, not possible even in the most sophisticated of laboratories, offering incomparable opportunities to calibrate experimental models with data from the field.
