This award is for continued support for the activities of the U.S.-Japan Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects that falls under the umbrella of the U.S.-Japan Agreement on Natural Resources. The funding is in support of the Annual Meeting of this body. At its 33rd meeting in May 2001, the U.S.-Japan Joint Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects approved a strategic plan to streamline its operation and position the Panel for future growth. The Panel's objectives are to: 1. Exchange of wind and seismic engineering technology (including data: information; measurement and test facilities; and researchers) between U.S. and Japanese government agencies; 2. Develop and maintain strong technical links between scientific and engineering researchers of government, industrial, and academic organizations in the two countries and encourage the exchange of researchers; 3. Conduct joint research in areas of strong winds, earthquakes, storm surge and tsunamis; publish findings from joint research efforts; and distribute proceedings of annual meetings; and 4. Conduct cooperative programs to improve engineering design and construction practices and other wind and earthquake hazard mitigation practices.
The United States and Japan are the most technologically advanced nations in the world with respect to mitigation of the hazards from earthquake, wind, tsunami, and storm surge. Both countries benefit greatly from the 37-year exchange of information and technology that occur through the auspices of the Joint Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects. The Panel's Strategic Plan provides a framework for increasing cooperation on research activities and accelerating the application of research results into practice by expanding the reach of the Panel to include university researchers, private industry, and participation by researchers in other nations. The new framework is further designed to permit the Panel to quickly adapt to address changes in the research priorities of the two countries through a highly focused Task Committee structure (see footnote on Task Committees above). The Panel provides the vehicle to exchange technical data and information on design and construction of civil engineering lifelines, buildings, waterfront, and coastal structures. The data produced by the Panel influence on-going structural engineering research and contribute to the revision and creation of U.S. building codes and standards.
