This grant is for the first year of a Presidential Young Investigator Award. The focus of the research is on earthquake hazard mitigation and will consider both engineering and managerial aspects. The objective of the research plan is twofold: First, by applying systems analysis methodologies, it is to investigate the role, functions, and interactions of the major components and subsystems of representative human-technological systems which affect the risk and safety of such operations. Second, is to identify the needed intervention strategies, including system safety improvements, human factors considerations, and adoption of more responsive managerial methods and adaptive organizational designs to enable the system to respond and control the earthquake-caused disturbances.
