Communication lifelines, such as those provided by the nation's public switched networks, are essential to effective and speedy recovery from damaging earthquakes. However, communication lifelines, including those used for emergency governmental communications, are themselves vulnerable. There is, therefore, a need to develop a capability to project the extent, duration, and failure modes of telecommunication lifelines service outages for two purposes: 1) to estimate the potential magnitude of the communications problem that can be anticipated in the aftermath of major earthquakes, and 2) to identify measures or system enhancements for preventing or mitigating those problems. This effort will develop a forum to bring together the practical experience of the telecommunications industry with the theoretical knowledge and methodological techniques of the research and academic communities in a multi-disciplinary Workshop that provides a unique opportunity to share the theoretical and practical understandings of the impacts of major earthquakes on communication lifelines. The primary purpose of the Workshop is to exchange ideas and thereby stimulate improved approaches to projecting, and ultimately reducing, communication lifeline damage and service outages from major earthquakes. This activity will provide a critical component of the technical basis required for the development and implementation of mitigation measures focusing on the planning and design safety of communication networks and systems exposed to the threat of earthquakes. It is also intended to serve program development in research efforts related to the seismic resistant design of urban lifeline systems.
