NIST Releases Draft Earthquake Hazards Plan
May 23, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the lead agency for the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP), released a draft strategic plan that will guide the activities of the four NEHRP agencies - the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NIST.
NEHRP is a federal interagency program that works to reduce earthquake losses through improved design and construction techniques for new and existing buildings and lifelines, monitoring and early-warning systems, coordinated emergency preparedness plans and public education.
NIST's draft plan lists nine strategic priorities for the next four years to understand earthquake phenomena, develop cost-effective measures to reduced impacts on individuals, society and construction, as well as improve rapid community recovery from earthquakes.
Some of these strategies include:
- Implementation of the Advanced National Seismic System for impact notification, deployment of response, hazard assessments and research.
- Development of cost-effective techniques and tools to design new earthquake-resistant buildings and to improve the survivability of existing buildings.
- Creation of realistic earthquake scenarios to help communities and businesses better understand and plan for earthquake consequences.
- Design of earthquake-resilient infrastructure to end vulnerabilities and possible cascading failures in critical, interconnected transportation, ports, energy, water, sewage, communications and industrial production systems.
The final strategic plan will guide NEHRP agency funding decisions. The draft NEHRP Strategic Plan is available at www.nehrp.gov, along with the 2008 NEHRP Annual Report submitted to Congress in March.
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).