MCEER Hosts Resilience Session at 8NCEE
On April 18-22, 2006, San Francisco was the scene of a joint event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the great 1906 earthquake and fires. A joint meeting of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the Seismological Society of America and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the Conference Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake offered a wealth of presentations and activities relevant to disaster mitigation.
MCEER was a sponsoring organization, and many MCEER researchers, staff and SLC members (see related article) participated in the event. Thomas O’Rourke, MCEER Executive Committee member and co-leader of Thrust Area 1:Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Lifeline Systems, presented a keynote address at the opening plenary session entitled “Lessons Learned for Geotechnical and Lifeline Engineering from the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.”
All three earthquake centers were invited to develop special sessions to showcase their contributions toward seismic risk reduction as part of EERI’s 8th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering (8NCEE). MCEER’s session, “Enhancing Seismic Resilience,” featured six presentations (names of presenters are in bold):
- Overview of the Resilience Concept, M. Bruneau and A.M. Reinhorn
- The Resilience of Electric Power Systems, M. Shinozuka and T.D. O'Rourke
- Enhancing the Resilience of Acute Care Facilities: An Overview of MCEER Research, A. Filiatrault, M. Bruneau, D. Alesch, M. Constantinou, G. Dargush, M. Grigoriu, G.C. Lee, E. Maragakis, G. Mosqueda, W. Petak, A.M. Reinhorn, and D. von Winterfeldt
- Response and Recovery in the Perspective of Enhancing the Resilience of Communities, K. Tierney
- Enhancing the Resilience of Highway Networks to Major Earthquakes, I.G. Buckle and G.C. Lee
- Quantifying of Seismic Resilience of Facilities, A.M. Reinhorn, G.P. Cimellaro and M. Bruneau
This session provided a comprehensive overview of MCEER resilience across its various thrust areas and research programs.
Tom O’Rourke and Kathleen Tierney (MCEER) joined Amr Elnashai (MAE) in a panel discussion on the future of earthquake engineering research.
Sofia Tangalos staffed the MCEER display booth, where many of the 3,600 conference attendees stopped to peruse MCEER reports, inquire about current research efforts, and collect Information Service handouts.
The timing of this unique centennial conference, coupled with its extensive political and media attention, brought a lot of coverage to the devastation of earthquakes, global mitigation achievements, and necessary efforts for other disasters with similar implications. More information about the event is available from EERI .
