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Foreword

The research accomplishments of the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research are as numerous as they are varied. Since the Center was established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1986, its vision has been to help establish earthquake resilient communities throughout the United States and abroad. Over the past 13 years, our research and education programs have annually supported more than 80 investigators throughout the country and the world, to work toward this goal. Much has been accomplished, most notably in the areas of lifelines and protective systems, but our vision has not yet been fully realized.

Toward this end, we believe that the best way to achieve earthquake resilient communities in the short-term is to invest in two highly-focused system-integrated endeavors:

Our research is conducted under the sponsorship of two major federal agencies, the NSF and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and the state of New York. Significant support is also derived from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), other state governments, academic institutions, foreign governments and private industry. Together these resources are used to implement our research programs, as shown below.

This Research Progress and Accomplishments report is intended to introduce the reader to and highlight some of MCEER’s research tasks that are currently in progress, and provide those in the earthquake engineering community with a glimpse of the foci and direction that our programs are taking. We anticipate that this information will contribute to the coordination and collaboration effort in earthquake engineering research nationally and globally. The presentation is in descriptive form with preliminary observations and recommendations, and provides an indication of future efforts.

The research studies represented in this report are in various stages of completion. A few papers describe efforts that have been completed and are now represented in codes, standards, and regional or national guidelines. Others describe work in progress.

Each paper, whether it be on developing loss estimation techniques, construction of a benchmark model for repetitive testing, or the vulnerability analysis of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s vast network, provides a snapshot of how MCEER accomplishes its multidisciplinary and team-oriented research. The authors identify the sponsors of the research, collaborative partners, related research tasks within MCEER’s various programs, and links to research and implementation efforts outside MCEER’s program.

MCEER works with all members of the earthquake engineering community, including practicing engineers and other design professionals, policymakers, regulators and code officials, facility and building owners, governmental entities, and other stakeholders who have responsibility for loss reduction decision making. The end users of the presented research are also highlighted within each paper, which we hope will enhance MCEER’s partnership programs with industry, government agencies and others.

This report is the first in what we anticipate will be an annual compilation of research progress and accomplishments. Future issues will include a brief overview of our strategic research plan to further enhance cooperative research efforts.

--George Lee, MCEER Director