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standardised procedures for adding to that library. The project will address
four distinct approaches to creating seismic vulnerability functions: empiri-
cal (using regression analysis to derive seismic vulnerability functions from
past observations of earthquake loss experienced by real buildings of a
particular type), analytical (using fi rst principles of structural engineering
to relate damage and loss to shaking intensity), expert opinion (elicitation
of the judgement of experts familiar with the building type of interest to
produce a seismic vulnerability function), and empirical-national (seismic
vulnerability functions are developed for entire countries, or large sub- and
supranational regions, without regard to building type, to best fi t past loss
data).
Other elements of the project include the following efforts: to develop
procedures for aiding the selection among competing seismic vulnerability
functions based on a quality rating with fi ve indices: data quality, relevance,
rationality, documentation and overall quality; to relate building damage to
human casualties and repair costs; to deal rigorously with uncertainties in
the capacity, response, collected data, etc.; to apply different regression
techniques in the derivation of vulnerability functions and identify the
optimum intensity measures for different building typologies; to update
seismic vulnerability functions as new data become available through
Bayesian updating; to use empirical data for testing analytical functions;
and to ensure that the results of the project serve the needs of loss-estima-
tion practitioners. The 3-year project focuses its effort in year 1 on develop-
ing guidelines; year 2 is devoted to implementing those vulnerability
guidelines and creating global seismic vulnerability functions; and year 3's
effort focuses on peer review and efforts to disseminate the products of the
research to regional efforts around the world.
30.2.9 GlobalEarthquakeConsequencesDatabase
An international consortium is carrying out the GEMECD, or GEM Earth-
quake Consequences Database project, which is a database of the conse-
quences (in terms of damage, casualties, socio-economic consequences and
recovery data) of past earthquakes due to ground shaking, landslides,
liquefaction, tsunamis and fi re following for a number of different struc-
tures and infrastructures (http://www.globalquakemodel.org/risk-global-
components/consequence-database). This database will serve to inform
users on consequences from past events, as a benchmarking tool for analyti-
cal loss models and to support the development of tools to create vulner-
ability data appropriate to specifi c countries, structures or building classes.
Preparation of an interface enabling the impact damage from future earth-
quakes to be captured and uploaded to the database is also part of the
project, to ensure that consequence data that is of relevance today is avail-
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