Assessing global earthquake risks: the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) initiative - Seismic Risk Analysis and Management of Civil Infrastructure Systems - page 825

able for the derivation of empirical vulnerability functions, and for using
the data for testing analytical functions. The data will be stored following
the GEM building taxonomy, such that empirical vulnerability functions
(following the guidelines of the physical vulnerability consortium) can be
produced, using if desired the outputs of ShakeMap (USGS) for the descrip-
tion of the ground shaking from these events. The project has a 3-year
duration and involves 9 partners worldwide: CAR Ltd, CRED, ERN-AL,
GNS, KOERI, Kyoto University, Munich Re, SPA Risk and USGS.
The legacy of the project will be a web-accessible database for the ongoing
service of GEM users. For current events, GEMECD will serve as a clear-
ing-house of information, posted by users based on the standards and
protocols set in the GEMECD documentation. In the long term, GEMECD
will be a repository of the most relevant and validated data on conse-
quences of the signifi cant events of the last 40 years around the world.
30.2.10 Inventory Data Capture Tools
The Inventory Data Capture Tools (IDCT) project addresses the inventory
and damage data development needs of the GEM user community, in
developing input to the Global Exposure and Global Earthquake Con-
sequences databases (see Fig. 30.7) http://www.globalquakemodel.org/
risk-global-components/inventory-capture.
The project aims to provide a fully operational, fl exible and integrated
suite of tools, protocols and guidelines that are scientifi cally founded, yet
straightforward to use. The project capitalises on the state-of-the-art in
remote sensing, GIS, fi eld tools for building data collection, inference and
extrapolation methodologies and data integration techniques. As shown in
Fig. 30.7, a number of tools will be made available, from handheld devices
for recording the attributes of individual buildings, to remote sensing tools
for the identifi cation of homogenous areas or for delineating building foot-
prints. A tool for crowdsourcing inventory and damage data collection
through the OpenQuake platform will also be developed. The project has
a duration of 30 months and involves the following partners: ImageCat,
University of Pavia, CAR Ltd, CEDIM-GFZ, SPA Risk, BGS, WAPMERR,
whereas Google and Willis are both offi cial collaborators on this project.
30.2.11 Social vulnerability and disaster resilience
When extreme events intersect with societies they become disasters, and
the impacts from disasters are rarely suffered equally across space and time
(http://www.globalquakemodel.org/social-vulnerability-resilience). For the
social vulnerability and disaster resilience initiative of GEM, the starting
point is to address the differential susceptibility of populations to the