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Projects and Partners
GHI is currently managing a major earthquake safety project, The Delhi Earthquake Safety Initiative for Lifeline Buildings, in Delhi, India. This USAID-funded project enables GHI to help strengthen the capacity of
the Delhi Public Works Department through the retrofit of five key buildings: the Delhi Secretariat, the Delhi Police Headquarters, the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital, the Ludlow Castle School, and the Office of the Divisional
Commissioner. Ultimately, this GHI initiative and planned replications in other cities of India will help to save the lives and livelihoods of many people there who are currently at high risk.
GHI is also collaborating with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in an international activity to improve earthquake safety in schools of many OECD member and non-member at-risk countries.
Sustainability
GHI works closely with local communities, disaster-related
NGOs, and governments to promote the self-sustainability of
their joint initiatives. When no in-country group concerned
with earthquake preparedness and safety exists on a local or
national level, GHI collaborates with concerned local citizens
and scientists to create one. Examples of organizations that
GHI has strengthened include the National Society for Earthquake
Technology in Nepal and the Sustainable Environment and Ecological
Development Society in India.
Advocacy
GHI advocates a culture of global earthquake safety. It seeks
to encourage organizations and individuals in the U.S., Japan
and Europe to share their resources (science, engineering, public
policy) with developing regions. GHI advocates for earthquake
safety by means of:
- presence at international scientific conferences
- an informative website
- lectures and seminars at universities
- outreach by members, trustees and staff to corporations,
foundations and governments
- public relations campaigns (print articles: New York Times,
U.S. News & World Report, Washington Post, San Francisco
Chronicle, Science Magazine, The Times of India, San Jose
Mercury News; radio/TV appearances: NPR’s “All
Things Considered” and PRI’s “The World;”
NBC News)
History
Having seen first-hand the deadly destruction of an earthquake
in Tajikistan, seismologist Dr. Brian Tucker observed how many
of the deaths could have been avoided if inexpensive yet effective
construction methods had been in place. He founded GHI in 1991
as a non-profit that would address the need for global earthquake
safety. Since its first project in Quito, Ecuador in 1993, GHI
has worked in 20 countries.
Selected Publications
- Keeping Schools Safe in Earthquakes: Report of a co-sponsored
initiative published by OECD, 2004 To
Order: www.SourceOECD.org (ISBN 92-64-10669-4)
- Global Earthquake Safety Initiative Pilot Project: Final
Report, 2001
- RADIUS
(Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas against
Seismic Disasters): United Nations Initiative towards
Earthquake Safe Cities, 2001
- The Kathmandu Valley School Earthquake Safety Program, Risk
Management Action Plan, 2000
- Seismic Hazard and Building Vulnerability in Post-Soviet
Central Asian Republics, Lessons
for Central Asia, 1999 -
Russian Translation
- Earthquake
Scenario of Kathmandu Valley, 1998
- The Quito, Ecuador, Earthquake Risk Management Project:
An
Overview, 1994
- Issues in Urban Earthquake Risk, 1994 Part
I, Part
II, Part
III,
Part IV, Part
V
Partners and Major Supporters
American Geological Institute (AGI), American Re-Insurance
Corporation, Applied Technology Council (ATC), Bechtel Corporation,
Branscomb Family Foundation, Catalyst Foundation, Centro de
Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada
(CICESE), Degenkolb Engineers, Earth Institute at Columbia University,
Flora Family Foundation, FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance (an affiliate
of the Aga Khan Development Network), Cecil and Ida Green Foundation,
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), Kinemetrics,
Inc., John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, MercyCorps, Munich
Reinsurance Company, National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal
(NSET), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), NGOs Kobe,
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD),
Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), OYO Corporation,
PADCO, Inc., Parsons Corporation, Risk Management Solutions
(RMS), Secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster
Reduction (IDNDR), Seismological Society of America (SSA), Sustainable
Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), Swiss
Reinsurance America Corporation, United Nations Centre for Regional
Development (UNCRD), United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN/OCHA), United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), University of
British Columbia, Canada, Volunteers for India Development and
Empowerment (VIDE), World Health Organization (WHO).
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