The GSHAP Global Seismic Hazard Map

Abstract

Minimization of the loss of life, property damage, and social and economic disruption due to earthquakes depends on reliable estimates of seismic hazard. National, state, and local governments, decision makers, engineers, planners, emergency response organizations, builders, universities, and the general public require seismic hazard estimates for land use planning, improved building design and construction (including adoption of building construction codes), emergency response preparedness plans, economic forecasts, housing and employment decisions, and many more types of risk mitigation. The Global Seismic Hazard Assessment Program (GSHAP) was designed to assist in global risk mitigation by providing a useful global seismic hazard framework and by serving as a resource for any national or regional agency for further detailed studies applicable to their needs. GSHAP was launched in 1992 by the International Lithosphere Program (ILP) with the support of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) and endorsed as a demonstration program in the framework of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (UN/IDNDR). GSHAP promoted a regionally coordinated, homogeneous approach to seismic hazard evaluation, including the production and distribution of the Global Seismic Hazard Map (GSH Map), a special issue of Annali di Geofisica (December 1999) describing the map and project, and a Web site (http://seismo.ethz.ch/GSHAP/) containing regional reports, GSHAP yearly reports, summaries, and maps of seismicity, source zones, and seismic hazard values. The GSHAP strategy was to establish a mosaic of regions under the coordination of regional centers (Figure 1). The goal in the first implementation phase (1993-1995) was to establish for each region or test area a working group of national experts covering the different fields required for seismic hazard assessment, to produce common regional earthquake catalogs and databases, and to assess the regional seismic hazard. The second phase (1995-1998) of GSHAP involved expansion of these regional efforts to …