Integrating Earthquake Early Warnings into Organisational Resilience
12 November 2019
Dr Gianluca Pescaroli (UCL IRDR), Dr Carmine Galasso (UCL CEGE) and PhD student Omar Velazquez (UCL IRDR) have been recently awarded two academic grants from the British Academy and the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT).
The British Academy – Leverhulme Small Research Grant (nearly £10k), was derived from the Academy’s partnership with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). EEFIT awarded a £1.5k Research Grant.
Both projects will investigate the topic of integrating earthquake early warnings into organisational resilience, which will involve conducting several fieldworks. The aim of this cross-disciplinary collaboration is to provide new and impact-oriented insights through exploring the connections between technical and social components of earthquake early warning systems. The research will investigate which measures are needed to increase organisational resilience of local community’s stakeholders and private sector organizations such as business and infrastructure service providers. New guidelines for improving emergency preparedness are expected outcomes of the projects.
The projects analyse the case study of Mexico City, Mexico, that is considered an area at risk due to the combination of high seismic hazard, structural and social vulnerabilities. In this case, earthquake early warnings have been developed by the authorities. However, the need for increasing their efficiency is widely recognised. Data will be obtained via anonymous questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders in the city. Further considerations will be made on the possibility of involving a wider target group and developing another case study in Italy.
The outputs of this research aim to contribute both to research and practices, aiming to publish peer-reviewed papers and policy briefs for end-users and decision-makers.
For future updates, please visit the ResearchGate website of the project.