Earthquake risk reduction

News and Updates

NIST Earthquake Engineering Group Members Conduct a Preliminary Earthquake Reconnaissance Mission to Turkey

August 31, 2023

In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, a M W 7.8 earthquake occurred in Turkey, followed by four additional earthquakes throughout the day with MW of 5

Building that has been destroyed by a tornado

NIST, NSF Award More Than $7.6 Million to Support Disaster Resilience Research

May 4, 2022

The agencies are funding 20 projects to be conducted across 24 institutions through the Disaster Resilience Research Grant (DRRG) program, which they manage

A steel column with a deep web on the left and a steel column with a shallow web on the right.

Proposed Updates to Steel Building Standard Could Enhance Earthquake Resilience

January 7, 2022

Since the mid-1990s, a type of steel column that commonly features slender cross-sectional elements has become more prevalent in buildings along the West Coast

Projects and Programs

Functional Recovery of Buildings and Lifelines

Ongoing

Objective The Functional Recovery project is designed to improve the time for recovery of key social functions by strengthening the built environment to withstand earthquake impacts. Our efforts will advance measurement science for the assessment and design of buildings and lifelines, contribute in

Performance-Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE) for New Buildings Project

Ongoing

Objective: To develop a measurement science tool by FY 2016 that is capable of directly, accurately, and efficiently simulating the initiation and progression of structural collapse, and to develop a methodology for quantifying acceptance criteria limits found in the ASCE/SEI 41 Standard [1] through

Assessment of Available Collapse Simulation Methods for Use in Performance-Based Seismic Engineering Project

Completed

Objective - This project supports improved Performance-Based Seismic Engineering (PBSE) via evaluating the capabilities of commercial structural analysis software to simulate structural sidesway collapse accurately. This project: Identifies and assesses critical issues concerning nonlinear

Developing Cost-Effective Relationships Between Federal Building Profiles and Seismic Retrofit Cost

Completed

Objective - To develop quantitative methods to evaluate the benefits and costs of risk mitigation activities implemented to improve seismic performance of buildings, based on building profiles (construction type, size, age, location), which can be applied to buildings that are federally owned

Publications

Infographic on Post-Earthquake Functional Recovery Performance

February 10, 2025

Author(s)

Katherine Johnson, Siamak Sattar, Dustin Cook

In the U.S., building codes and standards have been developed to reduce the likelihood of building collapse but do not address the loss of building functions or

Data-Driven Insights into Post- Earthquake Reconnaissance Findings: 2023 Turkiye Earthquake Sequence

February 1, 2025

Author(s)

Mohammadamin Hariri Ardebili, Siamak Sattar

Reconnaissance-informed Post-Earthquake Functional Recovery: Observations and Challenges

February 1, 2025

Author(s)

Mohammadamin Hariri Ardebili, Matthew Speicher

ICSSC Biennial Progress Report for 2024: Report on Progress Towards Implementation of Executive Order 13717: Establishing a Federal Earthquake Risk Management Standard - Reporting Period: February 2, 2022 to February 1, 2024

January 23, 2025

Author(s)

John Harris, Steven McCabe

Executive Order (EO) 13717: Establishing a Federal Earthquake Risk Management Standard establishes minimum seismic requirements for new and existing buildings