Willis to Sponsor World Earthquake Model
The world’s first global earthquake model being developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be sponsored by Willis Group Holdings, an insurance brokerage firm.
Willis has signed up to a five-year initiative that will provide the world’s first global earthquake model. The insurance broker will sponsor the Global Earthquake Model (GEM), being developed by the OECD to produce comprehensive coverage around the world – including in developing countries where no reliable models yet exist. Willis said it is the first reinsurance broker to support GEM, joining its Governing Board whose members include Munich Re and other industry leaders.
GEM is an open source global earthquake model that creates an independent standard to calculate and communicate earthquake risk and raise awareness.
Willis said that in the past ten years, earthquakes and tsunamis caused more than half a million deaths, mostly in the developing world, where the risk is increasing due to rapid population growth. But in many seismic regions, no hazard models exist.
The information that GEM generates will be made available to all: from emergency response managers in remote seismic regions to catastrophe modeling companies looking to further refine certain aspects of their models, to insurance companies and governments looking for solutions to manage the financial implications of major earthquakes.
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For some unsettling video of the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake, see A Lesson in Recovery.
Data Centers are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. This guide offers lots of useful recommendations for Data Processing Facility Earthquake Hazard Mitigation.
Tags: earthquake, earthquake hazard, earthquake mitigation, earthquake preparedness, natural disasters
