ACEHR Overview and Legislative Responsibilities Jay Harris Acting - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

national earthquake hazards reduction program

ACEHR Overview and Legislative Responsibilities

Jay Harris

Acting NEHRP Deputy Director NIST, Engineering Laboratory

ACEHR Meeting August 20-21, 2019 Gaithersburg, MD

national earthquake hazards reduction program

• Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction
• Established in NEHRP Reauthorization Act of 2004
• no modification from 2018 reauthorization
• At least 11 members who are qualified to provide advice on

earthquake hazards reduction and represent all related scientific, architectural, and engineering disciplines

• Recommendations of the Committee shall be considered by

Federal agencies in implementing the Program

ACEHR Overview

national earthquake hazards reduction program

ACEHR Legislative Responsibilities

• ACEHR shall assess—
• trends and developments in the science and engineering of

earthquake hazards reduction

• the management, coordination, implementation, and activities
• f the Program
• effectiveness of the Program in carrying out Program Activities
• the need to revise the Program

national earthquake hazards reduction program

Program Activities

• Program Activities are designed to—
• develop effective measures for earthquake hazards reduction
• promote the adoption of earthquake hazards reduction measures by

Federal, State, and local governments, national standards and model code organizations, architects and engineers, building owners, and

• thers with a role in planning and constructing buildings, structures,

and lifeline infrastructure through—

• grants, contracts, cooperative agreements, and technical assistance;
• development of standards, guidelines, and voluntary consensus codes for

earthquake hazards reduction for buildings, structures, and lifeline infrastructure;

• development and maintenance of a repository of information, including

technical data, on seismic risk, community resilience, and hazards reduction; and

• publishing a systematic set of maps of active faults and folds, liquefaction

susceptibility, susceptibility for earthquake induced landslides, and other seismically induced hazards; and

national earthquake hazards reduction program

Program Activities, cont.

• Program Activities are designed to—
• improve the understanding of earthquakes and their effects on

communities, buildings, structures, and lifeline infrastructure, through interdisciplinary research that involves engineering, natural sciences, and social, economic, and decisions sciences

• continue the development of the Advanced National Seismic System,

including earthquake early warning capabilities and the Global Seismographic Network

national earthquake hazards reduction program

ACEHR Membership

• Current membership
• Eleven appointed members
• plus Greg Beroza, chair of the USGS Scientific Earthquake

Studies Advisory Committee (SESAC)

• Represented Disciplines
• Engineering: 4 Structural, 1 Geotechnical
• Seismology: 2 (1 is chair of SESAC)
• Social Science: 3
• Emergency Management: 1
• Policy: 1
• Recent membership changes
• End of term
• David Simpson’s first term ended in May
• Jim Goltz’s and Peter May’s second term ended in July

national earthquake hazards reduction program

ACEHR Membership

• Recent membership changes
• Appointed members
• Keith Koper, Professor in the Department of Geology and

Geophysics and Director of Seismograph Stations, University if Utah

• Lucy Arendt, Professor of Management, St. Norbert College
• Susan Dowty, Regional Manager of Government Relations,

International Code Council

• The NEHRP Office is working on
• Filling two positions with a geotechnical engineer and an

emergency manager (for Davis and Goltz)

• Reviewing possible candidates (for May and Gould)