Seismic Risk Management in Urban Areas





INTRODUCTION

2008 and 2009 U.S. −Iran Seismic Workshops

Following an extended period of planning, on June 8-9, 2008, a U.S. −Iran invitational workshop on Seismic Performance of Adobe and Masonry Structures was held at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran. The workshop was organized by Sharif University of Technology, in collaboration with the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER), University of California, Berkeley. It involved specialists from fourteen Iranian institutions, and seven earthquake experts from the United States.

The topic of adobe and masonry vulnerability was selected because of the extensive damage to this form of construction from earthquakes in Iran, including the Bam earthquake of December 26, 2003. Twenty-three technical papers were presented. The workshop concluded with a panel session that identified topics for future research collaboration. The workshop was followed with a one-day public seminar on June 10, 2008, on Seismic Hazard Reduction, also held at Sharif University.


The second U.S.-Iran seismic workshop was held on June 29-July 1, 2009, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, Irvine, California. The workshop was supported by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the PEER, and Sharif University of Technology. The theme of this workshop was Improving Earthquake Mitigation through Innovations and Applications in Seismic Science, Engineering, Communication, and Response. Numerous U.S. and Iranian earthquake engineers and scientists participated in the workshop and gave presentations. The proceedings of the 2009 seismic workshop were published by PEER as PEER Report 2009/02.


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