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President's Message
Colleagues, Affiliate Members and Friends of IAEE,
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DR. POLAT GÜLKAN
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The salutary address for this message might well have been directed to the millions of people in the world who are exposed to seismic risk, and whose lives and limbs may come under harm on account of the seismic threat. It is those multitudes that the activities of IAEE are intended to protect. Among objectives of IAEE is the promotion of international cooperation among scientists and engineers in the field of earthquake engineering through interchange of knowledge, ideas, and results of research and practical experience. From its inception, our Association has not confined its scope to just engineering, but has served as an authoritative platform of information for diverse professionals who deal with many aspects of earthquake loss mitigation. These include practitioners and researchers among engineers (civil, structural, mechanical, and geotechnical), architects and urban planners, earth scientists (geologists, geophysicists, seismologists), public officials, and, increasingly, social scientists.
The year 2012 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering. The conceptual ground was broken for its creation during the second world conference in Tokyo in 1960, and two years later our charter was adopted, the central office began to function, and the first officers assumed their jobs. Only minor changes have occurred in the IAEE Statutes since they were first prepared in 1962, proving the durability of the provisions that govern our actions that were enunciated by our founding fathers. During 15WCEE in Lisbon in September 2012 I was joined by Robert Reitherman to narrate to the delegates the history of IAEE that was narrated in a book that was handed to all delegates at the conference. The book "The IAEE at Fifty," the printing of which was enabled by the Pavia Risk Center, can now be downloaded freely from our website at www.iaee.or.jp.
While research and development in earthquake science, especially during the last fifty years, have provided communities worldwide the tools for much improved earthquake protection, the implementation of these measures suffers shortfalls because of economic, social and policy reasons. This is sometimes combined with a misunderstanding of, and over-reliance upon, advanced technology. Except perhaps for tsunami disaster mitigation technology, I believe that we have developed the technology for safe construction to a reasonable level. It may be time perhaps to redefine the meaning of earthquake engineering. Failure of buildings and the infrastructure by ground shaking was major problem when the Association was formed fifty years ago, but now earthquake disaster mitigation, including tsunami, appears to be our target. Many urban areas that face seismic hazard house a good many older types of buildings, and their immediate replacement or retrofit is not yet within reach or feasible for many countries. Sometimes traditions and absence or shortage of human awareness and education exacerbate our best efforts for seismic safety. At other instances it may be the lack of political will that blunts any effort that would permit the benefit of scientific progress to reach stakeholders at risk. It is clear that seismic protection for the fellow human being cannot be achieved by researchers and engineers alone. It demands a broad societal consensus, and wise policies enforced by wise policy makers. Earthquake losses are largely preventable but its realization requires much more than the output of research of engineers and scientists. The policy of investing today for a disaster-safer tomorrow is challenged by other pressing needs of many governments in education, health and basic welfare. The fine balance between earthquake safety and the ability to meet other daily needs of communities can be drawn better with the counsel of other disciplines of the scientific endeavor.
During the last four years major earthquakes have continued to shake many parts of the world, and some of them have been close enough to urban centers to cause much human and material loss, capturing media headlines and sending repercussions into other affairs of the affected countries. Among these we may recall the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti, off-the Chilean coast, Baja California, Darfield in New Zealand and Indonesia. They were followed in 2011 by the severe shaking in the Lyttelton-Christchurch earthquake again in New Zealand, Van, Turkey and the Great East Japan Earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded. Combined with severe ground motion felt on land, tsunami waves of unprecedented size attacked coastal defensive structures, swept away many settlements along the East Japan coastline, and caused a severe nuclear accident in some power plant units at Fukushima. Tsunami disasters have occurred many times in the past, e.g., the 2004 Off-theWest-Coast-of-Northern-Sumatra earthquake and tsunami disaster that claimed many more lives in many countries around the Indian Ocean. We need more research, development and international cooperation for tsunami disaster mitigation. We have received reports during 2012 of earthquakes creating death and destruction in Indonesia, Northern Italy and Iran.
Your Association is doing well. It is now a not-for-profit society recognized in Tokyo where our Central Office is situated in accordance to Japanese law. We have placed the proceedings of all fifteen world conferences on earthquake engineering, many long out of print, on our web site for researchers to use freely. These proceedings are available for anyone who is concerned about earthquake disaster mitigation, including seismologists, social scientists, public officials, etc. Their availability is not limited to individual IAEE members, but anyone can download the papers. Our official journal, Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics, has maintained its leading position among similar peer-reviewed journals. We have re-negotiated our contract with Wiley, our publisher, and thanks to their cooperation and support our finances have improved. We now extend our wings in the direction of increased international recognition. Our objectives make us natural allies for many global initiatives for collaborative work in the interest of seismic risk reduction. These include ISDR, an UN-led program at governmental level aimed at the realization of the Hyogo Framework for Action. We sit on the Governing Board of GEM or Global Earthquake Model, which is an ambitious multi-year, public-private partnership for quantifying the world's seismic risk with the use of current technology. We continue our partnership with the World Seismic Safety Initiative (WSSI), an undertaking of the Association, and a non-profit, non-governmental venture to promote the spirit and goals of IDNDR, the predecessor of ISDR, acting as a catalyst in helping nations improve their earthquake risk management strategies. We are among supporters of the EERI World Housing Encyclopedia that has now become a practical tool for estimating the seismic vulnerability of many types of residential buildings worldwide. One of our working groups has revised the guidelines for non-engineered construction in seismic areas. We are in the process of establishing close working relations with consortia for facilitated access to strong ground motion data repositories. The national organization of Georgia has successfully applied for membership in the Association, so our family has expanded by one.
No conference is easy to organize, and the Fifteenth World Conference in Lisbon during September 24-28, 2012 was no exception. It represented major challenges of financial skill, human and physical resource allocation and management. The Portuguese Association for Earthquake Engineering (SPES), our hosts for this event, did a superb job of putting together an attractive program, and ensured that every participant was satisfied that he or she had attended the Lisbon conference. It was a major task that was successfully completed. The officers of SPES might have wondered what it was that drove them to volunteer for the responsibility in the first place, and had difficulty remembering what life was like before they embarked on that long, hectic path. They rightfully deserved our sincere thanks for the wonderfully executed program they offered us. The privilege of hosting the next conference was contested among seven countries in Lisbon: Australia, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Macedonia, Turkey and USA. Following many rounds of balloting the IAEE General Assembly of delegates finally decided to award the organizational responsibility to Chile. So, in January, 2017, we will travel to the wonderfully vibrant country that had hosted 4WCEE in 1969. I invite you all to make sure that you will also be there. The World Conference is a unique opportunity to learn from our peers, convey to them our own knowledge, compare notes, build professional networks and socialize as we do all that. This conference is more than the sum of its parts. A World Conference on Earthquake Engineering is the showcase of the state of the art in the slow but inexorable push toward minimizing the harmful effects of the earthquake hazard. It is an experience that accumulates knowledge in earthquake science for the benefit of our fellow humans.
On behalf of the family of national organizations that comprise IAEE I greet you once more with respect.
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