"EMCA1– GEM2 work-shop"
In Bishkek Kirgyz Republic,
from 14 to 15 June 2011.
On 14-15 June 2011, the first EMCA workshop took place in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan). The aim of the workshop was to bring together high-level representatives from research academies as well as leading scientists. The deputy Minister of Emergency of Kyrgyzstan and a representative of the Minister of Emergency of Kazakhstan participated in the workshop. A representative of AKDN, Dr. Verjee, that will closely cooperate with the project and will be an end user of EMCA also participated in the meeting. This offered the opportunity to have an overview of the state of the art in seismic hazard and vulnerability assessment in Central Asia. We reached consensus amongst the CA countries on the cross-border hazard model to be developed within EMCA and how to make it compatible with GEM. The building classification scheme to be adopted and the vulnerability data sets to be used for the future earthquake risk assessment were also discussed. Furthermore, the local experts provided a review of the existing building codes in the different Central Asian countries and illustrated their possible future developments.
In particular, the internal organization of the project was refined and regional coordinators for the creation of an harmonized instrumental and historical earthquake catalog, a fault model and an harmonized vulnerability cross border data set were agreed. A part of this, data and knowledge sharing was discussed.
The invitation to the workshop participation was extended to the representative of the other GEM regional initiative EMME in order to define, already at the very beginning of the project, common standards and strategies that will allow easier harmonisations of the different models at their borders.
Last but not least a press event was organised. The response of the media was large and the aims and goals of the EMCA projects were communicated to the public immediately in the days after the meeting.
Press interview and materials (pdf)
