Seismic Game
Berk Boyraz
Prepare and submit to the Emergency Management Council (EMC) statewide strategies, policies, and recommendations that address the seismic threat through mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery activities. This will be established through a collaborative effort and consensus of committee members representing stakeholder organizations across the state.
The RWS subcommittee has been formulating a plan of action to complete this effort since the start of 2010. Beginning with a one-day workshop on September 17, the RWS subcommittee worked with key experts and stakeholders to:
This effort was inspired by a similar effort undertaken for the City of San Francisco by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR). The final SPUR documents for the Resilient City project in San Francisco can be found at _city. Unlike the SPUR document, the RWS effort will be focused on statewide impacts.
The RWS subcommittee has defined a resilient state as one that maintains services and livelihoods after an earthquake. In the event that services and livelihoods are disrupted, recovery occurs rapidly, with minimal social disruption, and results in a new and better condition. In accordance with this definition, a number of values have been established for Washington State to achieve resilience. These include:
Property Protection: Public and private property within the State of Washington should be built, retrofitted, or rebuilt to minimize earthquake-induced damage. This includes proper design and construction of both structural and non-structural elements.
Economic Security: Residents and businesses within the State of Washington should have access to income opportunities to meet basic needs before and soon after an earthquake. This includes sufficient employment opportunities, market access, distribution capacity, and supplier access.
Environmental Protection: The natural resources and ecosystems of Washington State should be managed in such a way as to minimize earthquake-induced damage. This includes the use of proper growth management, accident response capacity, and industrial safety measures.
Life Safety and Human Health: Residents of the State of Washington should not suffer life-threatening injuries from earthquake-induced damage or develop serious illness from lack of emergency medical care after an earthquake. This includes enforcing and updating building codes, eliminating non-structural hazards, and ensuring continuity of emergency health care.
Community Continuity: All communities within the State of Washington should have the capacity to maintain their social networks and livelihoods after an earthquake disaster. This includes prevention of social-network disruption, social discrimination, and community bias.
A seismic hinged expansion joint cover, WaboSeismic SafetyFlex (SSF) utilizes an elastomeric molded cover plate system recommended for wider joint openings that are routinely exposed to heavy loading or when design considerations call for the ability to accommodate multi-directional seismic movement. Independent metal plates integral to the rubber cover, allows the system to flex in response to changes in vertical displacement between opposing sides of the expansion joint.
The design of the system reduces potential tripping hazards by providing a smooth flush installed and slip resistant transition over expansion joint openings. Independent metal plates integral to the EPDM rubber cover allows the system to flex in response to changes in vertical displacement between opposing slabs. In addition, the use of metal plates provides load carrying capability across the joint opening and can be used in low-speed vehicular traffic areas. The rubber cover also reduces the sound caused by vehicular traffic as they travel across the expansion joint opening.
SeismicSafetyFlex has a fabric reinforced neoprene sheet as a heavy-duty moisture barrier and when combined with the optional drain tubes can effectively channel water away from the expansion joint location.
WaboSeismic Safety Flex utilizes a EPDM rubber encapsulated steel cover to provide a slip-resistant trafficable surface. Independent metal plates allow the system to flex and accommodate vertical deflection. The recessed installation provides a flush smooth surface for vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
Board Mission Statement: The Seismic Safety Commission shall review the "State of State" in earthquake preparedness and make recommendations for the government; private sector and citizens to better mitigate the effects of a major seismic event within the state or an event that will affect the state.
The Missouri Seismic Safety Commission initiates, with the assistance and participation of other state, federal and local government agencies, a comprehensive program to prepare the state for responding to a major earthquake. The program was implemented in order to result in specific tools or products to be used by governments in responding to an earthquake, such as educational materials for citizens.
The School Seismic Safety Project (SSSP) is a multi-year statewide effort by the Washington Geological Survey (WGS) and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to assess the seismic vulnerability at public K-12 schools in Washington and communicate these results to school districts, policy makers, and members of the public. Below you'll find the results of these assessments and a summary of our methods. Use the interactive map to find reports for your school district. This is an ongoing project; new data and reports will be updated as they are completed.
Click here to open the map in full screen.
User note: Districts shaded green in the interactive map have reports available; click on a district to see what reports are available for download. Because there have been multiple iterations of the SSSP, sometimes multiple reports are available for one district. We recommend downloading all available reports for the district you are interested in.
In 2012, the Washington State Seismic Safety Committee published a report providing a framework for long-term implementation of seismic risk reduction policies and activities across the state with the goal of making the state resilient to earthquakes within a 50-year timeframe. The initiative set forth the following mission statement:
Phase 1 of the School Seismic Safety Project was funded in July 2017. Geologic field assessments and engineering building surveys were conducted at schools across the state. The final report for the project was finished in June 2019 and submitted to the governor, the legislature, and the school districts who were a part of the study. As part of Phase 1:
The second phase of the School Seismic Safety Project began in July 2019, with geologic field assessments and engineering building inspections at 339 school buildings beginning in the fall. The final report for the project was finished in June 2021 and submitted to the governor, the legislature, and the school districts who were a part of the study. As part of Phase 2:
In 2021, WGS received additional funding from the Washington State Legislature to complete site class assessments at school districts across the state. This ongoing work will improve our understanding of how subsurface geology may impact seismic hazard at schools, help reduce the cost of engineering evaluations, and provide valuable information for understanding earthquake hazards statewide.
WGS will continue to update the shear wave database with new shear wave velocity and site class information, as well as publish district wide site class reports (available by clicking on a district on the interactive map near the top of this page). WGS also delivers site class and shear wave data to OSPI's Information and Condition of Schools (ICOS) inventory.
WGS is no longer conducting or contracting engineering evaluations of school building as part of our seismic safety assessments because the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction is now working with school districts to complete these assessments as part of a larger seismic safety retrofit program, described in the OSPI's School Seismic Safety Retrofit Program section below.
Starting July 2021, WGS no longer contracts engineers to complete engineering assessments at school campuses. SSSP is now focusing on conducting site class assessments (item 1 in the list above) for every campus in the state.
These activities are described in more detail below, and a full technical description of our methods for site class assessments is available in WGS Open File Report 2019-01 (click here to download the report as a pdf).
The concept-level seismic upgrade designs provide: (1) more detailed information about the structural and nonstructural seismic deficiencies of each building, where structural refers to the building structure and framing and nonstructural refers to components such as architectural features and finishes, building envelope, and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems; (2) design solutions for how to lessen the impact of these seismic deficiencies in the event of an earthquake; and (3) an estimate of how much it would cost to bring the building up to seismic code. Based on this information we can extrapolate our findings to other buildings in the state. This will help us better understand the scope of seismic risk and the cost to conduct seismic upgrades for all schools across Washington State.
Shear waves are the earthquake waves that create the strongest shaking and are the most damaging to buildings during an earthquake. This measurement, known as Vs30, is correlated with site class using the table shown below (adapted from NEHRP). Different types of soil and rock can make earthquake shaking stronger at the surface. Site class therefore tells us about the potential for ground shaking in a particular area during an earthquake. Engineers use the site class information for a school to ensure that the building upgrades will be able to withstand the expected amount of shaking at that location.
c80f0f1006