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| Improved Seismic Monitoring - Improved Decision-Making: Assessing the Value of Reduced Uncertainty(Print This) |
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| With approximately 30 percent of the population and 50 percent of the national building stock in areas prone to damaging earthquakes, there is a growing urgency about mitigating earthquake risk. With improved information from seismic monitoring instruments, more accurate predictions of damage to buildings and other losses can be used as a basis for developing loss-avoidance regulations, emergency preparedness activities, and earthquake forecasts. A National Academies committee conducted an assessment of the economic benefits of improved seismic monitoring, particularly the U.S. Geological Survey's Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS), which will be located primarily in the urban areas most vulnerable to earthquakes. The report concludes that full deployment of ANSS could substantially reduce earthquake losses and that the potential benefits of reducing annualized earthquake losses, estimated at $5.6 billion for buildings and building-related damage alone, would far outweigh the annualized cost of the system of about $96 million. The committee concludes that the annual dollar costs of seismic monitoring are in the tens of millions, and the potential annualized dollar benefits are in the hundreds of millions. |  |
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