Information on the upcoming 2019 Travel Study Program in New Zealand can be found HERE.
2017 LFE Travel Study Program
The LFE Travel Study Program is an initiative of EERI to conduct field study trips to earthquake affected regions around the world.The program offers members a unique opportunity to learn directly from local experts in the field, facilitating international knowledge transfer. Field study trips help participants understand the role and importance of EERI reconnaissance activities and provide hands-on experience with EERI tools. Moreover, the program aims to inspire participants to become future leaders in the field of earthquake engineering and earthquake risk reduction. While any EERI member may participate, the program is targeted at early career researchers or early career practicing engineers and graduate students.
Goals of the Program
• Provide opportunities for EERI members to engage in learning from earthquakes activities as an alternative to participation in the limited post-earthquake reconnaissance opportunities.
• Foster dialogue and interaction amongst members in various disciplines, as well as participants and the host country.
• Provide an experience that allows younger members to gain stronger connections to EERI and its LFE program, while also inspiring them to become future leaders in the field of earthquake engineering and earthquake risk reduction.
• Increase the participants’ knowledge in a wide range of earthquake engineering, earthquake response and recovery topics related to both research and practice; and encourage thinking about earthquake risk mitigation, preparedness and planning.
• Offer EERI members a unique opportunity to learn directly from local experts in the field, facilitating international knowledge transfer.
• Provide learning experiences that inspire participants to apply lessons learned to preparedness in their own community upon return home.
• Engage experienced members who have conducted reconnaissance for EERI after past earthquakes and provide them an opportunity to transfer their knowledge to the future generation of members via an exciting activity.
Learning Objectives
1. Recognize the value of both immediate and long term reconnaissance activities.
2. Know, for the visited region, the earthquake impacts; current levels of recovery to natural, built, economic and social environments; and constraints and challenges to recovery and the rebuilding process.
3. Make connections between impacts, reconnaissance, and lessons learned, etc.
4. Understand the multidisciplinary processes and components and challenges in earthquake recovery.
5. Understanding the interdependencies and coordination necessary among the many disciplines involved in earthquake risk reduction and the differences around the world.
The first LFE Travel Study Program took place January 14-18, 2017 in partnership with Centro Nacional de Investigación para la Gestión Integrada de Desastres Naturales (CIGIDEN) of Santiago, Chile. The 16 young member participants and 4 expert mentors benefited from lectures on damage and recovery from recent earthquakes in Chile and visited repaired facilities, facilities built to new codes, in particular those with seismic protection, a tsunami warning center, social housing projects, and an engineering research and testing lab. Participants completed two projects: observations of resilience in housing, healthcare, schools, and business; and assessment of tsunami evacuation routes.
Group photo on top of Titanium Tower in Santiago, Chile by Wael Hassan[/caption] [caption align="alignright" width="610"] Heritage structures in Lolol, Chile by Felipe Rivera
A future LFE Travel Study Program is in development.
Links to several articles related to the LFE Travel Study Program:
Resilience Reconnaissance Observations
Tsunami Resilience Observations