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Testimony of
Dr. Eugene Wong, Assistant Director for Engineering
National Science Foundation
Before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee
Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space
June 29, 1999
Introduction
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Subcommittee:
I appreciate the opportunity to discuss the National
Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) with
the Subcommittee, and the role of NSF in this effective
multi-agency partnership that was established in 1977.
NSF is privileged to serve as one of the principal
agencies in NEHRP. Our participation in NEHRP is consistent
with our policy of integrating NSF's activities with
those of other agencies when it will facilitate the
achievement of national goals, which in the case of
NEHRP involves the goals of reducing deaths, injuries
and property damage caused by earthquakes. We are
confident that NEHRP - in collaboration with other
Federal agencies, local and state governments, and
private sector organizations throughout the country
- will continue to take crucial steps toward meeting
this challenge in the years to come. Among other functions,
NSF is involved in enabling knowledge creation and
the education of future professionals, activities
which make possible effective earthquake hazard mitigation
in the nation.
I will initially put our involvement in NEHRP in perspective
by saying a few words about the broader NSF mission.
Then I will discuss the role of NSF in the NEHRP partnership.
The NSF Mission
Recent years have seen acceleration in the rate of
change in society and the world at large. In this
era of rapid change, in which science and technology
play an increasingly central role, NSF has remained
steadfast in pursuit of its mission. That mission
is to support science and engineering research and
education for the advancement of the nation's well
being.
At NSF, we believe that federally funded research should
have economic and social benefits for society, as
well as represent excellence in science and engineering.
We also see the necessity for and benefits from integrating
research and education, which can most effectively
be done at academic institutions.
NSF makes its investments in science and engineering
with the recognition that there is a need to maintain
excellence across the frontiers of scientific and
engineering disciplines. In order to significantly
enhance the return on such investments, we actively
seek partnerships with other Federal agencies as well
as other entities.
Finally, NSF places significant emphasis on the diffusion
of knowledge and technological innovations that are
relevant to such national goals as education, environmental
sustainability, and the development of reliable and
safe civil infrastructure systems. This requires an
appreciation of a broad range of research and educational
contexts, including the recognition that research
centers, consortia, and individual investigator projects
all contribute to the advancement of needed scientific
and engineering knowledge.
Role of NSF in NEHRP
NSF supports research and educational activities in
many disciplines, and this is reflected in the role
we are assigned under NEHRP. Our role complements
the responsibilities assigned to our principal partners
in the program: the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), the US Geological Survey (USGS), and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NSF
is involved in continuing strategic planning with
the other NEHRP agencies in order to further interagency
coordination and integration. NSF is also a frequent
collaborator with the other NEHRP agencies. This collaboration
includes co-funding research, educational and outreach
activities.
Previous legislation reauthorizing NEHRP calls for
NSF to support studies in the earth sciences, earthquake
engineering, and the social sciences. Since an integrated
body of knowledge is needed to understand earthquake
problems and to develop effective solutions for dealing
with them, such as innovative building designs and
control technologies, NSF encourages cross-disciplinary
research. The NSF-supported earthquake centers, which
I will discuss later, provide one of the most useful
institutional arrangements for conducting complex
holistic research.
Earthquake research and educational activities are
supported at NSF in the Geosciences and Engineering
Directorates. Fundamental earthquake research is funded
in the Geosciences Directorate, while the Engineering
Directorate supports earthquake engineering and social
science research related to earthquake hazard mitigation
and preparedness. Significant progress continues to
be made in these programs in understanding plate tectonics
and earthquake processes, geotechnical and structural
engineering, and the social and economic aspects of
earthquake hazard reduction.
NSF supports numerous individual investigator and small
group projects, two university consortia, and four
earthquake centers that advance NEHRP goals. Other
NEHRP-related NSF activities include programs involving
earthquake research facilities, post-earthquake investigations,
international cooperation, and information dissemination.
I will briefly discuss some of the highlights of such
activities since the last time that NSF and the other
NEHRP agencies appeared before the Subcommittee on
April 10, 1997.
Research Facilities
NSF has long recognized that its mission to advance
science and engineering in the U.S. includes providing
the academic community with requisite resources for
developing world-class research facilities and equipment.
And NEHRP legislation has reinforced our own expectations
regarding this important role for NSF. Let me provide
some examples of our efforts to ensure that U.S. researchers
have the required facilities to conduct cutting-edge
research well into the next century.
Network for Earthquake Engineering
Simulation (NEES)
In response to a congressional mandate, NSF and NIST
supported a study that was coordinated by the Earthquake
Engineering Research Institute to assess earthquake
engineering experimental research resources in the
U.S. Recommendations from this study, which identified
the need to upgrade the earthquake engineering experimental
research infrastructure in the U.S., were published
in a comprehensive 1995 report entitled Assessment
of Earthquake Engineering Research and Testing Capabilities
in the United States.
The 1997 NEHRP reauthorization legislation called for
NSF, in collaboration with the other NEHRP partners,
to develop a comprehensive plan for modernizing and
integrating experimental earthquake engineering research
facilities in the U.S. I am happy to report that such
a planning process was successfully undertaken involving
the NEHRP agencies and relevant stakeholders in the
earthquake field, including academic researchers,
practitioners in the public and private sectors, and
suppliers of earthquake research equipment. Consultations
with representatives from these groups occurred on
numerous occasions over the past two years and included
in-depth discussions at seven meetings and workshops.
I am pleased to say that this process has resulted
in a plan for significantly improving the earthquake
engineering experimental research infrastructure in
the U.S.
The plan involves the creation of a Network for Earthquake
Engineering Simulation (NEES) over the next five years.
In November 1998, the National Science Board gave
its approval to NSF to include the cost of initiating
the development of NEES in the agency's FY 2000 budget.
An estimated investment of nearly $82 million will
be required to develop NEES over the next five years.
When completed, NEES will involve a networked system
of upgraded and new experimental research facilities
for testing full size structures and their components
as well as partial scale physical models. The components
of the system will be distributed at various sites
around the country and will include such facilities
as: (1) shake tables used for earthquake simulations;
(2) large reaction walls for pseudo-dynamic testing;
(3) centrifuges for testing soils under earthquake
loads; and (4) field testing facilities, such as mobile
shakers.
In recent years, rapid advances have occurred in information
technology, and NEES will reflect new developments
in the Internet and computer software. For example,
despite their geographic dispersion, the various components
of NEES will be interconnected with a computer network,
allowing for remote access, the sharing of information,
and collaborative research. Also, this system will
be integrated through networking software so that
integrated models and databases can be used to create
model-based simulation. NEES will leverage public
and private investments in the $100 billion-a-year
information technology industry by using existing
software and making effective use of the high-speed
networking infrastructure that is one of NSF's most
successful investments. We believe that this utilization
of advanced IT will enable the earthquake engineering
research field to move from a reliance on physical
testing to model-based simulation. If this occurs
as expected, this will be a major transition for earthquake
engineering research and lead to results that rapidly
help advance earthquake hazard reduction in the nation.
NEES will also serve as a major educational tool. For
example, undergraduate and graduate students throughout
the U.S. will be able to access the network for data,
information, and course material as well as to participate
in various experiments. Involvement with NEES will
also enable students to sharpen skills in utilizing
modern information technology tools and resources.
Such learning opportunities could be made available
for pre-college students, as well as college students,
ushering in an unprecedented appreciation for earthquake
problems and a new age for earthquake engineering
education.
NEES, then, promises to lead to a new age in earthquake
engineering research and education. It should be well
worth the large investment. We look forward to keeping
the Subcommittee informed about its development.
EarthScope
An important new research facility, EarthScope, is
under consideration by NSF. EarthScope is an integrated,
multi-purpose geophysical instrument array that has
the potential for making major advances in our knowledge
and understanding of the structure and dynamics of
the North American continent. This knowledge is not
only important scientifically, but is needed for use
in mitigating the impact of disasters caused by earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions. This will provide a significant
enhancement of NSF's contribution to NEHRP goals.
One of the principal goals of Earthscope is to estimate
realistic strong ground motions from different types
of faults and within different types of geologic structures.
Thus, Earthscope directly complements the NEES effort
in that it is intended to provide realistic earthquake
strong motion data for the engineering simulations.
Incorporated Research Institutes
in Seismology (IRIS)
NSF supports the Incorporated Research Institutes in
Seismology (IRIS) consortium in order to provide the
seismographic facilities necessary to monitor earthquakes
worldwide, study the tectonic structure of active
seismic zones, and provide emergency seismographic
response to aftershock zones of major earthquakes.
IRIS's Global Seismographic Network (GSN), operated
in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, is
the primary means of locating, in near-real time,
seismic events around the world to provide emergency
and policy planners information with which decisions
on responses can be made. The GSN is nearly complete
on land with over 100 stations worldwide, most of
which are accessed in near-real time, and all of which
are available over the Internet through the IRIS Data
Management Center. The Data Management Center now
stores over 8 terabytes of data and is growing at
a rate of 2 terabytes per year. Tests are now being
conducted on the deep ocean floor to determine the
best technology with which to instrument the vast
oceanic areas of the Earth.
IRIS maintains a ready array of advanced, portable
seismic systems for rapid deployment in the aftershock
region of major earthquakes. This array is also used
to map the tectonic structure of active seismic regions.
With knowledge of the tectonic structure, scientists
can better understand the geometry of potential earthquake
rupture zones and compute their associated destructive
strong motions, especially close to the earthquake
source.
Global Positioning System (GPS)
The Global Positioning System (GPS) was initially developed
by the Department of Defense in order to provide location
accuracies of a few meters. However, the differential
use of GPS with two or more receiving systems can
achieve sub-centimeter accuracy and this fact has
revolutionized the science of earthquake tectonics.
The distortion of the earth's surface is an essential
measure of the potential for earthquakes in a given
region. This distortion can be monitored with GPS
and other space-based positioning systems. NSF supports
facilities that use GPS to monitor crustal distortion
in both campaign and fixed-network modes.
The University Navstar Consortium (UNAVCO), supported
by NSF in partnership with NASA, was formed to support
scientific campaigns that monitor crustal distortion
in active tectonic areas. UNAVCO provides instrumentation,
training and logistics support to individual scientists
who have been funded to study specific tectonic areas
throughout the world.
The Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN)
is the most ambitious U.S. GPS fixed-network to date
and is under construction with support of NSF in partnership
with NASA, the USGS, and the Keck Foundation. SCIGN,
now almost one-half complete, will consist of 250
fixed GPS stations in southern California. It will
be linked with less dense networks in Nevada, northern
California, and the Pacific Northwest. The SCIGN data
is available on the Internet in near-real time, and
has already provided significant new discoveries and
constraints on our ideas of the tectonics of the San
Andreas Fault plate-boundary zone.
Research Centers
NSF established the Southern California Earthquake
Center (SCEC) in 1991 as a Science and Technology
Center for the purpose of promoting and integrating
science related to earthquake hazard estimation and
reduction in the southern California region. The USGS
is a partner in SCEC, which also receives support
from FEMA, the State of California, the City of Los
Angeles, County of Los Angeles, industry and private
foundations. Such broad funding is an example of how
NEHRP agencies leverage funds and indicates that SCEC
truly is seen as an activity that cuts across the
concerns of the NEHRP program. SCEC is a consortium
of institutions and is administered through the University
of Southern California. It continues to contribute
significantly to a new understanding of the earthquake
hazard in southern California by combining insights
from seismicity, new geodetic technology, new geologic
discoveries, and local site conditions in an innovative
framework of earthquake hazard evaluation. Recent
examples of SCEC findings include a) the discovery
that magnitude 7 earthquakes have occurred on at least
one local thrust fault in the Los Angeles metropolitan
region, b) a determination that one major thrust fault
discovered beneath the region is currently inactive,
and c) a suggestion that north-south strain across
the Los Angeles region may be partially accommodated
by east-west crustal extension. SCEC advances are
being effectively communicated to professionals, students
and the public through a very active education and
outreach program.
NSF funded three new earthquake engineering research
centers (EERCs) in October 1997. Representing a new
generation of such institutions, these recently funded
EERCs build on the experience of the first such center
that was funded by NSF in 1986, the National Center
for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER).
Each EERC is a consortium of several academic institutions
involved in multidisciplinary team research, educational
and outreach activities. With its administrative headquarters
at the University of California at Berkeley, the Pacific
Earthquake Engineering Research Center (PEER) focuses
on earthquake problems in areas west of the Rocky
Mountains and emphasizes performance-based design
in its research and educational programs. The Mid-America
Earthquake Center (MAE) is headquartered at the University
of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and focuses on hazards
in the Central and Eastern U.S. and emphasizes research
related to critical facilities. The Multi-disciplinary
Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER),
which is the successor to NCEER, has its headquarters
at the State University of New York at Buffalo and
emphasizes research related to advanced technologies
that are applicable to earthquake problems throughout
the U.S.
The EERCs are combining research across the disciplines
of the earth sciences, earthquake engineering, and
the social sciences. And in order to meet the need
for future professionals and assure continuing U.S.
leadership in the field, they are educating hundreds
of undergraduate and graduate students in the latest
analytical, computational and experimental techniques.
Additionally, even though it is early in their tenure,
the EERCs have established major partnerships with
industry, government, and foreign research organizations,
which should also help advance earthquake hazard reduction
in the nation in the years ahead.
The three EERCs have developed significant collaborative
efforts in their research, educational and outreach
programs. And they are developing similar ties to
SCEC.
Post-Earthquake Investigations
Actual earthquake events provide a wealth of knowledge
relevant to earthquake hazard mitigation. Areas struck
by such events represent natural laboratories, offering
unusual opportunities to learn vital lessons about
earthquake impacts and to test models and techniques
derived from analytical, computational and experimental
studies. For this reason, NSF continues to support
post-disaster investigations, often in conjunction
with the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.
The post-earthquake investigations involve quick-response
teams of researchers visiting impacted sites to collect
information that remains available only up to the
time that full-scale community restoration and reconstruction
commence. The events investigated with NSF support
since the last NEHRP reauthorization hearing include
the tsunami that followed an earthquake in Papua New
Guinea on July 17, 1998, the aftershocks following
the earthquake in northwestern Pennsylvania on September
25, 1998, and the earthquake that struck Columbia
on January 25, 1999.
The catastrophic Papua New Guinea tsunami resulted
in an official death toll of over 2,000, making it
one of the deadliest such events this century. The
NSF- funded team of four researchers, which included
geophysicists and engineers, spent a week in Papua
New Guinea to perform a survey of the devastation
in order to obtain sufficient data to model the event
and determine the potential for such an event striking
the U.S. coast. Upon completion of their work, the
team briefed Papua New Guinea authorities, made recommendations
for tsunami hazard mitigation, and addressed local
hospital staff and high schools regarding tsunami
warning signs and appropriate response actions.
Additional data on the tsunami were collected by a
follow up team. Further work will continue to model
the source and determine the potential for future
tsunamis from the same subduction zone. One of the
goals of this continuing work is to more clearly define
the tsunami risk to the shorelines of the United States.
Aftershocks from the September 25, 1998, magnitude
5.2 Pymatuning earthquake, named for a nearby reservoir
in a northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, were investigated
by means of the IRIS portable seismometer array. Earthquakes
of this size can be very destructive if centered at
a shallow depth under a populated area. Seismicity
is much lower in the eastern U.S. than in the West,
but the relatively large population and the vulnerability
of buildings and infrastructure counteract the benefits
of lower seismicity. This vulnerability is compounded
by our lack of understanding as to why earthquakes
occur in the eastern U.S., which is a relatively stable
tectonic plate interior. These factors point out the
difficulty in estimating the seismic hazard, which
is very real, in the eastern half of the U.S.
A multi-disciplinary team of six researchers carried
out the post-disaster investigation of the Colombia
earthquake, which caused a total of over 600 deaths
in the cities of Armenia and Pereira. This team, which
spent a week in Colombia gathering data on the disaster,
was assembled by the Earthquake Engineering Research
Institute through its "Learning from Earthquakes"
project, which is funded by NSF. The focus of the
investigation was on the geotechnical aspects of the
event, including soil characteristics and strong ground
motion features; structural aspects, including damage
to various types of buildings; the performance of
lifelines, including electric, water and telecommunications
systems; and socioeconomic aspects, including casualty
patterns and emergency response.
The Colombia earthquake team is preparing a final report
on the implications of this event for earthquake hazard
reduction and research, which will include recommendations
for follow up research. A preliminary report is available
to the public on the Web.
Collaborative Earthquake Research
As indicated by the above discussion, earthquakes are
a global hazard. For this reason, many countries find
collaborative research and the sharing of information
essential in meeting this challenge; the U.S. is no
exception. Similar to the other NEHRP agencies, NSF
has a long history of cooperating with other countries
- such as China, Mexico, Italy and Japan - facing
similar seismic risks. Let me briefly mention some
recent developments with regards to NSF's efforts
to enable U.S. earthquake researchers to collaborate
with their Japanese counterparts.
In 1993, the US/Japan Common Agenda for Cooperation
in Global Perspective was established by President
Clinton and the Prime Minister of Japan to facilitate
cooperation in addressing pressing global problems,
including natural hazards. In 1998, a new joint earthquake
research program, called the US/Japan Cooperative
Research in Urban Earthquake Disaster Mitigation,
emerged out of this broad agreement. Under this five-year
program, NSF provides funding for U.S. researchers,
while collaborating Japanese researchers are being
supported principally by the Japanese Ministry of
Education, Science, Sports and Culture.
NSF has made fourteen awards under the program thus
far, and others will be made over the next four years.
The current set of projects is multidisciplinary,
and has a significant educational component. Numerous
research topics are being studied during this early
phase of the program. They include, for example, studies
of the effects of near-field ground motions, earthquake
resistant design for lifelines and foundations, performance-based
design, perceptions of earthquake impacts and loss-reduction
preferences of citizens, and disaster mitigation for
urban transportation systems. These projects involve
significant interaction between U.S. and Japanese
researchers and are enabling researchers from both
countries to accomplish goals together that they could
not accomplish separately.
Information Network
The NEHRP agencies, along with academic institutions,
professional organizations and many other types of
organizations, continue to engage in and support a
variety of information dissemination and technology
transfer activities, including workshops, information
clearinghouses, and educational programs for practitioners.
The plethora of information providers offer the promise
of meeting the critical need for the timely distribution
of seismic risk information to potential users throughout
the nation. However, this also presents the challenge
of developing better ways to coordinate the activities
of these groups and of leveraging their scarce resources
so that they will be more effective as a totality.
A new mechanism has been recently established with
NSF and FEMA support to further coordination between
seismic information providers. This mechanism is an
umbrella organization called the Earthquake Information
Providers Group (EqIP), which has been made possible
because of the development of new electronic technologies.
EqIP is comprised of thirty organizations that attempt
to disseminate seismic information to the research
community, practitioners, policy makers and the public
in a more coordinated fashion. During its two-year
existence, EqIP participants have exchanged ideas
and technical information and implemented collaborative
projects. Also, a web site called EQNET has been created
to link the individual web sites of the various participant
organizations. Thus EqIP has positioned itself to
enhance the cooperation between earthquake information
providers and thereby offer better information services
to the nation and help further earthquake hazard reduction.
Mr. Chairman, this completes my remarks. I will be
happy to answer any questions that the Subcommittee
might have about NSF's participation in NEHRP.
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