About the San Fernando Earthquake Conference – 50 Years of Lifeline Engineering

Understanding, Improving, & Operationalizing Hazard Resilience for Lifelines

University of California, Los Angeles, California USA

Location: Virtual
January 31 – February 11, 2022

The February 9, 1971 San Fernando California Earthquake was a devastating yet seminal event which, for the first time, demonstrated the seismic threat to lifelines that fundamentally support our modern livelihoods. The knowledge gained from this event initiated the study of lifeline systems worldwide, including water, wastewater, electric power, gas and liquid fuels, communications, transportation, and solid waste management systems.

Continue Reading

Martin L. Adams
General Manager and Chief Engineer,
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Presentation: Keeping L.A’s Water System Resilient

Louise Comfort
Professor Emerita and former Director,
Center for Disaster Management,
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs,
University of Pittsburgh

Presentation: Redesigning Lifeline Systems to Cope with Climate Change:
A Sociotechnical Framework for Building Sustainable Resilient Communities Across Regions of Risk

Rachel Davidson
Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, University of Delaware

Presentation: Integrating engineering risk analysis of lifelines with societal response to and implications of disruptions

Dr. Lucy Jones
Founder and Chief Scientist,
Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society

Presentation: Risk as analysis and risk as emotion

Steven McCabe
Director,
National Earthquake Hazards Program (NEHRP)

Presentation: 45 Years of NEHRP:
How Federal Agency Response Has Catalyzed Improvements in Seismic Risk Reduction

Panel: The San Fernando Earthquake: A Fifty-Year Perspective

Abstract

After the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, Professor C. Martin Duke of UCLA challenged U.S. engineers to raise the standard of safety of all lifelines.  As a result, the lifeline engineering profession set a general goal to raise the state-of-the-art internationally to the equivalent of that which prevailed for earthquake resistive buildings at the time.  This goal would be achieved “when a comprehensive set of standards of lifeline performance in earthquake will have been established and have been proved out in future earthquakes.”  The time frame for this general goal was set at 30 years from the San Fernando earthquake, or roughly the turn of the century.

This panel session will focus on two major themes: a) first-hand experiences during and after the earthquake with a particular emphasis on major takeaways and what were the research and reconstruction priorities at the time, and whether we have sufficiently achieved these priorities, and b) from an international perspective, how did the San Fernando Earthquake affect lifeline research, design and construction practices abroad.   Experts from the U.S. and the international community will share their experiences and participate in a provocative discussion on these two topics.

Gustavo Ayala
Research Professor,
Engineering Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Panelist

Izzat M. Idriss
Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering,
University of California, Davis (UCD)

Panelist

Jeremy Isenberg
Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Stanford University

Panelist

Anshel Schiff
Professor of Engineering Sciences,
Stanford University

Panelist

Anjan Bose
Regents Professor, Distinguished Professor of Electric Power Engineering,
Washington State University

Panelist

Mikhail Chester
Director of the Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering,
Arizona State University

Panelist

Ben Schwegler
Chief Scientist,
Engie China Lab

Panelist

Stephen A. Cauffman
Chief, Resilience Services Branch of the Infrastructure Security Division,
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

Panelist

Christina Curry
Chief Deputy Director,
Cal OES

Panelist

Aaron Gross
Chief Resilience Officer,
City of Los Angeles

Panelist