University of California, Los Angeles
January 31 – February 11, 2022

 

"UCLA" in white against a blue block and "Samueli School of Engineering"ASCE Infrastructure Resilience logo"ASCE Lifelines Conference 2021 2022" on top of a white seismograph line

The Lifelines Conference 2021-22 Executive Committee has made the difficult decision to pivot from a hybrid (in-person and virtual) format to 100% virtual due to the ongoing surge in the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Conference plenary sessions will proceed on the originally scheduled dates, February 1-3 2022. The schedule for breakout sessions is being developed now. Further information for conference registrants and sponsors is being sent by email.

Update made on January 12, 2022.

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.

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Conference Proceedings

The conference proceedings will be available as post-conference proceedings as an electronic download and will also be sent via email. One copy is included with each Individual and packaged registration.

Information about Virtual Platform

The Lifelines 2021-22 Conference virtual platform will be available to all registrants until Friday, March 18 at 8:45 pm Pacific Time. conference registration has closed as of February 12, 2022.  We are exploring alternate options to have video presentations available as permissible and will let registrants know if new viewing options become available.

Special Guest Speakers

Portrait of Martin Adams
Martin L. Adams

General Manager and Chief Engineer,
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Presentation: Keeping L.A’s Water System Resilient

Portrait of Louise ComfortLouise 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

Masanori HamadaMasanori Hamada
Professor Emeritus — Waseda University
Chairman  — Asian Disaster Reduction Center

Presentation: Measures for Enhancement of Earthquake Resilience of Waterfront Energy Industries

JenningsPaul C. Jennings
Professor of Civil Engineering and
Applied Mechanics, Emeritus

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

Presentation: 50 Years after the San Fernando Earthquake

 

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

Presentation: Risk as analysis and risk as emotion

O'RourkeT.D. O’Rourke
Thomas R. Briggs Professor of Engineering
Cornell University

Presentation: Lifeline Earthquake Engineering –
Its Legacy and Lessons Learned

Panels

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.

Portrait of Ron Eguchi Ronald T. Eguchi
CEO and Co-Founder, ImageCat

Panel Moderator

Portrait of Gustavo Ayala
Gustavo Ayala

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

Panelist

Portrait of Izzat Idriss
Izzat M. Idriss

Professor Emeritus of Civil Engineering,
University of California, Davis (UCD)

Panelist

Portrait of Jeremy Isenberg
Jeremy Isenberg

Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
Stanford University

Panelist

Portrait of Anshel Schiff
Anshel Schiff
Professor of Engineering Sciences,
Stanford University

Panelist

Portrait of Fumio Yamazaki
Fumio Yamazaki

Research Fellow,
National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED)

Panelist

Panel: Building Lifelines into the Future

 
Abstract

The 1971 San Fernando earthquake was a pivotal point in our awareness of the vulnerability of our lifelines to earthquakes. Since then, significant progress has been made in addressing the many issues around building more resilient lifeline systems. With our infrastructure deteriorating, our focus is now on a vision that addresses not only vulnerability of lifelines to extreme events, but also redesigning and rebuilding these systems that can meet the challenges of the future. 

The objective of this panel session is to bring experts who can share their vision on the future developments of the various infrastructure systems. As technology has accelerated the development of various components within each lifeline sector, we are faced with the question – what will the lifelines of the future look like? For example, how will we have to design our transportation systems to address the increased adoption of elective vehicles (EVs), autonomous vehicles (AVs), flying taxies or other short distance transport? Another example is the major expansion of renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics, wind turbines, coastal water turbines. What will their role be in future disasters and how will our electric grid need to change to address both extreme event and every-day needs? The scarcity of water with recent droughts has brought to light the need for greater water conservation and for further exploring alternate water sources. There are significant ongoing investigations on issues related to water management, development of advanced cost-effective desalination technologies, and water reuse in urban areas. Treatment of wastewater is receiving similar attention. A related key issue is the interdependencies of the various lifelines and how can these be addressed.

Portrait of Anne Kiremidjian
Anne S. Kiremidjian
The C. L. Peck, Class of 1906 Professor in the School of Engineering, Stanford University

Panel Moderator

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

Panelist

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

Panelist

Portrait of Ben Schwegler
Ben Schwegler
Chief Scientist,
Engie China Lab

Panelist

Nalini Venkatasubramanian
Nalini 
Venkatasubramanian
Professor in the School of Information and Computer Science,
University of California, Irvine

Panelist

Closing Plenary: Public policies to enhance lifeline infrastructure resilience

Abstract
 
Many critical lifeline infrastructure systems have significant vulnerabilities, some of which have been revealed in recent high-impact events, and others of which are largely unknown to the public. Well-crafted public policy holds the potential to identify critical vulnerabilities and reduce risk over time with targeted investments that enhance resilience. This session brings together leaders in the development and implementation of public policy to both describe current vulnerabilities and present opportunities to reduce risk and increase resilience with funding from the Infrastructure Bill and local initiatives.


Ron Lin
Reporter,
Los Angeles Times

Panel Moderator

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

Panelist

Portrait of Christina Curry
Christina Curry
Chief Deputy Director,
Cal OES

Panelist

Portrait of Aaron Gross
Aaron Gross
Chief Resilience Officer,
City of Los Angeles

Panelist

Portrait of Kurt Kainsinger
Kurt Kainsinger
Director,
Office of Emergency Preparedness at UCLA Health

Panelist

Conference Organizers

Collaborating Partners

ASCE Los Angeles
NHR3 logo
Resilience logo
EERI logo
Quakecore Logo: The letter Q on the left, the text QuakeCoRE, NZ Center for Earthquake Resilience Te Hiring Ru, on the right
The letters PEER in blue with vertical lines forming a diamond next to it.
JSCE logo
The word "GEER" on top of an icon of the earth, encircled by a gear icon

Supporting Organizations

Portland State University logo
Logo that says New Zealand Lifelines. There are eight diagonal lines forming half of a square.

Educational Partner

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security logo on the left (the words U.S. Department of Homeland Security circling an eagle with laurels and arrows) and the words letters F E M A on the right.

Sponsors

Diamond Sponsors

NEHRP
NIST

Platinum Sponsors

American Logo
All in green, says "USGS science for a changing world." There is a square with three wavy lines running through it.

Gold Sponsors

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Logo
MWD
The text "altra solutions" with the former being larger

Silver Sponsors

Berkeley University of California and EBMUD
Cal OES logo
California Geological Survey logo
Geosyntec_logo
ImageCat logo
Infraterra logo
JFE Logo
The words "Kinemetrics Advancement through Innovation" and the letter "K" with a lot of triangles following it.
Lettis Consultants International, Inc. Logo
Northwest Pipe logo
The letters SGH in caps
SoCal Gas logo
The word "Stantec" with a circle to the left. There is a black curvy line inside the circle. This is Stantec's logo.
Structural Technologies logo
T2 Utility Engineers Logo
The word "Victaulic" underlined in orange

Bronze Sponsors

"Caltrans" with a green c and a blue t
"Carollo"
DisasterTech logo
The word "Kleinfelder" in all caps, with the words "Bright People. Right Solutions." beneath it. There is an incomplete circle to the left of the words
Seft Consulting Group logo

Exhibitors

"ASCE" in blue and "Publications" in green
The words "Safe-T-Proof" in white against a half-red-half-black background
The word Turner in navy color