BFRL Program

National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP)

---

Although damaging earthquakes occur infrequently in the U.S., they strike with little or no warning, with potentially catastrophic consequences. A 2003 report by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)¹ states that a single large earthquake in an urban area could easily result in direct and indirect economic losses between $100 billion and $200 billion. While seismic provisions for new buildings in U.S. model building codes have gradually been improved, their focus on life safety for their occupants has led to costly prescriptive design procedures. The existing building stock is much more vulnerable to earthquake damage than newly designed buildings and is likely to be in use for many decades. Cost-effective seismic evaluation and rehabilitation methodologies are not widely available or applied.

Four Federal agencies – FEMA, NIST, NSF, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) – comprise the NEHRP partnership and perform research and implementation activities related to earthquake hazard mitigation in the U.S. under directions provided by NEHRP authorization legislation. The most recent NEHRP reauthorization occurred in 2004. That reauthorization directed that NIST be established as the NEHRP lead agency, with responsibility for program coordination and planning for the four NEHRP partner agencies. The same authorizing legislation makes NIST responsible for performing applied earthquake engineering research under the auspices of NEHRP.  

Six general areas of measurement science research have been targeted to support near- and long-term improvements to building and community disaster resilience with respect to the earthquake threat:

• technical support for building code development;
• performance-based seismic engineering;
• national design guidelines;
• evaluated technology dissemination;
• enhanced design productivity and interoperability; and,
• improved evaluation and strengthening for existing buildings.

NEHRP research and implementation efforts will result in reduced societal risk, cost, and operational impacts from earthquakes on individuals, businesses, and government. The program will also foster a transformation from prescriptive to performance-based design codes and standards, enabling innovation in materials, technologies, and system designs and fostering cost-effectiveness.

[1] Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, Securing Society Against Catastrophic Earthquake Losses: A Research and Outreach Plan in Earthquake Engineering, June 2003.

Component Projects:

• Computer-Based Clearinghouse

• Improved Structural Response Modification Factors for Seismic Design of New Buildings - Phase I

• Assessment of ASCE 41 First Generation Performance-Based Seismic Design Methods for New Buildings in High-Seismic Regions – Phases I - III

Contact:
John R. Hayes
(301) 975-5640
jack.hayes@nist.gov

 

Privacy Policy  /  Security Notice  /  Accessibility Disclaimer  |  FOIA  |  Information Quality  |  About NIST NIST is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce