Earthquakes and Social Policy

Another in my series of courses I would like to do.

To examine the 'threat' of earthquakes, and the social response, as exemplified by building codes, emergency planning, and general preparedness.

Every year, many thousands get killed by earthquakes. In most cases, they are totally unprepared, yet most areas of the world have accurate estimates of the seismic hazard. The course examines the social context of preparing for earthquakes. When is it 'too long' between earthquakes to prepare? Is a city with frequent earthquakes more prepared because 'Everything that can be knocked down, has been knocked down'? Is there consideration of 'major consequences', or is response only weighted by living memory.

We shall look at recent earthquakes, and areas with different probabilities of earthquake occurrence. This shall be a paperless course, with each student preparing a blog with unique viewpoints.