Recent earthquakes around the world show a pattern of steadily
increasing damages and losses that are due primarily to two
factors: (1) significant growth in earthquake-prone urban areas and
(2) vulnerability of the older building stock, including buildings
constructed within the past 20 years. In the United States,
earthquake risk has grown substantially with development while the
earthquake hazard has remained relatively constant. Understanding
the hazard requires studying earthquake characteristics and locales
in which they occur while understanding the risk requires an
assessment of the potential damage to the built environment and to
the welfare of people - especially in high risk areas. Estimating
the varying degree of earthquake risk throughout the United States
is useful for informed decision-making on mitigation policies,
priorities, strategies, and funding levels in the public and
private sectors. For example, potential losses to new buildings may
be reduced by applying seismic design codes and using specialized
construction techniques. However, decisions to spend money on
either of those solutions require evidence of risk. In the absence
of a nationally accepted criterion and methodology for comparing
seismic risk across regions, a consensus on optimal mitigation
approaches has been difficult to reach. While there is a good
understanding of high risk areas such as Los Angeles, there is also
growing recognition that other regions such as New York City and
Boston have a low earthquake hazard but are still at high risk of
significant damage and loss. This high risk level reflects the
dense concentrations of buildings and infrastructure in these areas
constructed without the benefit of modern seismic design
provisions. In addition, mitigation policies and practices may not
have been adopted because the earthquake risk was not clearly
demonstrated and the value of using mitigation measures in reducing
that risk may not have been understood. This study highlights the
impacts of both high risk and high exposure on losses caused by
earthquakes. It is based on loss estimates generated by
HAZUS(r)-MH, a geographic information system (GIS)-based earthquake
loss estimation tool developed by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) in cooperation with the National Institute of
Building Sciences (NIBS). The HAZUS tool provides a method for
quantifying future earthquake losses. It is national in scope,
uniform in application, and comprehensive in its coverage of the
built environmen
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