Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Canada has a high likelihood of facing significant earthquake disasters in the future. Active crustal and subduction earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest are major threats to residents in British Columbia, whereas the Saint Lawrence seismic zone can host infrequent, major earthquakes in Quebec and Ontario. 40% of Canadians live within the active seismic regions, thus the impact of large earthquakes can be significant socioeconomically and financially. Scientific challenges in assessing the potential risks for residents and assets include characterizing future ruptures of major earthquakes and modeling multi-hazard cascades that will affect the population and built environment simultaneously. I will develop new integrated multi-hazard methods for earthquake impact assessments by encompassing the four phases of a disaster cycle (mitigation-preparedness-response-recovery). The program will advance single- and multi-hazard methods for earthquakes and secondary perils (e.g., tsunamis, fault displacements, and landslides) and apply multi-hazard approaches to enhance disaster risk mitigation and preparedness and to improve disaster response and recovery capabilities of communities. The program will quantitatively evaluate multi-hazard earthquake impacts at local and regional scales and propose effective solutions for managing catastrophic risks. This will result in enhanced disaster preparedness across Canada and around the world. Over the next 5 years, I will focus on three objectives: 1) advancing long-term single- and multi-hazard methods for earthquakes and secondary perils; 2) developing a new multi-hazard risk assessment method for coastal communities under concurrent and cascading hazards and its applications in Canadian and global regions; and 3) improving disaster response (early warning and evacuation) and recovery (insurance and risk transfer) capabilities against multi-hazard processes. The tools and core technical innovations resulting from the work in Obj. 1, will be applied to create meaningful solutions to current challenges to disaster risk management in Obj. 2 and Obj. 3. The proposed program will contribute to achieving my long-term goals related to disaster risk reduction, quantifying the effectiveness of viable mitigation strategies, and implementing risk-based management decisions. The holistic multi-hazard impact assessment approach will facilitate the understanding of possible future scenarios that may unfold from different hazards as well as different socioeconomic drivers, and will offer essential interfaces with other disciplines, such as social sciences, economics, and disaster policies. Through active collaborations with municipalities, such as the District of Tofino in British Columbia, applications will be carried out to make real impact on the communities' disaster resilience.