Earthquakes are of natural origin, however the risk connected to the phenomenon ‘earthquake’ mostly consists of both natural and man-made components.

The recent earthquake disasters and the high earthquake activity in Central Asia demonstrate the need to seriously prepare against an earthquake disaster in this region.

The project’s geographical focus is on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, however also including Uzbekistan (which has also experienced significant earthquake losses) and possibly Afghanistan. The two latter states will be included through invitations to workshops and thereby inclusion in a regional cooperation. Through travels, it will also be attempted to include Uzbekistan and Afghanistan (if security permits).

The project activity aims to generate cooperation, internationalization and earthquake risk reduction products that will contribute to increased competence and direct and indirect earthquake risk reduction. The following targets for the three year project are identified:

• Build a regional network of institutions that are involved in earthquake risk reduction or that will provide the best infrastructure to develop this competence.

• Facilitate exchange of data and analysis tools in the region.

• Provide state-of-the-art technologies and software for computation of seismic hazard and seismic risk.

• Compute seismic hazard and seismic risk for the national countries and for selected major cities.

• Describe risk and mitigative measures for selected hospitals and schools, and provide the technology for expanded analysis through walk-down analysis.

• Establish a document that may serve as a core for a modern antiseismic building regulation (often called code).
  

The project execution is based on the following:

• Extensive use of 2 week collaborative work-sessions in Norway and the Central Asian countries. Much of the work is done in these collaborative sessions.

• An extensive effort of man-power from the participating SUS institutions are foreseen and required.