Accounting for end-user preferences in earthquake early warning systems

Earthquake early warning systems (EEWSs) that rapidly trigger risk-reduction actions after a potentially-damaging earthquake is detected are an attractive tool to reduce seismic losses. One brake on their implementation in practice is the difficulty in setting the threshold required to trigger pre-defined actions: set the level too high and the action is not triggered before potentially-damaging shaking occurs and set the level too low and the action is triggered too readily. Balancing these conflicting requirements of an EEWS requires a consideration of the preferences of its potential end users. In this article a framework to define these preferences, as part of a participatory decision making procedure, is presented. An aspect of this framework is illustrated for a hypothetical toll bridge in a seismically-active region, where the bridge owners wish to balance the risk to people crossing the bridge with the loss of toll revenue and additional travel costs in case of bridge closure. Multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) is used to constrain the trigger threshold for four owners with different preferences. We find that MAUT is an appealing and transparent way of aiding the potentially controversial decision of what level of risk to accept in EEW

Earthquake early warning and operational earthquake forecasting as real-time hazard information to mitigate seismic risk at nuclear facilities

Based on our experience in the project REAKT, we present a methodological framework to evaluate the potential benefits and costs of using Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) and Operational Earthquake Forecasting (OEF) for real-time mitigation of seismic risk at nuclear facilities. We focus on evaluating the reliability, significance and usefulness of the aforementioned real-time risk-mitigation tools and on the communication of real-time earthquake information to end-users. We find that EEW and OEF have significant potential for the reduction of seismic risk at nuclear plants, although much scientific research and testing is still necessary to optimise their operation for these sensitive and highly-regulated facilities. While our test bed was Switzerland, the methodology presented here is of general interest to the community of EEW researchers and end-users and its scope is significantly beyond its specific application within REAKT

Assessment of CO2 Health Risk in Indoor Air Following a Leakage from a Geological Storage: Results from the First Representative Scale Experiment

If a leakage of CO2 out of a geological reservoir were to happen and to reach the vadose zone below a building, CO2 could migrate through the vadose and the building's slab and accumulate in the building, leading to possible acute risk for the inhabitants. A representative-scale experiment, including a prototype for a building, was developed to better understand and quantify this possible risk. It brought fruitful directions for further modeling work, since unexplained CO2 peaks were observed in the prototype. Numerical simulations were carried out to address the variability of CO2 concentrations considering the influence of soil and building properties as well as meteorological conditions, with promising results for risk analysis

Feasibility study on earthquake early warning and operational earthquake forecasting for risk mitigation at nuclear power plants

International audienceWithin the framework of the EC-funded project REAKT (Strategies and Tools for Real Time Earthquake Risk Reduction, FP7, contract no. 282862, 2011-2014, www.reaktproject.eu), a task concerns feasibility study and initial implementation of Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) and timedependent seismic hazard analyses aimed at mitigating seismic risk at nuclear power plants (NPPs) in Switzerland. This study is jointly carried out by academic institutions (the Swiss Seismological Service at ETHZ and BRGM) and in cooperation with swissnuclear, the nuclear energy section of swisselectric, an umbrella organisation for the nuclear power plants in Switzerland, which provide about 40% of the electricity needs of the country. Briefly presented in this contribution are the main investigations carried out and results obtained throughout the development of this task, with special focus on: a) evaluating the performances of the selected EEW algorithm (the Virtual Seismologist, VS) in Switzerland and California, in terms of correct detections, false alerts, and missed events; b) embedding the VS algorithm into the earthquake monitoring software SeisComP3 (www.seiscomp3.org) routinely used by the Swiss Seismological Service for earthquake detections and locations; c) customising the User Display (a graphical interface originally developed at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) during Phase II of the ShakeAlert project in California) for optimised use at Swiss NPPs; d) presenting synthetic time-dependent hazard scenarios for Switzerland and e) attempting to associate the above input data with potential mitigation actions and related cost and benefits for NPPs in Switzerland

Highlights and Lessons from the EU CCS Demonstration Project Network

The European Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Demonstration Project Network (the “Network”) is currently composed of projects located in the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the UK. The goal of the Network is to accelerate deployment of CCS by sharing project development experiences about technology implementation, including transport and storage of CO2, as well as regulatory environment and financial structures. This paper aims to provide an overview of some CCS insights gained from developing the Network projects. Besides technology and project development, sharing knowledge and lessons learned on project-level basis, have also given valuable insights on how policies can enable development and implementation of appropriate regulatory frameworks, and funding schemes towards effective deployment of CCS technology in power generation sector.publishedVersio

Highlights and Lessons from the EU CCS Demonstration Project Network

The European Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Demonstration Project Network (the “Network”) is currently composed of projects located in the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the UK. The goal of the Network is to accelerate deployment of CCS by sharing project development experiences about technology implementation, including transport and storage of CO2, as well as regulatory environment and financial structures. This paper aims to provide an overview of some CCS insights gained from developing the Network projects. Besides technology and project development, sharing knowledge and lessons learned on project-level basis, have also given valuable insights on how policies can enable development and implementation of appropriate regulatory frameworks, and funding schemes towards effective deployment of CCS technology in power generation sector

Statistical analysis of microseismicity during the stimulations at Soultz-sous-Forêts (France) EGS site

International audienc