Final Report Summary - EERWEM (Earthquake Monitoring and Earthquake Risk in WEstern Mediterranean)
In 2006, the EC-funded project 'Network of research infrastructures for European seismology (Neries), an ambitious project jointly initiated by EMSC and ORFEUS, started. It dealt with interoperability, common protocols and databases, distributed facilities and developing new tools for improved seismological services.
The 'Earthquake monitoring and earthquake risk in western Mediterranean' (EERWEM) project offered a quite unique meeting point between the European and Northern African seismological community to help in disseminating the results, to avoid widening the existing gap between Europe and surrounding countries and ensure in the long-term a more homogeneous monitoring of the tectonic system of the Eurasia-Africa collision.
To realise the EERWEM project's objectives a workshop was organised in Spain in which the research organisations and observatories involved in the monitoring of the Western Mediterranean participate together with the EMSC, ORFEUS and researchers from some of the major European earthquake research and observatory facilities (outside Spain and Portugal among others INGV-Rome, ETHZ-Zurich, GFZ-Potsdam). It combines the European experience on rapid data exchange and data management with the newly created infrastructure at the Western Mediterranean seismological institutes.
Considering the new context created by GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems)), GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security), Neries and, NEAMTWS (North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean Tsunami Warning System)), it was decided to invite, alongside the seismologists, the directors of the Northern African institutes to discuss and define an overall framework for a long term cooperation and strategy, and create the conditions for the full participation of Mediterranean partners in more complex EU projects in the future.
Description of the work and results
The workshop 'Earthquake monitoring and earthquake risk in Western Mediterranean' summarised the current knowledge, ongoing projects and research plans with regard to seismic activity and risk in the region, The participants acknowledged the excellent local organisation despite it took place only three weeks after the reception of the pre-financing. The workshop further discussed the required research and monitoring infrastructure necessary in the region taking into account the new context created by a the three essential initiatives for our community namely GMES, GEOSS and NEAMTWS.
An indication of the timeliness and the importance of these discussions is the fact that four additional partners joined the project since its acceptance, the LCRSS which just started to operate the national Libyan network, the DEUC (Monaco) which signed an agreement with Tunisia to upgrade their network and which want to ensure coherent development at regional scale, the IOC to present the issues associated to the setup of a tsunami warning system in the region and the CSIC which plan large scale topographic studies in the region. The precise type of the implementations, chosen from among a range of available tools, have be discussed and proposed at the workshop.
In order to formalise the decisions, the text of a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a cooperation framework on earthquake surveillance in the Western Mediterranean region' was drafted and discussed during the workshop. Its agreed overall objectives are:
- to improve the cooperation in earthquake monitoring
- to provide input for improved assessment of seismic hazards
- to build a regional network for earthquake surveillance
- to reinforce and ally the local institutions and personnel
- to facilitate access to advanced technologies
- to increase the regional participation in international activities.
It includes a first-year of demonstration activities which is the first step towards 'the establishment of a regional seismic network in the Western Mediterranean (RSN-PWM), building largely on the existing infrastructures already installed or planned by the national and local agencies. The RSN-WM will build the backbone for the participation of the Western Mediterranean countries in the IOC NEAMTWS. During this demonstration period, the signatories agree to make available in real-time the waveform of at least one station to all the other parties. So far, the memorandum of understanding has been signed by 18 institutes from 10 different countries.
A formal call for 'exchange initiative proposal' aiming at the implementation of the memorandum of understanding was issued in October 2006 and seven of them have been accepted by the EERWEM governing council and will be finalised in the coming months. This grant system has proved efficient to ease some actions although it should be noted that the main part of the budget required to create a regional network (notably hardware) originates from national funding and / or bilateral agreements. A second call will be launched in February.
The work in this second reporting period has focused on the dissemination of the results of the workshop 'Earthquake monitoring and earthquake risk in Western Mediterranean' organised during the previous period, on the organisation of technical visits to better identify the needs for implementing real time data exchange and, probably the most important result, to define a permanent framework for cooperation on earthquake surveillance in the Western Mediterranean region.
In practice, five technical visits have been organised. A special issue of the EMSC newsletter was printed in April 2007 in 1,500 paper copies and downloaded approximately 10,000 times until the end of 2007. It presented an overview of the existing of the earthquake monitoring infrastructures in Western Mediterranean as well as special papers on the earthquake which shook Portugal, Spain and Morocco on February 12, 2007. This event was a good illustration of an earthquake having an international impact in the region and a further demonstration of the necessity to coordinate surveillance.
In November 2007, the review of the first year of implementation of the memorandum of understanding established during the previous period was performed during a joint meeting in Rabat, Morocco. It was the occasion to share the network developments in the region and to agree on a permanent framework for improved earthquake surveillance in the region. The latter was expressed through a revised text of a memorandum of understanding which has now at five-year renewable duration.
Results and impact
The EERWEM project has been extremely successful, especially in regards to its limited budget. It proved to be an essential and timely meeting point between the Northern African and European seismological communities at a time when the context is evolving fast, the integration of the European seismological community accelerates thanks to large EC projects such as NERLES and the surveillance infrastructure is being upgraded in many countries.
The most emblematic result has been the establishment of a permanent framework for improved earthquake surveillance in Western Mediterranean region through the definition of a five-years renewable memorandum of understanding. It benefits from the review of the first year implementation of the initial memorandum of understanding which was signed by all the actors of the region during the first reporting period.
A pragmatic result is the agreement of the main network operators in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia for improved real time waveform availability, which is a prerequisite for setting up a tsunami warning system for Western Mediterranean. Capacity building was also identified as the key issue to be addressed within a long-term cooperation; the preferred solution would be to establish long technical visits (three to six months) of Northern African seismologists in recognised European seismological observatories.
In conclusion, EERWEM has been successful to define a long-term strategy for cooperation in Western Mediterranean and coordination of earthquake surveillance. The EMSC and ORFEUS will be looking for future funding opportunities to implement this strategy in the future.
The 'Earthquake monitoring and earthquake risk in western Mediterranean' (EERWEM) project offered a quite unique meeting point between the European and Northern African seismological community to help in disseminating the results, to avoid widening the existing gap between Europe and surrounding countries and ensure in the long-term a more homogeneous monitoring of the tectonic system of the Eurasia-Africa collision.
To realise the EERWEM project's objectives a workshop was organised in Spain in which the research organisations and observatories involved in the monitoring of the Western Mediterranean participate together with the EMSC, ORFEUS and researchers from some of the major European earthquake research and observatory facilities (outside Spain and Portugal among others INGV-Rome, ETHZ-Zurich, GFZ-Potsdam). It combines the European experience on rapid data exchange and data management with the newly created infrastructure at the Western Mediterranean seismological institutes.
Considering the new context created by GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems)), GMES (Global Monitoring of Environment and Security), Neries and, NEAMTWS (North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean Tsunami Warning System)), it was decided to invite, alongside the seismologists, the directors of the Northern African institutes to discuss and define an overall framework for a long term cooperation and strategy, and create the conditions for the full participation of Mediterranean partners in more complex EU projects in the future.
Description of the work and results
The workshop 'Earthquake monitoring and earthquake risk in Western Mediterranean' summarised the current knowledge, ongoing projects and research plans with regard to seismic activity and risk in the region, The participants acknowledged the excellent local organisation despite it took place only three weeks after the reception of the pre-financing. The workshop further discussed the required research and monitoring infrastructure necessary in the region taking into account the new context created by a the three essential initiatives for our community namely GMES, GEOSS and NEAMTWS.
An indication of the timeliness and the importance of these discussions is the fact that four additional partners joined the project since its acceptance, the LCRSS which just started to operate the national Libyan network, the DEUC (Monaco) which signed an agreement with Tunisia to upgrade their network and which want to ensure coherent development at regional scale, the IOC to present the issues associated to the setup of a tsunami warning system in the region and the CSIC which plan large scale topographic studies in the region. The precise type of the implementations, chosen from among a range of available tools, have be discussed and proposed at the workshop.
In order to formalise the decisions, the text of a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a cooperation framework on earthquake surveillance in the Western Mediterranean region' was drafted and discussed during the workshop. Its agreed overall objectives are:
- to improve the cooperation in earthquake monitoring
- to provide input for improved assessment of seismic hazards
- to build a regional network for earthquake surveillance
- to reinforce and ally the local institutions and personnel
- to facilitate access to advanced technologies
- to increase the regional participation in international activities.
It includes a first-year of demonstration activities which is the first step towards 'the establishment of a regional seismic network in the Western Mediterranean (RSN-PWM), building largely on the existing infrastructures already installed or planned by the national and local agencies. The RSN-WM will build the backbone for the participation of the Western Mediterranean countries in the IOC NEAMTWS. During this demonstration period, the signatories agree to make available in real-time the waveform of at least one station to all the other parties. So far, the memorandum of understanding has been signed by 18 institutes from 10 different countries.
A formal call for 'exchange initiative proposal' aiming at the implementation of the memorandum of understanding was issued in October 2006 and seven of them have been accepted by the EERWEM governing council and will be finalised in the coming months. This grant system has proved efficient to ease some actions although it should be noted that the main part of the budget required to create a regional network (notably hardware) originates from national funding and / or bilateral agreements. A second call will be launched in February.
The work in this second reporting period has focused on the dissemination of the results of the workshop 'Earthquake monitoring and earthquake risk in Western Mediterranean' organised during the previous period, on the organisation of technical visits to better identify the needs for implementing real time data exchange and, probably the most important result, to define a permanent framework for cooperation on earthquake surveillance in the Western Mediterranean region.
In practice, five technical visits have been organised. A special issue of the EMSC newsletter was printed in April 2007 in 1,500 paper copies and downloaded approximately 10,000 times until the end of 2007. It presented an overview of the existing of the earthquake monitoring infrastructures in Western Mediterranean as well as special papers on the earthquake which shook Portugal, Spain and Morocco on February 12, 2007. This event was a good illustration of an earthquake having an international impact in the region and a further demonstration of the necessity to coordinate surveillance.
In November 2007, the review of the first year of implementation of the memorandum of understanding established during the previous period was performed during a joint meeting in Rabat, Morocco. It was the occasion to share the network developments in the region and to agree on a permanent framework for improved earthquake surveillance in the region. The latter was expressed through a revised text of a memorandum of understanding which has now at five-year renewable duration.
Results and impact
The EERWEM project has been extremely successful, especially in regards to its limited budget. It proved to be an essential and timely meeting point between the Northern African and European seismological communities at a time when the context is evolving fast, the integration of the European seismological community accelerates thanks to large EC projects such as NERLES and the surveillance infrastructure is being upgraded in many countries.
The most emblematic result has been the establishment of a permanent framework for improved earthquake surveillance in Western Mediterranean region through the definition of a five-years renewable memorandum of understanding. It benefits from the review of the first year implementation of the initial memorandum of understanding which was signed by all the actors of the region during the first reporting period.
A pragmatic result is the agreement of the main network operators in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia for improved real time waveform availability, which is a prerequisite for setting up a tsunami warning system for Western Mediterranean. Capacity building was also identified as the key issue to be addressed within a long-term cooperation; the preferred solution would be to establish long technical visits (three to six months) of Northern African seismologists in recognised European seismological observatories.
In conclusion, EERWEM has been successful to define a long-term strategy for cooperation in Western Mediterranean and coordination of earthquake surveillance. The EMSC and ORFEUS will be looking for future funding opportunities to implement this strategy in the future.
