19-26. Developing socially equitable USGS earthquake risk strategies and solutions
Closing Date: January 4, 2021
This Research Opportunity will be filled depending on the availability of funds. All application materials must be submitted through USAJobs by 11:59 pm, US Eastern Standard Time, on the closing date.
How to Apply
Apply Here
The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program (EHP), has made significant strides moving beyond strictly hazards science and communication and into risk—a realm more directly applicable to reducing the impacts of natural hazards that turn into human disasters. Recent examples include PAGER loss estimates for alerting responders to consequential earthquakes around the globe, and the U.S. Risk Model, which projects annualized earthquake losses for the Nation (Jaiswal et al., 2017) and facilitates financial, insurance and long-term planning. Yet, many gaps remain in our earthquake loss and risk analysis capabilities, including in understanding how to best deliver our science to engage and support communities at disproportionate risk to disaster.
Recent studies have shown that significant investments in earthquake-related risk reduction efforts tend to pay for themselves. But it is also clear that engineering solutions alone will not suffice in reducing the unequal toll suffered by the poor and other socially marginalized populations. And while high income countries bear the brunt of absolute economic losses in disasters, low-to middle-income countries suffer disproportionate losses that can erase decades of development progress and cause widespread loss of life. One study, for example, found that people in developing countries who inhabit inferior buildings can suffer fatality rates up to 10,000 times those who live in high-income countries (Jaiswal and Wald, 2010).
For human-centered, convergent approaches that are problem focused- and solutions-based (Peek et al. 2020), creative use of loss modeling and collaborative risk communication strategies will be needed. But how can these strategies best be developed and prioritized?
The EHP supports world-class hazard assessments. USGS’s investment in risk science and community-based applications is not as well supported and not as mature. This Opportunity promises to help catalyze new research within in the Survey that advances the initial application of specific risk enterprises within the EHP as well as facilitate a bolder EHP entrance into USGS’s EarthMAP endeavor. The ideal candidate will have expertise in hazards science and risk assessment, evidence of an outgoing disposition to engage with scientists from an array of disciplines as well as diverse stakeholders. This post-doc affords the right candidate the opportunity to address several possible goals:
(1) Conduct a gap analysis. The candidate will dive deeply into existing USGS EHP hazard models and products and identify gaps in “getting to risk.” For example, the postdoc may explore what existing hazard geospatial “layers” can be most easily combined with societal exposures and vulnerabilities to produce actionable loss and risk information to stakeholders? Critically, what hazard or other components are missing and over what scales?
(2) Pioneer new approaches to stakeholder identification and engagement. Often, risk reduction efforts studied at the global scale provide important guidelines for domestic activities. Also: Gain familiarity with such efforts and translate successful components by interfacing with diverse partners domestically; Identify the inherited vulnerabilities nationwide that dominate earthquake risk among our most susceptible communities; Help raise awareness of the possibility for earthquake justice as an analogue of important progress that has been made in terms of racial, social, or environmental justice.
(3) Position the EHP to contribute to the EarthMAP initiative. The candidate will help guide and contribute to USGS earthquake science towards the burgeoning EarthMAP initiative based on the priorities gained by understanding stakeholder needs, especially aimed at the “actionable intelligence” component of the EarthMAP initiative.
The advisory team has a wide network: connections to early adopters in critical infrastructure, response, finance, and earthquake engineering arena (Wald), experience coordinating risk activities throughout the Bureau and other agencies (Ludwig), and a range of social science expertise (Peek). An important side benefit of the mentor’s and candidate’s teamwork is to further cement relationships between the USGS and the Natural Hazards Center, interfacing our physical sciences with the Center’s social sciences and interdisciplinary network.
References:
Jaiswal, K. S., and Wald, D. J. (2010). An Empirical Model for Global Earthquake Fatality Estimation. Earthquake Spectra, 26, No. 4, 1017-1037.
Jaiswal, K. S., Bausch, D., Chen, R., Bouabid, J., & Seligson, H. (2015). Estimating Annualized Earthquake Losses for the Conterminous United States. Earthquake Spectra, 31, S221–S243.
Peek, L., Tobin, J., Adams, R., Wu, H., & Mathews, M. (2020). A framework for convergence research in the hazards and disaster field: The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure CONVERGE Facility. Frontiers in Built Environment, 6, 110.
The Mendenhall Fellow will be stationed at the Geological Hazards Science Center in Golden, Colorado, on the Colorado School of Mines campus. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the Research Advisor(s) early in the application process to discuss project ideas.
Proposed Duty Station: Golden, CO
Areas of PhD: Geophysics, sociology, civil engineering, earthquake engineering, or related fields (candidates holding a Ph.D. in other disciplines, but with extensive knowledge and skills relevant to the Research Opportunity may be considered).
Qualifications: Applicants must meet one of the following qualifications: Research Geophysicist, Research Geologist, Research Civil Engineer, Research Economist, Research Social Scientist
(This type of research is performed by those who have backgrounds for the occupations stated above. However, other titles may be applicable depending on the applicant's background, education, and research proposal. The final classification of the position will be made by the Human Resources specialist.)
Human Resources Office Contact: Joseline Martinez Lopez, 303-236-9559, jmartinezlopez@usgs.gov