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Geology topics

Walter W. Hays

Publications and source records attributed to Walter W. Hays.

15 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1997

Understanding of urban hazards, fire, and tsunamis

Understanding of the causes and solutions of an urban area's (e.g., Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Portland, Anchorage, Salt Lake City, Memphis, St. Louis, Charleston, Boston, San Juan) vulnerability to earthquakes, fire, and tsunamis has increased significantly during the past 50 years, and during the current International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR). Vulnerability is caused by flaws in planning, siting, design, construction, and use. It is fundamentally dependent upon the hazard, built, and policy environments of the urban area. Reduction of vulnerability is directly related to the decision-making process that calls for the adoption and enforcement of risk management programs (e.g., mitigation, preparedness, emergency response, and recovery measures) that are designed to make the urban area resilient to earthquakes, fires, and, as appropriate, tsunamis.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1996

Damaging earthquakes: A scientific laboratory

This paper reviews the principal lessons learned from multidisciplinary postearthquake investigations of damaging earthquakes throughout the world during the past 15 years. The unique laboratory provided by a damaging earthquake in culturally different but tectonically similar regions of the world has increased fundamental understanding of earthquake processes, added perishable scientific, technical, and socioeconomic data to the knowledge base, and led to changes in public policies and professional practices for earthquake loss reduction.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1996

Natural hazard zonation

This paper presents the basic scientific principles underpinning the professional practice of zonation for natural hazards such as floods, severe storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, wildfires, tsunamis, and droughts. Zonation is the scientific process of identifying those parts of a geographic area which are best and least suited for community development in terms of their exposure to the physical effects of recurring, rapid onset, natural hazards.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1996

Toward A.D. 2000 in the IDNDR

This paper reviews the progress in the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR) with a principal focus on changes in public policies and programs for natural disaster reduction in the United States, especially with respect to earthquakes.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1992

Progress report on the Worldwide Earthquake Risk Management (WWERM) Program

Considerable progress has been made in the Worldwide Earthquake Risk Management (WWERM) Program since its initiation in late 1989 as a cooperative program of the Agency for International Development (AID), Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), and the U.S. Geological Survey. Probabilistic peak acceleration and peak Modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) maps have been prepared for Chile and for Sulawesi province in Indonesia. Earthquake risk (loss) studies for dwellings in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, have been completed and risk studies for dwellings in selected areas of central Chile are underway. A special study of the effect of site response on earthquake ground motion estimation in central Chile has also been completed and indicates that site response may modify the ground shaking by as much as plus or minus two units of MMI. A program for the development of national probabilistic ground motion maps for the Philippines is now underway and pilot studies of earthquake ground motion and risk are being planned for Morocco.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1990

Perspectives on the international decade for natural disaster reduction

Disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation are the goals of nations throughout the world during the 1990's. The United States will lead this cooperative effort and marshall its national resources to reduce the disaster potential of earthquakes, floods, windstorms, landslides, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and wildfires. These natural hazards cause annual losses of approximately $10 billion in the United States and many times that throughout the world. The type and severity of the hazard varies from State-to-State in the United States. All States are at risk from flooding from sources such as precipitation, snowmelt, thunderstorms, and, along the coast, the storm surges generated in hurricanes. No State is free from the potential impacts of ground shaking induced by earthquakes. The goal of the Decade is to keep such occurrences in the future from being disasters.

Earthquake Spectra↗
USGS1986

SITE AMPLIFICATION OF EARTHQUAKE GROUND MOTION.

When analyzing the patterns of damage in an earthquake, physical parameters of the total earthquake-site-structure system are correlated with the damage. Soil-structure interaction, the cause of damage in many earthquakes, involves the frequency-dependent response of both the soil-rock column and the structure. The response of the soil-rock column (called site amplification) is controversial because soil has strain-dependent properties that affect the way the soil column filters the input body and surface seismic waves, modifying the amplitude and phase spectra and the duration of the surface ground motion.

Conference Paper↗
USGS1983

Proceedings of Conference XVIII: a workshop on "Continuing actions to reduce losses from earthquakes in the Mississippi Valley area," 24-26 May, 1982, St. Louis, Missouri

The U.S. Geological Survey and the Federal Emergency Management Agency sponsored a workshop on, "Continuing Actions to Reduce Losses from Earthquakes in the Mississippi Valley area," in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 24-26, 1982. Seventy individuals (see Appendix A) representing local, State, and Federal government; business and industry; and the research community participated in the three day workshop. Collectively, the participants had backgrounds in disaster preparedness, disaster response and recovery, geology, geophysics, seismology, engineering, architecture, social science, law, insurance, and land-use planning. Two-thirds of them came from the Mississippi Valley area about one half of these had also attended an earlier USGS-FEMA workshop held in Knoxville, Tennessee on September 16-18, 1981 (Hays, 1982). The St. Louis workshop is the 18th in the continuing series of conferences and workshops which the Geological Survey initiated in 1977 to improve the transfer and application of research results throughout the Nation. It is the second workshop to focus on dealing with the earthquake threat in the Eastern United States. The first one, "Preparing for and Responding to a Damaging Earthquake in the Eastern United States," was held in Knoxville, Tennessee, and emphasized the development of a draft 5-year plan to improve the state-of-earthquake-preparedness. The Knoxville workshop demonstrated that policymakers and members of the scientific-technical community can assimilate and synthesize a great deal of information and work together to devise practical plans. The St. Louis workshop, a sequel to the Knoxville workshop, identified those actions out of the range of possible actions which are most achievable; that is, the actions having the highest payoff and trre lowest cost and effort requirements. These action plans, which identify steps that can be undertaken immediately to reduce losses from earthquakes in each of the seven States in the Mississippi Valley area, are contained in this report. The draft 5-year plan for the Central United States, prepared in the Knoxville workshop, was the starting point of the small group discussions in the St. Louis workshop which lead to the action plans contained in this report. For completeness, the draft 5-year plan for the Central United States is reproduced as Appendix B.

Open-File Report↗
USGS1979

Program and plans of the U.S. Geological Survey for producing information needed in National Seismic hazards and risk assessment, fiscal years 1980-84

In accordance with the provisions of the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-124), the U.S. Geological Survey has developed comprehensive plans for producing information needed to assess seismic hazards and risk on a national scale in fiscal years 1980-84. These plans are based on a review of the needs of Federal Government agencies, State and local government agencies, engineers and scientists engaged in consulting and research, professional organizations and societies, model code groups, and others. The Earthquake Hazards Reduction Act provided an unprecedented opportunity for participation in a national program by representatives of State and local governments, business and industry, the design professions, and the research community. The USGS and the NSF (National Science Foundation) have major roles in the national program. The ultimate goal of the program is to reduce losses from earthquakes. Implementation of USGS research in the Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program requires the close coordination of responsibility between Federal, State and local governments. The projected research plan in national seismic hazards and risk for fiscal years 1980-84 will be accomplished by USGS and non-USGS scientists and engineers. The latter group will participate through grants and contracts. The research plan calls for (1) national maps based on existing methods, (2) improved definition of earthquake source zones nationwide, (3) development of improved methodology, (4) regional maps based on the improved methodology, and (5) post-earthquake investigations. Maps and reports designed to meet the needs, priorities, concerns, and recommendations of various user groups will be the products of this research and provide the technical basis for improved implementation.

Circular↗
USGS1978

Proceedings of Conference V: communicating earthquake hazard reduction information: convened under auspices of National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program 22-24 May, 1978

Under the Earthquake Hazard Reduction Act of 1977, the federal government is significantly increasing its effort "to reduce the risk of life and property from future earthquakes in the United States through the establishment and maintenance of an effective earthquake hazards reduction program". This prgoram is sponsored primarily by the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Science Foundation and includes research by geologists, geophysicists, seismologists, engineers, sociologists, educators, and public policy experts. In the USGS program, there is a strong emphsis on effective communication of the results of research to a wide community of decision makers and users. This action is the key to implementation at all levels in federal, state, and local government, in the private sector, and on an individual basis. The U.S. Geological Survey convened a workshop involving approximately 65 people on May 22-24, 1978 in Denver, Colorado, to examine the communication problem. The purpose of the workshop was to evaluate critically the information-flow process for a number of past experiences, including: (1) land use planning in Portola Valley, California, (2) the seismic safety element, Santa Clara County, California (3) earthquake preparedness, Puget Sound, Washington area, (4) mitigation of geological hazards in Colorado, (5) earthquake planning in the Mississippi-Arkansas-Tennessee area, (6) water resource and land use planning in the northeast United States, (7) acquiring and disseminating scientific and engineering information following an earthquake, (8) development, use, and review of geologic and seismological data fro sitting of nuclear power plants, (9) development and use of building codes that incorporate earthquake provisions, (10) use of research products produced in the HUD/USGS San Francisco Bay region study, and (11) achieving landslide hazard reduction. The objective was to identify the most significant lessons learned during the course of each experience and to develop recommendations for improving communication that might be incorporated in the search program of the USGS.

Open-File Report↗