Date: Monday, October 30th, 2023
Time: 10:45-12:00
Room: Kyoto University Uji Campus main building room S-519D

David Wald, Ph.D.
Supervisory Research Geophysicist, U.S. Geological Survey

David Wald a seismologist with USGS at the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC). He completed his Ph.D. at Caltech in 1993. Wald oversees development and operations of real-time information systems including ShakeMap, “Did You Feel it?”, PAGER, ShakeCast, and the Ground Failure product. David is currently the Past Editor-in-Chief of the EERI's journal Earthquake Spectra and is an Adjunct Professor in the Geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines. He was an IRIS/SSA Distinguished Lecturer and EERI’s Distinguished Lecture. He also served on the Board of Directors for both SSA and EERI and was the 2009 recipient of SSA’s Frank Press Public Service Award. In 2021, Wald was awarded the EERI-SSA Joyner Lectureship, an AGU Fellowship, and he received the USGS Shoemaker Lifetime Achievement Award in Communications, an award granted annually to a scientist who creates excitement and enthusiasm for science among non-scientists by using effective communication skills.

"Future directions of Earthquake Shaking & Loss Estimation".

This lecture features a combined seismological and earthquake engineering view of future earthquake response and recovery, where we rapidly supplement initial impact estimates and secondary hazards with crowd-sourced and remotely sensed observations that are integrated holistically for a more accurate view of the consequences. I discuss advancements in remote sensing, rapid in-situ monitoring and impact reporting, and machine learning allow for innovative data-fusion strategies that integrate with existing models and should significantly improve the accuracy and spatial resolution of rapid shaking and loss estimates. As an example, during the devastating 2023 Türkyie earthquake sequence, the U.S. Geological Survey pursued rapid characterization of all aspects critical to estimating the shaking and impact. ShakeMap shaking constraints—and thus PAGER loss estimates—naturally evolved with time as we obtained more stations, macroseismic intensities, and better resolution of the fault rupture complexity. Complicating single-event impact assessments were the substantial contribution of aftershocks to losses, which led to the introduction of a Composite ShakeMap—depicting the maximum shaking at each location for the entire sequence—to estimate the total losses better. We also introduced a framework for more rapidly ascertaining the fault dimensions necessary for accurate shaking estimates. Our proposed framework involves enhanced multidisciplinary, near-real-time collaboration among seismologists, engineers, geologists, and geodesists—harmonizing disparate seismological, faulting, imagery, and impact observations needed to constrain best the rupture complexity that controls the shaking distribution. Lastly, we report on detailed building damage and ground failure estimates, combining prior models and updated with satellite imagery. Rapid updating is part of an evolving USGS strategy to improve our impact assessments with ground-truth observations rapidly.