Puebla, Mexico

EERI members and other earthquake risk reduction professionals can contribute to reconnaissance efforts for this earthquake in the following ways:

1. Volunteer with the Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team

Volunteer to be a part of the Virtual Earthquake Reconnaissance Team (VERT). VERT is calling for volunteers for three (3) main tasks:

1. Geographically locate (long/lat) any sites that would be of interest to GEER (Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance). Deadline = Saturday, 9/23 @ 5 pm PDT.
2. Geographically locate (long/lat) buildings that have videos of collapse on social media. EERI has a number of videos already downloaded and they are looking for people interested in finding the location of these buildings.
3. Curate the Virtual Clearinghouse on a variety of topics.

If you are interested in any of these topics, please sign up in the following google spreadsheet document. Please write your name and email. If someone has already written their name and email, please coordinate with them to do research on this topic. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vg6u8RtVVM4gae6oETo8kXeWxOgT_C8GhpO04uDU99Y/edit?usp=sharing

<!–  Clearinghouse Curators that gathers and gleans information from media reports and technical resources into curated summaries. Well-crafted summaries are expected to glean information interesting EERI members, help inform reconnaissance activities, identify impacted regions, and document the timeline of earthquake response/recovery. Summaries will be posted as Curated Topics. Anyone interested in helping to curate a topic should look at Curated Instructions.

2. Share media articles, technical info, and/or research topics with a Curator

Technical resources, such as Field observation reports and technical literature about regional earthquake risk, are extremely useful in informing reconnaissance efforts. Media reports can also be used to glean information about areas with damage.  Relevant resources should be sent to our Clearinghouse Curators so they can post to their Curated Topics summaries.  Curators will also be posting ideas for research topics or ideas of what reconnaissance teams should investigate.  See what resources and ideas are already available and find contact information for each curation team at the Curated Topics web page or email ideas to eqclearinghouse@eeri.org.

3. Apply to participate on an EERI Reconnaissance Team

EERI sends out multi-disciplinary reconnaissance teams after some damaging earthquakes around the world, capturing lessons on what performed well and what did not, in a wide variety of disciplines related to the earth science, built, social and political environments. EERI members should use the EERI LFE TEAM MEMBER APPLICATION form: https://www.eeri.org/cohost/registration/lfe-member-application to indicate their interest in participating on a possible EERI reconnaissance team.  A team is not necessarily created for all earthquakes, but if one is formed, criteria for selection will include the following:

• Knowledge of impacted region and language(s) spoken in the region
• Past experience conducting scientific studies or risk reduction efforts in the impacted region
• Disciplinary diversity and balance amongst the team members
• Availability during the EERI team travel window
• Reconnaissance and field experience
• Inclusion of local experts from the impacted region and surrounding countries
• Expertise in topics particularly relevant to specific earthquake impacts or team research topics
• Ability to liaise with other reconnaissance teams or organizations
• Possibility of self-funding
• Active EERI membership status and involvement in EERI activities, particularly those in direct relationship to the impacted regions or topics relevant to the earthquake impacts

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2. Contribute Photos and Notes

There are several ways that you can contribute to our data collection effort.  (A) Contribute post-earthquake field observations and photos or (B) contribute relevant pre-event images of the impacted area to provide baseline data for locations that field teams should visit to observe impacts. Once reconnaissance teams and others begin to share their photos and observations, they will also be shown on the virtual clearinghouse  Data Map and Photo Gallery pages.  All submissions will help inform both reconnaissance and recovery efforts.

Here is a video on how to use our batch uploader tool here.

<!–(A) Contribute relevant pre-event images of the impacted area to provide baseline data for locations that field teams should visit to observe impacts; (B) Geolocate images from media reporsts to inform reconnaissance team of places with damage (or good performance) where field observations by experts would be valuable; or (C) contribute post-earthquake field observations. Visit the Contribute Photos and Notes page to learn how to share your photos and notes. Once reconnaissance teams and others  begin to share their photos and observations, they will also be shown on the virtual clearinghouse Maps and Photos page.  All submissions will help inform both reconnaissance and recovery efforts.–>

For login information and help, please email Marisa Araujo, (marisa@eeri.org).

3. Use the Fulcrum App

In addition to our Photo Upload Tool, EERI is using the Fulcrum App for gathering information in the field. If you already have a Fulcrum account and would prefer to use EERI’s app, please contact EERI at bmcelvain@eeri.org to be added to an existing effort as a member.

If you would like to share your own data collection app with EERI in support of the ongoing reconnaissance effort, you may do so by visiting Settings > Share App Data in your Fulcrum Dashboard. Share your App with eeri@eeri.org.

Finally, if you have data you would like to share with EERI through your own Fulcrum App, EERI may visualize your data on our Data Map on a case-by-case basis. Please contact bmcelvain@eeri.org to request this.

Fulcrum can be downloaded easily for both Android and iOS devices.

4. Inform EERI of your reconnaissance plans

If you will be participating as a part of a reconnaissance mission, recovery mission, or traveling to the impacted area for any other purpose, please contact Maggie Ortiz-Millan (maggie@eeri.org) to inform her of your timeline and travel details.  EERI can help link you to others in the field, support you in efforts to share photos or observations, and connect you with  the EERI team (if one is mobilized).

5. Team Coordination

EERI is working to facilitate coordination among organizations providing responses to this earthquake event in the following ways:
1) Support Mexican colleagues by providing organized and non-redundant communication.
2) Coordinate reconnaissance activities among activated organizations.
3) Determine the value of establishing collaborative actions or joint efforts among teams or organizations.
4) Facilitate the compilation and distribution of reconnaissance data from multiple organizations with the purpose of developing a large and rich data set for the earthquake mitigation community to draw upon.

For teams who are already coordinating through EERI, please follow the link below to access (a) tracking of team members (b) tracking of field and upload tools being used (c) requests for information.

Mexico 2017 Reconnaissance Coordination Spreadsheet

Other Ways to Contribute

Earthquake investigators are encouraged to contact EERI Clearinghouse staff at eqclearinghouse@eeri.org if they have suggestions about how they can contribute to this clearinghouse effort.