ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

"Trinet is a collaborative project of the California Institute of technology (CalTech), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and the California Division of Mines and Geology (CDMG). As a part of the overall Trinet project, EQE International was contracted with to conduct a study of real-time earthquake warning policy and planning issues. Working with EQE International were the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disaster Relief (CPHDR), the Disaster Research center at the University of Delaware (DRC), and Imagecat, a private consulting firm.

The lead agency for Task 1, identification of potential earthquake warning users was the UCLA Center for Public health and Disaster Relief. The goal of Task 1 was to identify potential earthquake early warning users and to assess the factors that might influence organizational adoption and use of the SCAN system. The task included questionnaire and sample development as well as data collection and analysis for a survey of approximately 200 organizations in Los Angeles county across four institutional sectors -- 1) Education (n=62), 2) Health care (n=59), 3) Emergency response and local government (n=53), and 4) Utilities and transportation (n=49).

The specific objectives of the Task 1 survey were to: 1) Identify organizations in southern California that might be interested in using an earthquake early warning system.

2) Identify methods and protocols that these organizations currently have available for receiving and/or communicating earthquake early warnings.

3) Identify how these organizations might use earthquake early warnings of 10 and 50 seconds and whether this would differ from what is done now when earthquake shaking begins.

4) Identify perceived benefits and barriers to organizaitos' use of earthquake early warnings.

5) Identify whether potential users and uses differ by institutional sector or by type of organization.