Publication & Launching Zagreb report

Conducting a virtual reconnaissance mission to Zagreb after the earthquake of 22 March 2020

The Mw5.3 Zagreb earthquake occurred at 06:24 local time on Sunday 22 March 2020. Even though the event is minor in terms of its reported casualties and damage, its timing makes it noteworthy. At the time of the earthquake, Croatia - like most of Europe - was in partial lockdown in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As part of the Learning from Earthquakes (LfE) project funded by the EPSRC, this presentation summarises the findings and challenges of performing a remote earthquake reconnaissance mission using information gathered primarily from the internet and social media. We will also present how newly developed LfE data collection app and spatial tools have been used in this mission.

The virtual mission was designed to mimic an on-the-ground reconnaissance mission and the team dedicated a week  (27/4- 1/5/2020)​ to complete different tasks which would traditionally be carried out in the field, e.g. damage area overview, building damage surveys, interviews with emergency managers and local academics. This mission was an opportunity for us to test what we can gather entirely remotely, and under COVID-19 conditions, therefore considering the implications of a multi-hazard event as well.

The Learning from Earthquakes Team invites you to a Zoom session on the 27th January at 18:00 organized by IstructE 

There will be multiple speakers from the mission team from both the UK and Croatia. The team was led by Dr Emily So, one of the Principal Investigators on LfE, she has 20 years of experience in the field of earthquake engineering. LfE aims to improve the understanding of earthquake impacts, response and recovery through targeted data gathering in earthquake reconnaissance missions and research into better methods to collect, interpret, exploit and disseminate this data.

Additional information:

So, E., Babić, A., Majetić, H., Putrino, V., Verrucci, E., Contreras, D., . . . D’Ayala, D. (2020). The Zagreb earthquake of 22 March 2020. Retrieved from https://research.ncl.ac.uk/learningfromearthquakes/outputs/So%20et%20al_2020_%20The%20Zagreb%20earthquake%20of%2022%20March%202020_Low%20resolution.pdf

Last modified: Fri, 23 Oct 2020 15:17:08 BST