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 Earth Sciences Sector > Priorities > Canadian Hazards Information Service > Earthquakes Canada |
The Value of Future NRCan Work
Dr. Swan's analysis suggests that past Federal expenditures on earthquakes currently yield a payback 10-fold larger than past, time-averaged expenditure. We believe that ongoing work to understand Canadian earthquakes will produce additional savings. Specifically, current work will improve the Year-2000 building code and will incorporate the effects of the future Cascadia subduction earthquake, and work on earthquake awareness will improve Canadian's response, generating further savings. If our actions further reduce the losses from a disastrous Vancouver earthquake by just 1%, the saving would pay for the program for 50 years. It should be noted that NRCan funding of the earthquake program is now just one-third (in real dollar terms) of the amount expended in 1985 when our seismic zoning maps were adopted into the current building code.
comments by John Adams
adams@seismo.nrcan.gc.ca
