|
Forward:
Like
many APEC member economies, the Taiwan region (Chinese Taipei) is
located in a junction area of two active plates, i.e., the Eurasian
plate and the Philippine Sea plate. The collision of the two plates has
caused a large number of active faults, high seismicity, and damaging
earthquakes. Many large cities have been established near active faults.
Hence, the mitigation of urban disasters caused by near-field
earthquakes has become an important mission of the member economies. In
1999, a large disastrous earthquake, i.e., the Ms7.6 Chi-Chi
earthquake, took place in central Taiwan. This earthquake has not only
shown the power of plate tectonics, but also led to large impacts on
social and economic activities in the region, because numerous cities
and large towns are close to the earthquake fault. This event has
stirred people in the region of the need to find a good way to mitigate
seismic hazards. Since November 1999, a five-year national program,
entitled “Program for Earthquakes and Active-fault Research (PEAR),”
has been developed under the support by the National Sciences Council (NSC)
of Chinese Taipei. In the first stage, the program is focused on studies
of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake and its aftershocks. In the second stage,
studies of earthquake phenomena, the delineation of active faults, and
the estimate of paleoseismicity in several seismic potential areas will
be the main items of the program. Since 1990, the Central Weather Bureau
(CWB) of Chinese Taipei has developed a seismic early-warning system
based on a real-time digitally telemetered seismic network of 80
stations, with three strong-motion and three short-period velocity
sensors. About a minute after the occurrence of the Chi-Chi earthquake,
complete and accurate information was provided by the CWB to related
governmental agencies and to the public. This substantially helped the
related agencies to implement the disaster response program.
In
addition, the island is near the Asia Continent and surrounded by seas,
i.e., the Pacific Ocean, the Philippine Sea, and Eastern China Sea, and
the Southern China Sea. Hence, water and air are two important factors
in affecting regional earth and environmental phenomena. The
interactions of plates, water, and air have induced not only frequent
natural catastrophes (typhoon, flood, and earthquake), but also
anthropogenic hazards (forest burning, pollution, and debris flow).
For example, on July 30, 2001 heavy rain from Toraji Typhoon
induced serious landslide and debris flow in eastern and central Taiwan,
resulting in a loss of many lives. According to the meteorological
records, the rain intensity was about 400 mm within two hours, which was
much less than those brought by previous typhoons. However, the area of
landslide and the loss of lives are much larger than Taiwan ever had in
a single typhoon event. One of the reasons to lead to the serious
landslide and debris flow might be the formation of unstable slope
caused by the Chi-Chi earthquake. This hazard event does present a
typical example to show the effects due to the interactions of several
large-scale natural processes. Thus, an integrated study from different
disciplines is essential in revealing such interactions.
In
some sense, the Taiwan region provides a natural laboratory not only for
the studies of earthquakes and active faults, but also for fundamental
problems of earth and environmental sciences. A better understanding of
the evolutionary trend and the current state of the natural environments
are therefore very essential for deploying a sustainable development in
the region. The interaction events taking place in Taiwan can also occur
in other parts of the world, especially in APEC member economies.
Meanwhile, the scientists and engineers of other APEC member economies
have learned excellent experiences and lessons from urban seismology
including the studies of earthquakes, active faults, and hazard
mitigation in their respective economies. It is very significant for
these scientists and engineers to share experiences with one another.
Thus, a cross-field collaboration by the scientists and engineers from
several APEC member economies is critical in deepening and widening
urban seismology. The fruitful results will be extremely helpful in
understanding the causes and effects of seismic hazards. This will be
significant in fostering sustainable development not only for all APEC
member economies, but also for other countries and regions with high
potential of seismic hazards. This program has been developed to fit
this goal.
Statement
of Cross-Linkage:
The
program proposed herein is to support the work being undertaken in APEC
on the issues involving technologies for humanistic concern as declared
in the 3rd APEC Ministers’ Conference on Regional S&T
Cooperation held in Mexico City on October 21-23, 1998. The Ministers
added a strong human dimension to their agenda in noting the importance
of science and technology for social development and well being of
people throughout APEC.
Participating
Economies:
All APEC economies are invited to participate in
the proposed program. Chinese Taipei’s earth scientists have long been
cooperating with those from several APEC economies, including the People
Republic of China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the
Republic of the Philippines, and United States of America. Every two
years, there is a Chinese Taipei-China symposium to share experiences on
earthquake research obtained by the two-side seismologists. A long-term
Chinese Taipei-the Philippines bi-lateral collaboration on measuring
crustal deformations of southeastern Asia has been on. Since the
occurrence of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake, the collaboration between
Chinese Taipei’s scientists and engineers and those of several APEC
economies has been substantially strengthened, thus leading to numerous
valuable research results. Numerous multi-member economies research
projects, including the Plate Boundary Observatory in Taiwan (PBOT), the
Taiwan Integrated Geodynamical Research (TAIGER), and the Taiwan Crustal
Drilling Project (TCDP), have been developed. These projects have been
formally authorized to be the formal items of bi-lateral collaborative
contracts between Chinese Taipei and two APEC member economies (Japan
and USA). The TCDP has also been supported by the Office of
International Crustal Scientific Drilling Project (ICDP). Several
workshops regarding the three projects were held in Tokyo, Taipei, and
San Francisco in 2000 and 2001.
The above-mentioned background will be very helpful to smoothly and
successfully develop the proposed program. Chinese Taipei will be the
lead economy for the proposed program in developing a series of projects
and will sponsor the first phase project. Chinese Taipei has been
funding her portion of collaborative projects of investigators from
different APEC member economies to foster long-term, sustainable
relationship between Chinese Taipei and other members’ researchers and
research organization. Chinese Taipei also will host the first APEC
symposium on studies of earthquakes and active faults. In addition,
Chinese Taipei will also host two workshops: one for earthquake data
processes and the other for the application of technologies for
delineating the active faults and for estimating paleoseismicity.
Planned
Results:
Information about planning of the overall program and the first activity
project will be reported to the APEC-ISTWG at its meetings and
disseminated through other APEC networks and local websites. Results and
publications will also be reported in the same way and disseminated
through the same channels mentioned above.
Objectives:
The
program is designed as a part of the responses to natural hazards mainly
from earthquakes. This problem is very general to APEC member economies
that have often been threatened by natural hazards.
In the first phase of the program, an APEC Symposium on Earthquake and
Active-fault Research will be planned and performed. The themes of this
symposium will include:
1. Seismogenic-zone
structures;
2. Earthquake
geology;
3. Seismicity
and neo-tectonics;
4. Crustal
deformations;
5. Earthquake
physics (including physics, chemistry, rock mechanics, and hydrology
related to earthquakes);
6. Strong-motion
seismology and engineering seismology;
7. Real-time
seismology/Seismic early-warning system; and
8. Studies
of earthquake precursors.
This program is partly built on and extends the Chinese Taipei’s
current five-year earthquake research program PEAR as mentioned above.
Studies of earthquakes and active faults and the construction of various
networks for monitoring earthquakes and for detecting the movements of
faults will contribute to the fundamental knowledge of natural phenomena
and to the mitigation of hazards. One of the goals of this program is to
bring together experts from several disciplines of seismology (including
earthquake seismology, reflection seismology, engineering seismology,
crustal deformation, and earthquake geology) and earth sciences to
integrate the findings and exchange the ideas to mitigate the urban
disasters caused by near-field earthquakes. This will contribute greatly
to the promotion of studies of earthquake phenomena and seismic hazards
mitigation in the APEC member economies. Cross-fertilizations and
international teamwork are important factors in advancing scientific and
technical knowledge.
In addition, two workshops for specific topics will also be conducted.
The first workshop will be focus on the earthquake data processes. Three
major issues of the workshop are: the seismic network, the management of
data (including acquisition, transmission, archiving, and exchange of
data), and seismic early warning system. The second workshop will
include (1) the applications of traditional and modern technologies to
delineate the surface features and to probe the underground structures
of active faults; (2) the methodology of estimating paleoseismicity; and
(3) the land use.
In order to provide a good environment to strengthen the collaboration
of research and to benefit the exchange of knowledge and information, it
will be useful to organize a society, like American Geophysical Union
and European Geophysical Union, for the earth scientists of APEC member
economies. This program will help the scientists to proceed toward that
goal.
Project
Timetable:
- Seek concurrence of APEC-ISTWG
- form a meeting committee in May 2002
- finalize a workshop program in June 2002
- send out invitations to member economies in July 2002
- deadline for submissions by member economies in September 2002
- hold a symposium in November 2002
- hold a workshop on probing active faults in March 2003
- hold a workshop on earthquake data processing in July 2003
- report to the APEC ISTWG Meeting
Funding
Requirements:
The first phase project of the program will be funded with a budget of
US$80,000 to be provided by Chinese Taipei. The estimated budget is
based on the planning and implementation requirement of this program
with a 3-day symposium (plus a field trip to visit the reconstructive
area of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake) and two 2-day workshops, with
training courses.
|
