Earlier today, The Linux Foundation announced it will host a new initiative to accelerate the standardization and deployment of earthquake early-warning (EEW) systems for earthquake preparedness around the world. Created by Grillo with support from IBM, USAID, the Clinton Foundation, and Arrow Electronics, the OpenEEW project includes the core components of the Grillo EEW system composed of integrated capabilities to sense, detect, and analyze earthquakes and to alert communities.
IBM was originally connected to Grillo through the Clinton Foundation at a convening of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Action Network. Now, IBM is assisting Grillo by adding the OpenEEW earthquake technology into the Call for Code deployment pipeline supported by The Linux Foundation.
We sat down with Call for Code Chief Technology Officer Daniel Krook and IBM Developer Advocate Pedro Cruz to learn more about OpenEEW.
The Linux Foundation — in partnership with IBM and startup Grillo — today announced an initiative called OpenEEW to accelerate the deployment of open source earthquake early warning (EEW) detection systems around the world. The organizations say OpenEEW will incorporate sensing, detection, and analysis components from Grillo’s EEW platform, along with a Docker software version of the detection component that can be deployed to Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud.
An estimated 3 billion people live with the threat of earthquakes globally. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, in California, there’s a 94% chance that an earthquake will not be just a foreshock. Yet only a few countries — like Mexico, Japan, Turkey, Romania, China, Italy, portions of the U.S., and Taiwan — have EEWs, in part because they can cost upwards of $1 billion.
The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced it will host Grillo’s OpenEEW project in collaboration with IBM to accelerate the standardization and deployment of earthquake early-warning systems (EEWs) for earthquake preparedness around the world. The project includes the core components of the Grillo EEW system comprised of integrated capabilities to sense, detect and analyze earthquakes as well as alert communities. OpenEEW was created by Grillo with support from IBM, USAID, the Clinton Foundation and Arrow Electronics.
Earthquakes often have the most severe consequences in developing countries, due in part to construction and infrastructure issues. Timely alerts have the potential to help save lives in the communities where earthquakes pose the greatest threat. EEW systems provide public alerts in countries including Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, but nearly three billion people globally live with the threat of an earthquake and don’t have access to nation-wide systems, which can cost upwards of one billion U.S. dollars. OpenEEW wants to help reduce the costs of EEW systems, accelerate their deployments around the world and has the potential to save many lives.
“The OpenEEW Project represents the very best in technology and in open source,” said Mike Dolan, Senior Vice President and GM of Projects at the Linux Foundation. “We’re pleased to be able to host and support such an important project and community at the Linux Foundation. The open source community can enable rapid development and deployment of these critical systems across the world.”
Only a handful of countries (Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, and China) have nation-wide earthquake early-warning systems. Isn’t that weird?
Many other countries have alert systems in place for certain portions of the population but a significant portion of the estimated 2.7 billion people who live in daily risk of experiencing a dangerous earthquake remain uncovered.
While my little earthquake did no real damage, they can kill thousands of people and destroy billions of dollars of infrastructure. Any early warning can save lives which is why countries like Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have national earthquake early-warning systems (EWW)s.
Earthquakes often hit developing countries the worst due in part to their poor construction and infrastructure. 2010's Haiti earthquake, for instance, killed more than 200,000 people and caused over 10 billion dollars of damage.
Timely alerts can save lives in the communities where earthquakes pose the greatest threat. EEW systems provide public alerts in some countries. Even a few seconds can make a difference. But, as The Linux Foundation states, "nearly three billion people globally live with the threat of an earthquake and don't have access to nation-wide systems, which can cost upwards of one billion U.S. dollars." OpenEEW wants to help reduce these costs, accelerate their deployments around the world, and help save many lives.