ANSS-CR
Minutes of the 31 May, 2000 Meeting of the
Central U.S. Regional Subcommittee
for the
Advanced National Seismic System
The Central U.S. Regional Subcommittee for the Advanced National Seismic System is the governing body of the Advanced National Seismic System-Central Region (ANSS-CR) and is hereafter used interchangeably with the ANSS-CR. The ANSS-CR was initially organized at an informal meeting in Memphis on May 15, 2000. The committee met formally at the Annual EERI meeting in St. Louis on May 31, 2000. The purpose of this meeting was to make a few basic decisions and discuss directions in which to move forward. The meeting was open to all who wished to attend. Attendees: Mitch Withers (CERI/MAEC), Glenn Rix (GIT/MAEC), Bob Herrmann (SLU/MAEC), Mike Hamburger (Indiana U), Norm Hester (CUSEC State Geol.), Carl Stepp, Tom Roeseler (Bank of America), Yousef Hashesh (Urbana), Kinemetrics, Mehmet Celebi (USGS), Glenn Fulkerson (FHWA), Martin Chapman (VPI), Gary Patterson (CERI/MAEC), David Boore (USGS), Art Frankel (USGS), Jim Beavers (MAEC), John Keifer (KYGS), Harley Benz (USGS).
ANSS background was provided by Mitch Withers. Many and varied stations are currently operated within the region. Most weak motion stations are short period low dynamic range. Most strong motion stations are not real-time and many are film recorders. Nevertheless, extant resources make expansion of current rapid information available at CERI to the entire region with necessarily greater error and higher thresholds. The original $2.6M in the President's budget was reduced by the House of Representatives Committee to $1.0M. Other programs were also significantly reduced. There is still hope that the FY2001 funds may be increased, the letter writing campaign, particularly from end users, needs to continue. Inclusion within the FY2001 budget provides optimism for increased funding in future years. The National Steering Committee has formed a Technical Implementation Committee (TIC) that has met once and designated the need for 4 specific working groups: Network Architecture and Interconnectivity, Instrumentation, Site Installation Standards, and Data Analysis/Products. Currently 80 urban strong motion stations are being installed in three cities: San Fransisco, Seattle, and Salt Lake City. FY2001 funds will be used to continue upgrades in the three cities and add three more: Memphis, Reno, and Fairbanks.
The areal extent of the CUS region was discussed. The tier of states from North Dakato to Texas will be logistically challenging. West Texas is better suited for inclusion within the Intermountain West region. There was strong consesus to include the Dakota tier due to tectonic similarities with the region, Texas affiliations with the MAE Center, and to avoid a "no man's land." Further, particularly with respect to Emergency Management Agencies, it was strongly recommended to draw administrative boundaries along state lines. This implies keeping west Texas within the CUS region. Operational boundaries will necessarily need to be "fuzzy." Because the Delaware Geological Survey already contributes to the SE bulletin and long time relationships with the SE coallition of networks, it was decided to include Delaware and Maryland in the region. Pennsylvania has similarities that could include it, but proximity to LDEO provides a stronger argument for it to be included in the New England region. Such a challenging region will likely require a full-time regional coordinator with 2 or 3 staff people possibly as MAE Center employees.
The makeup and membership of the Regional Subcommittee was discussed. It was agreed that the committee is well balanced. Mehmet Celebi will be added to provide expertise on instrumented structures within the region. Mitch will contact Neil Smith from Commonwealth to provide representation for Utilities. Several additional enduser members were then suggested. In order to keep the committee small and functional, rather than add members it was decided to establish an end-users advisory group that will interface directly with the ANSS-CR. We will drop the interim. Mitch Withers will continue as chair.
Working Groups. To reduce the time commitment required of committee members, working groups will be formed to investigate technical and detailed matters. Two such groups are established: Siting, and Operations. Because of the potential for the region to recieve urban strong motion hardware, results from the siting group are time sensitive. Their goal is to provide a prioritized list of potential sites. Members of this group are Glenn Rix, Norm Hester, Martin Chapman, and Mehmet Celebi. Mitch Withers will be forming the Ops group in the near future.
Miscellaneous.
The MAE Center is currently the home for the ANSS-CR and is sponsoring a MAEC project to provide resources for planning. Future workshops and committee meetings will be supported under this project.
A written management and implementation plan should be complete by January, 2001.
Continued communication with Congress is needed to ensure support for the ANSS. We will proceed with or without funding. Without funding, the ANSS philosophy will allow much more efficient use of existing resources but with obvious limitations. Realization of the full suite of products available within a useful time frame, proper information dissemination, and conformance with reasonable standards requires significant increases in funding. Mitch will make available a list of congressional committee members and sample letters.
Where to proceed from here? Mitch will provide a report for the upcoming meeting of the National Steering Committee. He will also develop more detailed layers for the organizational flow diagram. He will update the map to reflect the changes to the areal coverage and contact operators within the region. Jim Beavers will ensure that the siting group moves forward. When the results of the National committee are available, we will incorporate these and subsequent CUS developments and meet sometime in September.