Speaker:  Scott Miles, Assistant Professor, Western Washington University The purpose of this study is to understand how Washington State compares with the rest of the United States with respect to state-level seismic mitigation policies. This study was accomplished by compiling, synthesizing, and analyzing state-level policies listed in the mitigation plan of 47 states. According to FEMA, Washington State has the third highest annualized earthquake loss ratio (AERL) in the United States, behind California and Alaska. However, based on the analysis of policies listed in state mitigation plans, Washington State has an average number of policies that facilitate seismic mitigation. Washington State has the poorest policy coverage of any state with significant seismic risk, except for Alaska, based on computation of two indicators derived from AERL and respective policy counts compiled from this study. Washington State lacks formal policies to school safety, hospital safety, funding for seismic mitigation, seismic advisory commissions, seismic monitoring, and earthquake insurance. The audience will take away a broad understanding of the state-level policy landscape on the topic of seismic mitigation. They will gain insight into how each state compares based on respective seismic risk and leading seismic mitigation policy states. We will discuss the reasons for some states lagging in seismic mitigation policy coverage and the solutions for reversing this.

1. Washington State
Seismic Mitigation
Policy Gap AnalysisPolicy Gap Analysis
A Cross-State Comparison
Scott B. Miles, Ph.D.
Brian D Gouran L GBrian D. Gouran, L.G.
WWU Resilience Institute

2. Products
• Catalog of policies related to seismic
mitigationmitigation
– Gathered from current state mitigation
plansplans
• Spreadsheet database of policies
With tt ib t f ID t t l i l ti– With attributes of ID, state, legislation
type, earthquake specific
R ki d i f t t ith• Ranking and mapping of states with
respect to policy indicators related to
i i i k & li tseismic risk & policy count
Prepared by Scott.Miles@wwu.edu

3. Prepared by Scott.Miles@wwu.edu

6. l dPolicy Indicators
Policy Risk Ratio 
PolicyCount of State
Maximum Policy Count of all States
AELR f St t
y
AELR of State
Maximum AELR of all States
Proportional Risk Count 
Policy Count of State 
(Policy Count of State Maximum AELR)(AELR of State)
Policy Count of State
Maximum AELR of all States

7. Prepared by Scott.Miles@wwu.edu

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14. Prepared by Scott.Miles@wwu.edu