Benefits California

PEER's Benefits to California

California has the greatest seismic risk exposure of any state in the country. The average annual projected losses to thebuilding stock alone are estimated by FEMA at approximately $3.3 billion in California, or approximately 75% of all the known annualized seismic risk of the entire country. This is due to the combination of high seismicity and high concentration of population and associated businesses and industry in seismically active areas.

The PEER Center's research and technology transfer activities benefit the State by helping to systematically reduce seismic risk through the development of performance-based earthquake engineering technologies and products, the transfer of the results of the Center's research to the public and private sectors, and in the training of future students, engineers and researchers.

During the lifetime of the PEER Center the average level of seismic hazard mitigation statewide exceeded $5 billion. Even with such a large expenditure of monies into seismic hazard mitigation, much remains to be done. To help make that seismic hazard mitigation more cost effective, the PEER Center has undertaken both basic and applied research programs, incorporating a user-driven approach in which researchers, funding entities and those who implement seismic hazard mitigation work together to develop credible and useful contributions to increasing seismic safety throughout the state. The PEER Center's world-renowned research has already had a major positive impact on the utilities, transportation, and buildings fields.

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