Building Bhutanese Resilience Against Cataclysmic Events (BRACE)

BRACE是一个跨学科项目，它将在地球科学家、工程师、社会科学家、历史学家和政策制定者之间建立新的关系，以应对地震风险并制定恢复力建设战略。这将通过英国和美国的研究人员、学者和喜马拉雅不丹王国的政府官员之间的合作研究和外联来实现，不丹是一个官方发展援助受援国。这一新颖的尝试将开发一种多管齐下的方法，以减少地震灾害风险，并将地质、地貌学和地震学工作与不丹档案中的历史记录，以及对不丹当代治理、灾害准备和有效沟通策略的研究结合起来，以减少风险。通过将这些领域的新研究与与国内决策者和工程师的密切磋商结合起来，我们的长期目标是制定一个可持续的框架，以提高不丹对地震及其次生影响的恢复能力。我们将结合构造学、地震学、地貌学、工程学、文化史、环境决策（治理）、发展和教育方面的专业知识，调查地震活动、地震灾害的历史记录和地震对环境问题、基础设施和人口的影响之间的联系。其目的是发展不丹国内的复原力和研究能力，以应对地震及其对环境、基础设施和社会的连锁影响。目前，人们对灾害风险的潜在驱动因素知之甚少。喜马拉雅地区地震活跃度很高（2015年尼泊尔发生的7.8级廓尔喀地震尤为突出），但不丹似乎是一个地震相对平静的地区。目前，人们对不丹的地震灾害了解甚少，因此对景观和基础设施的潜在破坏、对获取食物、水、能源的影响以及对社会健康和福祉的影响了解甚少。此外，区域构造和鲜为人知的断层网在结构上显得复杂，给评估未来的地震潜力带来了挑战。不丹是一个快速发展的国家，传统的生活方式和建筑正受到向人口密度增加的城市地区迁移的挑战。城市地区正在迅速扩大，但建筑标准不足以承受未来的地震事件，因此提出了明确的行动呼吁。加强对地震及其次生影响的复原力提出了跨学科和多方利益攸关方的挑战。社会系统和物理过程之间的相互作用导致了复杂的层次，这给企业、政府和政策制定者带来了挑战，特别是在自然灾害发生后的快速变化或冲击时期。这个项目将带来一个跨学科的视角，其中包括地球科学家、工程师、历史学家、社会科学家、政策制定者和实践者的知识，以及当地知识和外行的观点。科学研究确定了社会在遭受冲击时可用的途径和机会，并结合社会科学的观点，可以确定恢复和重建的途径。历史档案提供了有关过去地震事件的丰富数据，有助于建立对地震危害的认识。然而，调查不丹历史记录在收集和限制过去地震信息方面的潜力的工作很少。这些数据对于我们理解今天的地震危险以及喜马拉雅东部构造板块边界的结构构成至关重要。我们将使用选定的档案来评估过去地震的文献数据的可用性，以制定历史地震活动和脆弱性的目录，以及当地的反应和应对机制。

BRACE is a transdisciplinary project that will forge new relationships among geoscientists, engineers, social scientists, historians, and policy makers to address seismic risk and develop resilience-building strategies. This will be achieved through collaborative research and outreach between UK and US researchers and academics and government officials in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan, an ODA recipient country. This novel attempt to develop a multi-pronged approach will reduce earthquake disaster risk, and bring geological, geomorphological and seismological work into conversation with both historical records held in Bhutanese archives and with research into contemporary Bhutanese governance, disaster preparedness, and effective communication strategies for risk reduction. By merging new research in these fields with close consultation with in-country policymakers and engineers, our long-term aim is to develop a sustainable framework for improving Bhutanese resilience to earthquakes and their secondary effects.We will combine expertise in tectonics, seismology, geomorphology, engineering, cultural history, environmental decision making (governance), development, and education to investigate the links between historical records of seismicity, seismic hazards, and the impact of earthquakes on environmental issues, infrastructure and populations. The aim will be to develop resilience and research capacity within Bhutan to cope with earthquakes and their cascading effects on environment, infrastructure, and society.The underlying drivers of disaster risk are currently poorly understood. The Himalaya are highly seismically active (highlighted by the 2015 magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal), but Bhutan appears to represent a region of relative seismic quiescence. There is currently little understanding of seismic hazard in Bhutan, and therefore of the potential disruption to landscape and infrastructure, and the consequent impacts on access to food, water, energy, and impact for the health and wellbeing of society. In addition, the regional tectonics and poorly known fault network appear structurally complex and present challenges to assessing future earthquake potential. Bhutan is a rapidly developing country in which traditional modes of life and architecture are being challenged by moves to urban areas where population density has increased. Urban areas are rapidly expanding but building standards are not sufficient to withstand future seismic events, thus presenting a clear call to action.Strengthening resilience to earthquakes and their secondary effects presents transdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder challenges. The interaction between social systems and physical processes results in layers of complexity, which challenge businesses, governments and policy makers, particularly at times of rapid change or shock after a natural disaster. This project will bring a transdisciplinary perspective in which the knowledge of geoscientists, engineers, historians, social scientists, policy makers and practitioners, as well as local knowledge and lay views, are considered. Scientific research identifies pathways and opportunities available to society in times of shock, and combined with a social science perspective can identify the pathways to resilience and rebuilding.Historical archives provide rich data on past seismic events that can help to build an understanding of seismic hazard. However, little work has been done to investigate the potential of Bhutanese historical records to collect and constrain information about past earthquakes. Such data are critical to our understanding of today's seismic hazard as well as the structural makeup of the tectonic plate boundary in the eastern Himalaya. We will assess the availability of documentary data on past earthquakes using selected archives to develop a catalogue of historical seismic activity and vulnerability, as well as indigenous response and coping mechanisms.