Rapid Observation of Vulnerability and Estimation of Risk (rover): End-to-end Seismic Risk Management Software

Owners of building portfolios in earthquake country have several data-related seismic risk mitigation concerns: Before an earthquake, they need to know the locations and seismic characteristics of their buildings to know which might pose a potential seismic risk. They also need the ability to assess and prioritize riskmitigation efforts, and to develop emergency response plans. Immediately after an earthquake, they need to know which buildings were most likely damaged to prioritize inspections, so as to mitigate the fatality risk in aftershocks, and may need to manage and perform the safety inspections. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency has developed a suite of software to assist that effort: Rapid Observation of Vulnerability and Estimation of Risk (ROVER) is free, opensource mobile software for building owners and risk managers to use to inventory buildings at risk from future earthquakes, monitor or analyze them for future seismic risk, and manage and perform post-earthquake safety assessments. Unlike paper forms (FEMA 154 and ATC-20), ROVER handles much of the data automatically, providing geolocation, automated soil and hazard lookup, watermarked digital photos, a web-accessible database, all controlled and managed by the user. ROVER integrates preand post-earthquake data with other risk-management software ShakeCast and HAZUS-MH. ROVER is free, with no licensing costs. It is open-source software, with human-readable source code available for examination and modification by co-developers, two of whom have already come forward, even before the software has been released. The software has been thoroughly tested and is endorsed by prominent members of the earthquake risk-mitigation community, building department officials, a state legislator, and other earthquake risk thought leaders.