About StEER
VISION
StEER builds societal resilience by generating new knowledge on the performance of the built environment through impactful post-disaster reconnaissance disseminated to affected communities.
MISSION
CAPACITY
promoting community-driven standards, best practices, and training for field reconnaissance
COORDINATION
coordinating early, efficient and impactful event responses
​
COLLABORATION
broadly engaging communities of research, practice and policy to accelerate learning from disasters
StEER deepens the structural natural hazards engineering (NHE) community’s capacity for reliable post-event reconnaissance through:
OUR
COMMUNITY
StEER broadly serves any and all stakeholders invested in or affected by the performance of buildings and other infrastructure, including academia, public and private sectors, government, non-profit, and public-at-large. While StEER directly funds only US academic researchers on our Field Assessment Structural Teams (FASTs), we engage the broader community through our Virtual Assessment Structural Teams (VASTs), unfunded collaborations and dissemination of data and findings to a wide range of individuals and organizations responding to and affected by disasters.
Under the banner of NHERI's CONVERGE node, StEER works closely with the wider Extreme Events Reconnaissance consortium including the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association and the networks for Nearshore Extreme Events Reconnaissance (NEER), Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Extreme Events Research (ISEEER) and Social Science Extreme Events Research (SSEER), as well as the NHERI RAPID equipment facility and NHERI DesignSafe CI, long-term home to all StEER data and reports.
Note that StEER does not conduct hypothesis-driven research or support the research agenda of any specific researcher. StEER’s mandate is to collect perishable data swiftly and systematically in order to inform the community's continued study of a disaster through subsequent in-depth data collection that addresses specific research questions (see FAQs for details).
HAZARDS
StEER focuses on natural hazards causing structural damage to the built environment, including:
HURRICANES
TORNADOES
EARTHQUAKES
TSUNAMIS
OUR
LEADERSHIP
Collectively, StEER's leadership brings experience in responding to a wide range of disasters both domestically and internationally. Associate Directors respectively liaise with the earthquake, wind and coastal hazard communities, as well as advancing the cross-cutting theme of data standards to deliver support for the diverse needs of the structural engineering reconnaissance community.
DIRECTORS & RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
ADVISORY BODIES
Coastal Advisory Body
HERMANN Fritz
DENIS Istrati
JAMES Kaihatu
ANDREW Kennedy
.jpg)
TORI Tomiczek
Earthquake Advisory Body
CARLOS A. Arteta
ERICA Fischer
SELIM Gunay
.jpg)
JANISE Rodgers
HALIL Sezen
Working Group:
Automate
Wind Advisory Body
-01%20(1)_edited.jpg)
LEIGHTON Cochran
KURT Gurley
FRANK Lombardo
STEPHANIE Pilkington
SAMANTHA Krautwurst
Working Group:
Damage Quantification
STEERING COMMITTEE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
REGIONAL NODES
NE
SE
GL
SC
NC
SW
NW
Carib.
Pac-I
AK
MEMBERS
DIRECTORS & RESEARCH ASSOCIATES
ADVISORY BOARDS
Working Group:
Damage Quantification
ERICA Fischer
JANISE Rodgers
HALIL Sezen
SELIM Gunay
CARLOS A. Arteta
DENIS Istrati
ANDREW Kennedy
TORI Tomiczek
JAMES Kaihatu
HERMANN Fritz
Working Group:
Automate
Coastal Advisory Body
Earthquake Advisory Body
Wind Advisory Body
LEIGHTON Cochran
FRANK Lombardo
SAMANTHA Krautwurst
STEPHANIE Pilkington
KURT Gurley
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
STEERING COMMITTEE
REGIONAL NODES
SW
NW
Carib.
GL
SC
NC
Pac-I
AK
NE
SE
MEMBERS
TIMELINE
LEVEL 1
1.1 Network Activation: Triggered by the StEER leadership team (currently composed of its Director and four Associate Directors) in consultation with relevant Hazard Advisory Boards, generally within 24-48 hours of the event. Decision is based upon the event satisfying the majority of the Level 1 Activation Criteria.
1.2 Team Formation: Call for participation is released to members by email and Slack. Those registering on the Google Form are included on the Virtual Assessment Structural Team (VAST) and invited to a private slack channel for the response. A VAST Lead is appointed along with a dedicated editor for each major section of the Preliminary Virtual Reconnaissance Report (PVRR).
1.3 Virtual Assessment: VAST members compile imagery from the event in the Media Repository with detailed descriptions and commentary. Section editors review the repository and bring the most notable commentary and visuals into the PVRR. These efforts typically span a week.
1.4 Product Release: Level 1 closes with the publication of the Media Repository and PVRR on DesignSafe, each with their own DOI. Individuals contributing to the Media Repository will be included as authors on its DOI; All individuals whose media repository contributions are used in the PVRR also receive authorship on the PVRR’s DOI. The availability of these products are announced to members by email and Slack.
LEVEL 2
2.1 Network Escalation: Decision is informed by the information in the PVRR, based upon the event satisfying the majority of the Level 2 Activation Criteria. The decision is announced at the time of the Level 1 product release.
2.2 Imagery Collection: A small scout team is formed from members expressing interest with the primary responsibility of scouting affected areas and capturing street-level panoramic imagery. These Field Assessment Structural Teams (FAST) complete Daily Summaries on their impressions and level of access. Data collection typically includes within a week.
2.3 Product Development: The collected imagery is hosted on a web viewer for ease of access and prepared for long-term curation on DesignSafe. Impressions from Daily Summaries are compiled into an Early Access Reconnaissance Report (EARR).
2.4 Product Release: Level 2 closes with the publication of the EARR on DesignSafe, with its own DOI. All FAST members receive authorship on the EARR’s DOI. The availability of this product is announced to members by email and Slack.
LEVEL 3
3.1 Network Escalation: Decision is informed by the information in the EARR, based upon the event satisfying the majority of the Level 3 Activation Criteria. The decision is announced at the time of the Level 2 product release.
3.2 Mission Design: StEER Leadership and the relevant advisory board will design the objectives, sampling strategy, and geographies for the mission. One or more Field Assessment Structural Teams (FAST) will be formed from interested Grade 3 or 4 members based on expertise and availability, adding at least one Grade 2 trainee. The number of participants and even phases of the data collection will vary, based on the objectives. Mission design will also consider relevant assessment technologies, including use of RAPID EF hardware.
3.3 Data Collection: Mission strategy is executed by FAST in possibly multiple phases, possibly spanning weeks.
3.4 Data Enrichment & Quality Control: Data is enriched and quality controlled by StEER Data Librarians in preparation for long-term curation on DesignSafe, under a unique DOI that includes all FAST members involved in data collection. The dataset is accompanied by a Data Report to aid in the re-use of data by others.
3.5 Product Development: In parallel, FAST members participate in the authorship of a Data Paper to be published in an archival version to overview the mission and introduce the dataset and key learnings.
3.6 Product Release: The availability of these products are announced to members by email and Slack.