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Launch of the "International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering" (IISEE) - UNESCO Lecture Notes project

©IISEE
Scenes from the IISEE training courses

The IISEE-UNESCO Lecture Notes are open to the public

The International Institute of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (IISEE) of Japan has posted on their website the training materials used in the UNESCO-supported IISEE international training courses under the name of the “IISEE-UNESCO Lecture Notes.” UNESCO invites engineers and researchers especially from earthquake-prone developing countries to obtain those training materials on seismology, earthquake engineering and tsunami.

This project ultimately aims at helping mitigate earthquake disasters in developing countries by disseminating information on the IISEE international training courses and making the lecture contents available for everyone. The current Lecture Notes are in English, but the IISEE welcomes translation to any other languages in order to disseminate the materials to local people in each country.

In 1960, the Government of Japan launched the above-mentioned international training courses on seismology and earthquake engineering, and in 1962, UNESCO participated in a joint venture with the Building Research Institute (BRI) of Japan when the Government of Japan established the IISEE. Since then, the IISEE has conducted the international training courses for researchers and engineers from many developing countries. Today, supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), more than 1,300 researchers and engineers (a total number since 1960) from almost 100 countries have graduated from the IISEE international training courses.

UNESCO has recently launched the “International Platform for Reducing Earthquake Disaster (IPRED)” in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan and the BRI of Japan. The IISEE acts as the “Centre of Excellence” of the IPRED, and the launch of the IISEE-UNESCO Lecture Notes is part of the activities of this Platform.