The Legislature hereby requests that on or after July 1, 1996, the University of California establish the California Center for Earthquake Engineering Research in this state. The center shall involve all the university members of the California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering. The center shall be the first step to realizing the goals and objectives contained in the Seismic Safety Commission’s research and implementation plan for earthquake risk reduction drafted pursuant to Section 8899.15.

(a) The objective of the center shall be to reduce casualties, property losses, and economic or other disruptive consequences of earthquakes in areas of high seismicity through the advancement of knowledge and technology in the earthquake engineering field. The center shall develop methods for identifying and quantifying the risks of great urban earthquakes and shall develop cost-effective strategies for reducing those risks to reasonable levels.

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(b) The center shall operate a comprehensive, multiple college and university research program designed to meet the requirements of National Science Foundation funding, taking full advantage of the capabilities of leading colleges and universities in the state. The center shall carry out an integrated plan for a coordinated research program and shall actively manage all of the activities funded by it. Colleges, universities, organizations, agencies, and researchers with special expertise in the earthquake engineering field shall be encouraged to submit proposals to the center and to cooperate in obtaining additional funding from private or public research sponsors for collaborative research involving the center.

(c) The center shall conduct research on topics relevant to regions of high seismicity such as the following:

(1) Performance-based design at the scale of individual buildings, utility or transportation components, and other structures as complemented by performance-based design at the urban scale of large numbers of these facilities.

(2) Identification of key sources of future earthquake losses, quantification of these sources of risk, and development of strategies for reliably controlling losses.

(3) Development of cost-effective techniques for the analysis and design of retrofit measures for existing construction.

(4) Improved structural design and analysis methods for new construction.

(5) Development of techniques for determining the suitability of sites and for understanding critical design relationships among soil conditions, foundations, and structures and for predicting response to earthquake ground motions and earthquake-caused ground failures.

(6) Experimentation to verify the seismic behavior of bridges, dams, ports, critical communications facilities, utility and transportation system elements, and nonstructural and structural components of buildings.

(7) Development of a research infrastructure, including upgrading experimental facilities to more accurately simulate earthquakes.

(8) Expansion of the data base of performance from actual earthquakes to ensure that the unfortunate occurrence of earthquakes also serves the positive societal and scientific purpose of systematically advancing knowledge.

(9) Encouragement and development of emerging technologies, design strategies, and analytical capabilities that offer the potential for breakthroughs in earthquake risk reduction.

(Repealed and added by Stats. 1996, Ch. 966, Sec. 2. Effective September 27, 1996.)