Abstract: To achieve loss-reduction objectives and to enhance community and societal resilience in the
event of earthquakes and other disasters, researchers and practitioners must take into account the
broader societal environment in which loss-reduction solutions are applied. For that purpose,
researchers at the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) have
developed two conceptual frameworks that clarify the linkages that need to be made between
earthquake research and the application of loss-reduction solutions: an open-systems approach as
a strategy for organizing a large scale coordinated research agenda applied to a significant public
problem, and market-based metaphors to introduce a new way of conceptualizing the loss-reduction
process. This paper presents these proposed conceptual frameworks, which have been
used by MCEER to formulate its research agenda, for consideration as potentially helpful tools
for researchers and for the management of large multidisciplinary research endeavors in
earthquake engineering, as well as for discussion and possible enhancements by others within
the research community.
