Doctoral Dissertation Research: Seismic Politics: The Scientific Development of an Early Alert System Infrastructure in Mexico

博士论文研究：地震政治：墨西哥早期预警系统基础设施的科学发展

• 批准号: 1357388
• 负责人: William Maurer
• 金额: $ 1.51万
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-06-01 至 2015-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1357388&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Seismic; Politics

University of California at Irvine doctoral student, Elizabeth Reddy, supervised by Dr. William M. Maurer, will undertake research in Mexico City on the relationship between science and public safety. Mexico City, subject to frequent and powerful earthquakes, is host to an innovative earthquake early alert system. The Sistema Alerta Sismica (SAS) is comprised of a coordinated set of sensory devices and radio transmitters. These are connected to alert machines in hospitals, schools, media outlets, and sometimes even private homes. Beginning in 1991, when SAS sensory devices register significant earth motion, they automatically send signals to alert machines in Mexico City that, in turn, issue a loud warning, sometimes up to sixty seconds before an earthquake reaches the city. This warning, which depends on the relative speeds at which earthquakes and radio waves move, provides a valuable opportunity for people to take shelter. However, the sensory network and its alert system are severely limited in scope. Because the SAS can only provide alerts for certain earthquakes, it has been subject to a great deal of scientific and public debate. In the process of developing the SAS, maintaining it, and advocating for it, engineers and scientists must mobilize ideas about the social world as well as their technical expertise. This research is designed to explore how these groups navigate the rigorous and possibly conflicting demands of their expertise and imperatives of public safety: particularly how they engage with concepts relating to risk, how they account for particularly Mexican social and technical factors, and ways that institutional imperatives and policy mandates affect their work. As they knit together cutting-edge geophysical and engineering knowledge with public risk management, they undertake work that they themselves describe as challenging in the extreme. To gather the data necessary for this investigation, the researcher utilizes archival resources, participant observation, surveys, social network analysis, interviews, and oral histories. Her findings will speak to production of social politics of seismic risk in Mexico, and has implications for ongoing research on science in the public sphere.

由威廉·M·莫雷尔（William M. Maurer）博士监督的加利福尼亚大学欧文博士学生伊丽莎白·雷迪（Elizabeth Reddy）将在墨西哥城进行有关科学与公共安全之间关系的研究。墨西哥城经常发生强大的地震，是一种创新的地震早期警报系统。 Sistema Alerta Sismica（SAS）由一组协调的感觉设备和无线电发射机组成。 这些连接到医院，学校，媒体，有时甚至是私人房屋的机器上。从1991年开始，当SAS感觉设备注册了重大的地球运动时，它们会自动向墨西哥城的机器发出信号，而这又发出警告，有时在地震到达城市之前，有时会发出长达60秒的警告。 该警告取决于地震和无线电波动的相对速度，为人们提供了庇护的宝贵机会。 但是，感觉网络及其警报系统在范围中受到严重限制。 由于SAS只能为某些地震提供警报，因此它已经进行了大量的科学和公众辩论。在开发SA，维持它并倡导它的过程中，工程师和科学家必须动员有关社会世界及其技术专长的想法。 这项研究旨在探讨这些群体如何应对其专业知识和公共安全要求的严格且可能相互矛盾的要求：尤其是他们如何与风险相关的概念互动，如何解释尤其是墨西哥的社会和技术因素，以及制度和政策要求影响其工作的方式。当他们将尖端的地球物理和工程知识与公共风险管理编织在一起时，他们进行了自己所描述的工作，在极端方面充满挑战。为了收集此调查所需的数据，研究人员利用档案资源，参与者观察，调查，社交网络分析，访谈和口述历史。她的发现将讲述墨西哥地震风险的社会政治的生产，并对公共领域的科学研究有影响。