Acronyms and Abbreviations: CEA Program, Partner and Preparedness Community
The following are common acronyms and abbreviations for CEA programs, partners' activities and the disaster preparedness community.
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (CalOES)
CalOES (formerly Cal EMA) is the state agency responsible for the coordination of overall state agency and federal agency response to major disasters, in support of local governments. CalOES is responsible for assuring the state's readiness to respond to and recover from all hazards—natural, manmade, and war-caused emergencies and disasters—and for assisting local governments in their emergency preparedness, response, recovery and hazard-mitigation efforts.
California Geological Survey (CGS)
CGS's mission is to provide scientific products and services about the state's geology, seismology and mineral resources that affect the health, safety and business interests of the people of California.
California Residential Mitigation Program (CRMP)
CRMP was created by a joint exercise of powers agreement (JPA) between CalOES and CEA. The CRMP is a public entity but is legally separate from CalOES and the CEA. The CRMP's goal is to provide incentives to California homeowners to seismically retrofit wood-frame residential structures.
Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA)
ECA is a statewide public-private partnership of people, organizations and regional alliances that work together to improve preparedness, mitigation and resiliency. CEA is one of the Alliance's strategic-partner organizations. List of ECA strategic-partner organizations.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI)
EERI is a national nonprofit and technical society of engineers, geoscientists, architects, planners, public officials, and social scientists. EERI members include researchers, practicing professionals, educators, government officials, and building officials.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
FEMA's mission is to support citizens and first responders to ensure that all within the United States work together to build, sustain and improve a capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.
Next Generation Attenuation West (NGA West)
CEA helps fund and contribute to the NGA West project, which collects and studies data gathered from global seismic events to help model and predict how the ground will move during and following earthquakes of various types and magnitudes.
The NGA West 2 project addresses important issues for earthquake engineering; modeling directivity and directionality; verifying models for small, moderate and large magnitude earthquakes; developing ground motion prediction models for vertical ground motion; and evaluating soil amplification.
Participating Insurance Companies (PI)
CEA earthquake insurance policies are sold only through CEA PIs, which process all CEA policy applications, policy renewals, invoices, and payments; service CEA policies during the policy term; and handle any and all CEA claims.
Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC)
SCEC is a community of more than 600 scientists and students and more than 60 worldwide institutions. Headquartered at the University of Southern California, SCEC is funded by the National Science Foundation and the USGS. The SCEC mission is to develop a comprehensive understanding of earthquakes in Southern California and elsewhere, and to communicate useful knowledge for reducing earthquake risk.
Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast Version 3 (UCERF 3)
In conjunction with CGS, USGS, and SCEC, the CEA helps fund and contributes professionally to the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast Version 3 (UCERF 3).
UCERF 3 studies existing faults in an effort to better forecast earthquake occurrence throughout California. This includes forecasting the probabilities of different earthquake types and earthquakes of various magnitudes and depths.
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
The USGS is a science organization that provides impartial information on the health of ecosystems and the environment, the natural hazards that threaten them, the natural resources people rely on, the impacts of climate and land-use change, and the core science systems that help USGS provide timely, relevant and useable information.
The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect the quality of life.