On March 8^th 2010, Dr. Jalal Dabeek, Director of the Earth Sciences and Seismic Engineering Center at the University participated in the Sixth Gulf Seismic Forum which was held in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. A number of experts from various Arab and European countries as well as from the United States participated in the event. Representatives of Gulf institutions that specialize in the field of seismic studies and seismology have also participated.

During the forum, a number of topics were presented such as seismic hazard maps, how to create these maps through the use of the global program CRISIS (which is a computer code designed by the Mexican seismic expert, Dr. Mario Ordaz). A number of seismic case studies of some of the Arab and foreign countries were also discussed.

Dr. Dabeek presented a work paper in which he spoke about the level of awareness on the part of Palestinian engineers in respect to designing earthquake-proof buildings. The Opinion Polls and Survey Studies Center at the University has also participated in preparing the work paper which included the execution of extensive survey and analytical studies of engineers in the West Bank and Gaza. It also discussed other topics such as issues related to the level of awareness on the part of engineers in Palestine in respect to seismic issues, to what extent did those engineers study seismology at the University, whether they joined workshops and training courses on seismology, and how often do they use seismic maps.

Some of the issues that are related to seismic design of buildings, how much knowledge do engineers have about this matter, the best design methods to be used, and the use of computerized constructional analytical programs were discussed. The study concluded that the level of knowledge among Palestinian engineers in the field of seismic design of buildings is good, however, further workshops and training courses are needed.