Reducing the Seismic Vulnerability of Existing Buildings: Assessment and Retrofit

Dear Colleagues,

Devastating seismic events keep raising the awareness of scientific, technical and political community to the need of identifying assets at risk and developing more effective and cost-efficient risk mitigation strategies. Despite the significant advances in the field of seismic engineering and risk assessment, there is still much to be done, particularly with regard to existing buildings, most of them built without anti-seismic provisions.

The wide variety of construction and structural systems, associated with the complex behavior of their materials (raw earth, timber, masonry, steel and reinforced concrete), greatly limit the application of current codes and building standards to the existing building stock. To tackle this global issue, it is fundamental to enhance the engagement between innovation and technical stakeholders towards the development and application of more sophisticated and reliable methods of analysis, as well as improved seismic retrofitting techniques compliant with buildings conservation principles.

On the light of the exposed, this Special Issue aims at stimulating the exchange of ideas and knowledge on the assessment and reduction of the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings. To this purpose, original contributions containing fundamental and applied research, case studies or state of art discussion on the following and related topics are welcome:

Seismic Vulnerability: Origin and evolution; conceptual understanding, historic approaches and multi-disciplinary perspectives; definition of vulnerability factors; monitoring, surveying and diagnosis approaches/systems; smart digitized inventories and frameworks.

Vulnerability Assessment Methods and Tools: Empirical-based approaches; mechanical-based methods; advanced numerical simulation; large-scale assessment methods; remote sensing and GIS.

Seismic Retrofitting Techniques: Traditional and innovative strategies; cost-benefit analysis; experimental testing; development and validation; analytical and numerical simulation; application cases; post-earthquake surveying.

Dr. Tiago Miguel Ferreira
Dr. Nuno Mendes
Dr. Rui Silva
Guest Editors

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