Sustainable Seismic Design, Assessment and Retrofit of Buildings
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 222
Special Issue Editors
Interests: seismic risk; structural vulnerability; existing structures; masonry; large-scale assessment; fragility curves
Interests: innovative building materials; seismic retrofitting; integrated solutions; reinforced concrete; existing buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Contemporary approaches to the built environment increasingly recognise the need to integrate seismic safety, energy efficiency, and environmental sustainability within a unified design and retrofit framework. In seismic-prone regions, interventions aimed at improving energy performance must be carefully designed to avoid inadvertently increasing seismic risk by elevating exposure without a corresponding reduction in structural vulnerability.
Within this context, this Special Issue focuses on design and retrofit strategies that are synergistically combined with energy-efficiency measures, with the overarching goal of reducing the environmental impact of buildings while enhancing their safety, resilience, long-term performance and living comfort.The Special Issue explores integrated methodologies that couple seismic design and retrofit with energy upgrading, life-cycle thinking, and loss mitigation. Particular attention is given to solutions that reduce expected losses, downtime, and the environmental footprint associated with damage and post-disaster reconstruction. By addressing both operational and embodied impacts, these approaches contribute to a more sustainable and resilient built environment capable of withstanding natural hazards.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Integrated seismic and energy retrofit design methodologies.
- Performance-based seismic design considering environmental and energy objectives.
- Life-cycle assessment and environmental impact of seismic strengthening interventions.
- Loss, damage, and downtime reduction through integrated retrofit strategies.
- Nature-based, low-carbon, and reversible solutions for seismic and energy upgrading.
- Decision-support tools for multi-objective optimization of safety, energy efficiency, and sustainability.
- Proof-of-concepts and case studies of integrated seismic and energy retrofitting strategies.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Elisa Saler
Dr. Ciro Del Vecchio
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- integrated seismic and energy retrofit
- performance-based seismic design
- energy-efficient buildings seismic risk
- sustainable design
- life-cycle assessment (LCA)
- low-carbon retrofit solutions
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