Seismic Vulnerability Assessment and Sustainable Building Design
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 96
Special Issue Editor
Interests: seismic evaluation of traditional buildings; seismic isolation; experimental analysis; numerical modelling; carpentry science
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Our society has reached a pivotal point where simply ensuring that buildings avoid collapse during earthquakes is no longer sufficient. Structures designed for ductile behavior may survive strong seismic events, but they often sustain damage—damage that, while anticipated in design predictions, can be unsettling for occupants. Residents may feel unsafe and unwilling to remain in damaged buildings, even when the damage is non-structural.
To address these challenges, modern engineering is advancing technologies that prioritize the continued functionality of buildings during and after major seismic events. This paradigm shift aims to safeguard not only critical infrastructure like hospitals and fire stations but also residential buildings, ensuring safety and resilience for all.
This Special Issue focuses on the innovative intersection of sustainable design and seismic resilience, emphasizing the continued functionality of diverse building types within the built environment. The scope is broad, as it encompasses various structural typologies that can benefit from sustainable and resilient approaches. A key component of this endeavor is the rigorous assessment of different structures’ seismic performances to develop and implement effective, sustainable solutions. We invite researchers to contribute their expertise to this vital and evolving field.
Our society is in a moment when safety for collapse in case of an earthquake is not enough anymore. A structure designed focused on ductility will sustain damage in case of a strong earthquake. This damage, although considered in our predictions, is hard to accept for the inhabitants, meaning they may not want to live in damaged buildings (although damage may not be structural) because they may not feel safe. For this reason, modern technology is developed to offer continued functionality for buildings in case of a major seismic event.
The Special Issue aims to consider the topic of sustainable design in the context of the continued functionality of buildings, not only vital buildings (hospitals, fire stations, etc.) but also residential. The topic is wide, considering that the built environment includes many structural typologies that can benefit from sustainable approaches in their design. Also, to apply sustainable solutions, the assessment of different typologies’ behavior in earthquakes is important to obtain relevant results.
Some of the themes that can be included are the feasibility of seismic isolation for different typologies of buildings, seismic evaluation of buildings by different methods (experimental, numerical, post-disaster, etc.), resilience analysis, and sustainable solutions for different types of structural systems. I look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Andreea Dutu
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- continued functionality
- seismic analysis
- special technologies
- resilience and sustainability
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