Sustainable Seismic Design Approaches, Structural Systems, and Retrofit Measures of Civil Engineering Structures

Dear Colleagues,

The risk of earthquakes represents a challenge for sustainable regional development in different parts of the world. The high losses from recent earthquakes confirm the pressing need for effective strategies to manage seismic risk to achieve sustainable development goals not only for existing and new structures but also for building inventories and transportation networks at the urban scale. The level of understanding concerning how different components of the built environment respond to seismic hazard events and the availability of effective and economical retrofit approaches to control the physical damage and minimize the disruption of service expected by earthquakes have a profound role in mitigating seismic losses.

The seismic design and retrofit of civil engineering structures have relied on the traditional design procedures of reducing the seismic forces to arrive at an economical design, providing that the inelastic deformations are controlled. While the conventional seismic-resistant design and retrofit approaches of standard structures can ensure life safety and prevent collapse, this approach is expected to result in extensive nonstructural and structural damage. The anticipated direct and indirect losses could be extensive and contradict sustainable regional development. Hence, this Sustainability Special Issue aims to gather contributions related to contemporary seismic design methodologies, structural systems, and retrofit approaches that can support sustainable development goals. This includes, for instance, alternative design and retrofit approaches that can improve sustainability by limiting non-structural and structural damage and residual deformations after earthquakes.

Original research studies, including response simulation and experimental investigations, case studies, and detailed review manuscripts, are welcome for submission to this Special Issue. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Experimental and computational research to limit damage probability under strong earthquakes;
• Seismic vulnerability assessment and risk mitigation of civil engineering structures;
• Seismic resilience of the built environment;
• Seismic retrofit techniques and reparable structural systems;
• Structural vibration control and seismic isolation;
• Smart materials and systems for earthquake engineering;
• Innovations in sustainable seismic design;
• Experiences from recent earthquakes.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Aman Mwafy
Dr. Asas Issa
Guest Editors

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