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Featured Application: Geographic Information System (GIS) estimation of ante-earthquake scenarios through a more functional and standardized method of seismic vulnerability evaluation of reinforced concrete buildings in urban areas. Abstract:In spite of the enhancements related to building construction, many regions still present a major level of seismic risk as a consequence of the high vulnerability of the urban configuration of their cities. An improved method to assess the seismic vulnerability of buildings in urban areas is proposed in this contribution in order to advance the management of seismic emergency scenarios. The methodology, mainly based on the cadastral database, allows for a more standardized implementation as a function on the typological, structural, and urban parameters of the buildings, reducing the level of uncertainties linked to these methodologies and giving continuity to the different RISK-UE published works. The generalization of the method to any urban area has also been improved by means of removing the parameters whose calibration is associated with a specific area. The methodology has been put into practice in the urban area of the city of Lorca (SE Spain), in the aftermath of the earthquake of 11 May 2011, due to the availability of well-documented data reported from this seismic event. The proposal, when it is combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques, provides valuable information for the planning and management of post-earthquake emergency situations.

Featured Application: Implementation of an innovative approach in the field of seismic damage analysis in cities to hierarchize the importance of the different phenomena detected. Possible applications to develop improved mitigation strategies in urban areas.Abstract: The analysis of damage in cities after an earthquake to implement mitigation strategies of seismic risk is a complex job that is usually full of uncertainties. Numerous variables affect the final result of the observable damage in a set of buildings in an urban area. The use of methodologies capable of providing global explanations beyond the traditional unidisciplinary approach of disciplines, such as structural analysis, earthquake engineering, geotechnics, or seismology, can be very useful for improving the behavior of our cities against earthquakes. This article presents geostatistical post-earthquake analysis, an innovative approach in this field of research based on GIS spatial statistical tools to evaluate the importance of the different variables after an earthquake that may have caused damage in a city. This new framework will be applied to analyze, from a geostatistical perspective, the damage levels observed in the city of Lorca (Spain) after the earthquake of 2011; a case study where various studies have proposed different measures to mitigate the impact of future earthquakes as a consequence of focusing on different phenomena as the main variable for the damage produced. A bivariate GIS assessment will allow spatial correlation of the problems detected from a statistical point of view (inadequate design of buildings, age of the real estate stock, inefficient urban planning configurations, geological risk, etc.) and the different levels of damage that the technicians who participated in the post-earthquake phase evaluated in the city. The results obtained will allow one to hierarchize the importance of the different detected phenomena to prepare the city better against future earthquakes and to elaborate an improved seismic mitigation strategy.

Despite the technical advances in seismic structural design, many regions still present a high level of seismic risk, principally due to the high vulnerability of their buildings. A modification of the empirical method for assessing the seismic vulnerability of reinforced concrete buildings in urban areas is proposed in this contribution. In the RISK-UE LM1 framework, the values of certain behaviour modifiers related to the typological, structural and urban parameters of the buildings have been modified according to a review and analysis of the currently available models and an evaluation of the actual seismic performance of buildings. This provides continuity to the progress of the previous works published to date. The proposal has been applied to the city of Lorca, Spain, for which ample knowledge of the damage occurred in the earthquake of May 11, 2011 is available. Less dispersion between actual observed and estimated damage in buildings is presented in comparison with the previous studies, with a statistical significance of 5%, thus achieving a more accurate evaluation of seismic risk. The new model also provides valuable information to be used in the planning and management of post-earthquake emergency situations when combining with GIS techniques, thus allowing for a better definition of several damage scenarios to enhance the development and urban preparedness in case of further seismic events.