A probabilistic approach for seismic risk assessment based on vulnerability functions. Application to Barcelona

Abstract

Nowadays, different risks are frequently assessed to take actions to increase the resilience in cities. The present work is mainly related to the probabilistic assessment of seismic risk of buildings in urban areas. Particularly, we described the main characteristics of the VIM_P which is considered as the probabilistic version of the Vulnerability Index Method (VIM). The VIM_P requires essential information to compute seismic risk of buildings in urban areas: a) results of seismic hazard of the site where the studied buildings are located (frequency of exceedance vs macroseismic intensities), and; b) basic data of the structure of the studied buildings to classify each building into a structural typology. The seismic vulnerability computed in the VIM_P for each building is represented by probability density functions beta type, which describe the probability distribution of a vulnerability index. In the VIM_P the seismic risk of buildings is computed through the convolution of the seismic hazard and the seismic vulnerability, considering a semi-empirical damage function. The seismic risk computed is expressed in terms of annual frequencies of exceedance of damage grades. Additionally, to show the applicability of the VIM_P, we assessed the seismic risk of 69982 dwelling buildings of Bara)

Comparative analysis of a new assessment of the seismic risk of residential buildings of two districts of Barcelona

“…Essentially, these uncertainties are incorporated into the seismic vulnerability assessment, which affects the seismic risk results. Additionally, the VIM_P allows obtaining seismic risk in terms of an annual rate of exceedance of both physical damage and loss (Aguilar-Meléndez et al 2019a). At this point, it is useful to mention that the present study has significant differences from the previous works of Aguilar-Melendez et al (2019a, b).…”

“…Therefore, each town has the responsibility of assessing its own seismic risk (UNISDR, 2015). Barcelona is a city where the seismic risk is regularly assessed (Aguilar-Meléndez et al 2019a, b, 2010Aguilar-Meléndez 2011;Barbat et al 1996Barbat et al , 2006Barbat et al , 2008Barbat et al , 2009Carreño et al 2007;Irizarry et al 2011;Lantada 2007;Lantada et al 2009Lantada et al , 2010Lantada et al , 2018Pujades et al 2000Pujades et al , 2007. Table 1 shows information on relevant examples of the previous studies about Barcelona's seismic risk.…”

“…Economic losses for the city. To assess seismic risk, we applied the Vulnerability Index Method-Probabilistic (VIM_P) proposed by Aguilar-Meléndez et al (2019a), which is considered as a complementary method to the Vulnerability Index Method (VIM) (Milutinovic and Trendafilosky 2003;Lantada et al 2010). Both methods (VIM and VIM_P) are based on the assessment of three essential components: 1) seismic hazard, 2) seismic vulnerability, and 3) seismic risk.…”

“…Both methods (VIM and VIM_P) are based on the assessment of three essential components: 1) seismic hazard, 2) seismic vulnerability, and 3) seismic risk. However, there are significant differences in the procedures to assess each one of these components (Milutinovic and Trendafilosky 2003;Aguilar-Meléndez et al 2019a).…”

Earthquake Hazard Safety Assessment of Existing Buildings Using Optimized Multi-Layer Perceptron Neural Network

“…As a result of this effort, there are some studies on different RVS methods [8,9] and many proposed new RVS by using linear regression [10][11][12], Multi-criteria decision-making [13], Fuzzy logic [14][15][16][17]. There are other methods for the probabilistic seismic vulnerability of buildings in urban areas [18], modification of the empirical method for seismic vulnerability according to an analysis of the actual seismic performance of buildings in the city of Lorca, Spain [19], damage and change detection techniques of buildings using very high-resolution optical satellite images [20], and seismic vulnerability assessment of school buildings built by industrialized building systems [21], which shows the variety of works in seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings.…”