Computer‐Aided Pre‐ and Post‐Earthquake Assessment of Buildings Involving Database Compilation, GIS Visualization, and Mobile Data Transmission

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a computer-aided comprehensive strategy for the rapid visual inspection of buildings and the optimal prioritization of strengthening and remedial actions that are necessary prior to, and after, a major earthquake event, respectively. Based on the visual screening procedures used in the United States and past experience in seismic assessment of buildings in Greece and Turkey (the two countries with the highest seismic risk in Europe), a building inventory is first compiled; then a vulnerability ranking procedure that is specifically tailored to the prevailing construction practice in Southeast Europe is implemented into a multi-functional, georeferenced computer tool, that accommodates the management, evaluation, processing and archiving of the data stock gathered during the preand post-earthquake assessment process, and the visualization of its spatial distribution. The methodology proposed and the computer system developed is then applied to the city of Düzce, Turkey, a city strongly damaged during the devastating 1999 earthquake.

Risk Management of Large RC Structures within Spatial Information System

“…The purpose is to support engineers or decision makers in the optimization of the inspection and maintenance planning, and in the management of all the required data and models. As the amount of information required is rather significant, the basic concepts and principles of geographical information systems (GIS), which experience wide application within the practice of risk analysis (see Bayraktarli et al, 2006; Khattak and Shamayleh, 2005; and Sextos et al, 2008, for an overview), are taken and applied here to develop the probabilistic modeling framework for risk management of large concrete structures. The reason why existing GIS software are not adopted directly here is that there are some limitations in their application.…”

A knowledge-based software for the preliminary design of seismically isolated bridges

“…Since the 80s many Knowledge-Based Expert Systems (KBES) have been developed for structural analysis of simple sections (Umaretiya and Joshi 1992), design and assessment of buildings (Nagarajaiah et al 1991;Rivard and Fenves 2000;Sextos et al 2008) bridge analysis and design (Biswas and Welch 1987;Miles and Moore 1991;Indian Railways Institute 2006;Aparicio et al 1996;Reich 1996;Moore and Miles 1997;Adeli. 1998;Huang 2010) or even preliminary design of bearing systems (Pracasa 1992).…”

Integration of Sustainability Issues in Strategic Transportation Planning: A Multi-criteria Model for the Assessment of Transport Infrastructure Plans

“…Transport infrastructure planning processes have benefited from recent significant advances in computational algorithms and technologies (Samant and Adeli, 2000, 2001; Adeli and Samant, 2000; Adeli and Karim, 2000; Karim and Adeli, 2002a, 2002b, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c; Adeli and Jiang 2003; Dharia and Adeli, 2003; Ghosh‐Dastidar and Adeli, 2003, 2006; Adeli and Ghosh‐Dastidar, 2004; Jiang and Adeli, 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2005), along with the development of sophisticated assessment methodologies (Wang et al, 2007; Malczewski, 1999; Arampatzis et al, 2004) and decision‐making methods (Bana e Costa et al, 1999; Salling et al, 2007; Marashi and Davis, 2007; Vreeker et al, 2002; Jha, 2003). Additionally, increased computer capacity and the recent development of assessment tools, such as geographical information systems (GIS) has enabled the upsurge of important methodological advances in this direction (Fotheringham and Wegener, 2000; Miller, 1999; Arampatzis et al, 2004; Wegener, 2001; Sextos et al, 2008).…”