Improving the Earthquake Resilience of Primary Schools in the Border Regions of Neighbouring Countries

Abstract

This work summarises the strategy adopted in the European research project PERSISTAH. It aims to increase the resilience of the population, focusing on the existing primary schools in the Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain) regions. Software was developed to assess the seismic safety of these schools, considering different earthquake scenarios. Seismic retrofitting measures were studied and numerically tested. Some of them were also implemented in the retrofitting activities of two case study schools (one in each country). It was found that the adopted ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) considerably affect the results obtained with the software, especially for offshore earthquake scenarios. Furthermore, the results show that the masonry buildings would be the most damaged school typologies for all the scenarios considered. Additionally, a set of guidelines was created to support the school community and the technicians related to the construction industry. The goal of these documents is to increase the seismic resilience of the population. Different activities were carried out to train schoolteachers in seismic safety based on the guidelines produced, obtaining positive feedback from them.

Risk and Resilience Assessment of Lisbon’s School Buildings Based on Seismic Scenarios

“…In fact, Ferreira et al [20] started to study the educational infrastructure in Algarve by developing a seismic risk assessment, in which the seismic response of buildings was considered following a vulnerability index based on EMS-98. More recently, Estevão et al [21] led the PERSISTAH (Projects of earthquake resilient schools in Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain)) project, which aims to develop tools for diagnostic, evaluation, management, and rehabilitation of primary schools in both Algarve (south of Portugal) and Huelva (south of Spain) regions. The project created a ranking methodology for the vulnerability of primary schools, named "school-score".…”

“…Although the vulnerability of school buildings was studied in the past [3,4,9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18], in Portugal, school buildings were only studied starting in 2007 [19][20][21], and no regional or national strategy exists to mitigate seismic risk.…”

Analysis of the Influence of Atriums in Seismic Performance of RC Primary School Buildings

“…In brief, the school community is characterized by a low seismic resilience [5]. In this context, the European project named PERSISTAH (Projetos de Escolas Resilientes aos SISmos no Território do Algarve e de Huelva, in Portuguese) aims to increase the seismic resilience of the schools located in the Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain) regions [6]. The south-western Iberian Peninsula is affected by far away earthquakes of long return period and of large magnitude [7], due to its proximity to the Eurasia-Africa plate boundary.…”