Seismic Vulnerability and Expected Damage in “Ground Zero Area” in El Cabanyal (Valencia)

Abstract

The seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings in historic city centres is the first step to mitigate the possible damage, to prevent heritage losses and to preserve their historical identity. In this paper the analysis is focused on the residential buildings of "Ground zero Area" in El Cabanyal. This unique quarter of Valencia, once a fishermen's settlement, has a strong village-like identity and heritage value. Swallowed up by an expanding city centre and threatened by a poor redevelopment plan, which caused its degradation, its rehabilitation is nowadays the object of a new protection plan.The seismic vulnerability of the residential buildings has been assessed using the Vulnerability Index Method, obtaining a global damage index, and the equivalent built area expected to be destroyed. Results, implemented in a GIS environment, revealed that, due to the high vulnerability, many of the analysed listed buildings will be significantly damaged. A new detailed analysis is recommended, to define intervention and retrofitting criteria to improve their seismic response, preserving the architectural heritage and defending the unique identity of El Cabanyal.

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

“…The VIM_P methodology is a derivation of the VIM that allows determining seismic risk scenarios. The VIM methodology is related to valuable and extensive work developed in the last 25 years in different countries with emphasis on some European countries as Italy, Spain, Greece, among many others (see for instance Vacareanu et al, 2004;Faccioli et al, 2004;Giovinazzi, 2005;Lagomarsino and Giovinazzi, 2006;Barbat et al, 2006;Dolce et al, 2006;Bernardini, 2007a, b;Barbat et al, 2009;Vicente et al, 2011;Neves et al, 2012;Ferreira et al, 2013Ferreira et al, , 2017aAthmani et al 2015;Basset-Salom 2015, 2020;Ruiz et al 2015;Cherif et al 2016;Lestuzzi et al 2016;Maio et al, 2016;Apostol et al, 2019;Giuliani et al, 2019;Ortega et al, 2019;Ademović et al 2020;Basset-Salom and Guardiola-Víllora, 2020;Kassem et al, 2020;Romis et al, 2020;Taibi et al, 2020). Recently, Aguilar-Meléndez et al (2019a) highlighted that the seismic risk results obtained according to the VIM_P agree with the results determined through the application of the VIM.…”