RAPID VISUAL SEISMIC SCREENING PROCEDURE FOR BUILDING STOCK IN BUCHAREST - Carpathian Journal of Earth And Environmental Sciences

Bucharest is classified as the second metropolis in Europe, subjected to important losses in the case of a destructive earthquake. Evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of the city represents a tremendous task requiring swift structural vulnerability assessment tools. The seismic structural assessment of old, un-engineered, buildings using complex assessment methodologies is tributary to many uncertainties, having a high impact on the results. In this paper, a rapid visual screening (RVS) procedure to assess the seismic structural vulnerability is introduced. The proposed RVS procedure was applied for 335 buildings located in Bucharest, randomly selected from a database of buildings for which more complex seismic assessment methodologies were applied. Seven structural criteria having a high impact on the seismic vulnerability of the buildings were identified, based on the observations after the last destructive 1977 earthquake. These criteria were introduced in a scoring system to determine a general score that describe the seismic structural vulnerability. Based on the general score, each building was classified into a tentative seismic risk class, and after that the priority of a detailed seismic assessment and retrofitting was established. The RVS showed a matching coefficient of 0.71 for buildings with high risk of collapse and 0.81 for buildings with moderate risk of collapse in comparison with more complex seismic assessment methodologies applied for the same buildings. The main advantage if the RVS procedure is obviously that is implemented without performing any structural calculations. Although the RVS procedure is subjective, it could be converted into a rapid quantitative analysis which can prioritize the interventions upon the buildings, while financial constraints specific to the administrative domain exist.