Review of fragility curves for seismic risk assessment of buildings in Europe

Earthquakes represent a serious threat for several European countries, particularly for Mediterranean bordering countries, where seismic events have been triggering significant destruction and loss over the last decades. Since the early 1970’s, when the first studies on seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings at large geographical areas were made, the scientific state-of-the-art of vulnerability assessment has undergone a notable development. However, initiatives for seismic risk assessment applied at a large scale still face significant challenges, such as the inventory of exposure data in very disparate databases and the selection of up-to-date vulnerability models compatible with the information available and with different construction practices. Having the latter challenge in mind, the principal activity described in this paper is to investigate the practices and methodologies for assessing seismic vulnerability of the existing building stock in Europe, in areas of moderate to high seismicity. The study involves an extensive collection and review of analytical fragility curves available in the technical literature and their evaluation according to a set of qualitative criteria in order to select the most appropriate ones for each building class and geographic region. The fragility curves assessed according to the above-mentioned criteria may be used for different seismic risk studies, namely: (i) the assessment of the seismic risk of buildings in Europe for decision-making on building renovation, (ii) the impact estimations after major earthquake disasters for emergency response, (iii) the seismic scenario simulation for emergency planning and disaster risk reduction and (iv) the definition of procedures for seismic risk assessment to be integrated in multi-risk approaches for different natural hazards in Europe. The review revealed a number of issues that are not sufficiently addressed in the current literature, such as the use of more refined numerical models that capture better the response of structures, the effect of non-structural elements, shear failure modes of reinforced concrete elements, out-of-plane response and types of floors for masonry buildings and geometric irregularities.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building