Urban heritage value and seismic vulnerability mapping: challenges for engineering and architectural assessments. Case study of a protected area in Bucharest, Romania

Abstract

The paper evaluates the urban heritage situation at almost four decades after the Bucharest, March 4, 1977 earthquake disaster, followed by a razing of the present Civic Center area and a large-scale remodeling project. The first results of the URBASRISK Project (2012) are presented as a contribution to a new multi-hazard paradigm to cope with European urban scale threats, especially in heritage areas, with a case study of a historic zone now designated as protected area. The cultural and utility value was identified and graded on specific scales for further analysis and mapping. For this phase of study some data of 1977 were adjusted to express the vulnerability by the Mean Damage Degree, GA, with a possibility to make corrections after visual inspection. The URBASRISKdb geodatabase was created for storing the attributes of the buildings. The basic source, i.e. the ESRI World Street Map layer, was verified against satellite, aerial and street views freely available online from various providers. The final version of the map was obtained by also considering information obtained by field visits.

Keywords

• heritage
• vulnerability
• risk mapping