Aspects on the measures applied at national level for the safety of vulnerable building stock in Bucharest Municipality

Abstract

The seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings is an essential tool to describe the seismic safety of structures to be used in disaster preparedness, loss estimation, planning and prioritizing investments for building retrofitting. The seismic vulnerability depends mainly on human action, the way buildings were protected at seismic action and on their economic value. The vulnerability also depends on the degree of decay and the decrease in resistance of the structures, resulting from repeated exposure to various environmental factors. The overall trend is to increase the vulnerability over time, this being associated both with the increase in the market value of upgraded buildings which may be seriously damaged and also with the decrease of their structural resistance. The article provides an overview of the building stock in terms of seismic risk and a summary of the measures taken by the public authorities to assess seismic vulnerability and seismic risk mitigation to existing buildings in Bucharest. A synthesis of the actions focused on the development of strategies, policies and plans at national level to streamline seismic risk reduction efforts is also presented.

Keywords

• seismic vulnerability
• technical assessment
• seismic risk classes