MULTIRES · MULTI-level framework to enhance seismic RESilience of RC buildings
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-11-01 → 2021-10-31
- EU contribution
- €212,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
MULTI-level framework to enhance seismic RESilience of RC buildings
Among all natural hazards, earthquakes lead to the highest number of fatalities and, after severe storms, cause the second highest annual economic losses. This is not only true worldwide, but also for Europe. Although there is increasing earthquake risk awareness among the public and policy-makers in many European countries, there is a dire need to develop holistic strategies for mitigating and managing seismic risk. Among European construction types built from 1960s onwards, RC buildings represent the highest share for both residential and commercial occupancy. A seismic-resilient community is one which is leading comprehensive efforts towards mitigation and pre-disaster preparedness to recover quickly after major earthquakes. Common metrics related to seismic resilience refer to earthquake consequences on the built environment in terms of casualties/injuries, direct economic losses due to repairs/reconstruction, and indirect losses due to downtime related to the lost functionality (the so-called three Ds: Deaths, Dollars, Downtime). Seismic resilience can be increased, for instance, by implementing structural retrofit strategies that reduce seismic vulnerability/expected damage to buildings (‘hard’ solutions) or, for instance, by transferring the risk to the (re)insurance market (‘soft’ solutions). This requires assessing the site-specific earthquake-induced ground shaking (seismic hazard), quantifying building response, estimating earthquake consequences (loss), designing and comparing different resilience-enhancing strategies. The ambitious main objective of MULTIRES is the development of a multi-level, harmonised, innovative, seismic risk assessment framework for existing RC buildings (individual or portfolios) and the design, selection and implementation of practice-oriented, cost-effective, resilience-enhancing solutions.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
MULTIRES aims to develop an advanced, harmonised, multi-level framework to assess earthquake risk of existing Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in earthquake-prone regions and to design/select practice-oriented, cost-effective, seismic resilience-enhancing solutions (e.g. structural retrofit, risk-transfer products). The framework will benefit several seismic-prone countries (e.g. Greece, Italy, Romania), for which most of the existing buildings are designed according to pre-seismic codes and where RC buildings represent the highest share from 1960s onwards (e.g. 48% in Italy). Two levels of analysis refinement will be considered, single buildings vs. building portfolios, specifically tailored to the expected needs/goals of different stakeholders: building owners and government agencies/(re)insurance companies. A coherent treatment of risk and uncertainty in each project’s task will promote dynamic and informed decision-making aiming at seismic resilience. MULTIRES builds on the probabilistic catastrophe risk modelling expertise of the Earthquake and People Interaction Centre (EPICentre) at the University College London (UCL), UK – the Host Institution - and seismic performance assessment of existing RC building expertise of the Fellow. State of the art/practice will be advanced providing flexible analysis methods for fragility and vulnerability assessment and their implementation tools (e.g. guidelines, computer codes). The framework will be applied to a large-scale building portfolio in Italy, where the Fellow and the Supervisor have strong links with local stakeholders, thus ensuring availability of data, knowledge transfer and true impact of the research on local communities. Through world-leading research training and co-development, the project will contribute to create a holistic culture of risk awareness and resilience in Europe, reflecting a strong commitment to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union