Seismic Risk Prioritization of Masonry Buildings Using the First-Level Approaches for Vulnerability Assessment

Abstract

This paper aims to determine the seismic risk distribution of old masonry buildings located inGalata, the historical region of İstanbul. In order to obtain seismic risk prioritization of the built environment,the seismic vulnerability assessment of 40 old masonry buildings was carried out according to both theVulnerability Index Method (VIM) based on the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS-98) and the procedure inthe Specifications for Determination of Seismically Vulnerable Buildings (SDSVB 2019). In the first part of thestudy, using the building data gathered by the screening process on site, the vulnerability scores (VS)comprising the structural and non-structural parameters were obtained and the performance score (PS) of eachbuilding was calculated according to SDSVB 2019. Depending on the results, in order to determine the seismicpriority levels, the buildings were ranked from the lowest to the highest performance score and classified interms of their structural vulnerability. Then, in the second part of the study, the vulnerability index (VI) for eachbuilding was determined depending on the building parameters affecting the structural vulnerabilities. On thebasis of vulnerability indexes, damage grades of the buildings were estimated, and accordingly, the damagedistribution was acquired for the building stock. Additionally, the seismic risk distribution maps were compiledfor the building inventory according to the findings achieved from both methodologies. As a result of this study,the differences between the two first-level procedures were outlined with a comparative assessment, therebydemonstrating the importance of seismic risk prioritization of the historic built environment for city-scale riskmanagement strategies.