Seismic Vulnerability of Historical Constructions: A Contribution

Earthquakes are known to be natural hazards that have affected tremendously historical constructions. Unfortunately, as far as earthquake impacts are concerned, there are no world statistics to compare the suffering of populations or of the building stock and their evolution in time, with the damage inflicted to the stock of historical constructions. Lately, a great effort has been placed on engineering developments: (i) to better understand the seismic behaviour of historical construction and (ii) to assess the benefits of different techniques for reinforcing these structures. However, a great deal of discussion is still going on the type of reinforcement that should be applied, how effective it is and how much it costs. Research is needed for helping in these decisions, by providing a more precise framework in this field. The aim of this review is to make an overall insight on some of the available methods for assessing seismic vulnerability of historical constructions and on how to use them in the case of occurrence of an earthquake. Given this occurrence, the objective is to minimize the effects of aftershocks, avoid hurried demolition made under extreme pressure and help shore-up parts in risk of falling. The final aim is also to help in the definition of strategies for the repair of the damaged patrimony, or as a measure to prevent damage in future earthquakes for the most vulnerable cases. The paper is illustrated with the presentation of several examples published in the literature where the author participated. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.