A study of damage scenarios for residential buildings in Catania city

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to obtain the damage scenario for residential buildings in the occurrence of a destructive earthquake (M= 7+) in the city area of Catania, Eastern Sicily, and to illustrate the comparative performance of two alternative methods used for this purpose. The methods are representative of two different approaches to estimating the seismic vulnerability of structures, i.e., an empirical approach based on statistical score assignments (widely used in Italy and other countries) and a more recent, mechanical approach that uses displacement limit states associated with well-defined thresholds of structural damage. A special concern for seismic vulnerability in Catania is caused by the fact that earthquake design norms were enforced in its municipal area only since 1981. We emphasise some typical problems encountered in earthquake scenario work, such as the difficulty of assembling a reliable building inventory, and the uncertainties inherent in the vulnerability assessments through different probabilistic assumptions. Different criteria for the representation of damage are applied and discussed. It is shown that the main scenarios obtained by the two methods are in reasonable agreement, provided a suitable percentile level for damage is chosen in the statistical score assignment approach.