Showing papers on "Vulnerability index published in 1996"

Vulnerability of Bangladesh to Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

Abstract: The Government of Bangladesh, a signatory to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), sought to support the international community in understanding vulnerability to climate change and sea level rise and, at the same time, to formulate ways to mitigate the hazards and find modalities in developing institutions to deal with coastal zones. A pilot study of vulnerability was commissioned under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Coastal Zone Management Subgroup (CZMS). One of the objectives of the pilot study was to develop tools and techniques for use by the Government of Bangladesh for future coastal resource planning and management. Another objective was to identify both the policies and the technical capacity that will be needed within Bangladesh in order to deal with climate change related issues and problems on an ongoing basis.

Simulación de escenarios de daño sísmico en zonas urbanas

Abstract: SUMMARY A methodology to perform a damage simulation procedure for existing non-reinforced masonry buildings in an urban zone is presented in this paper. By simulating the behaviour of thousands of hypothetical buildings and performing probabilistic studies of the computed results, damage probability matrices and vulnerability functions are obtained, which ;%re the bases for vulnerability and seimic risk evaluations. The fundamentals of the presented methodology are the italian vulnerability index and the results of a post-earthquake survey damage study. As an example, an urban zone of Barcelona is examinated and probable damage scenarios are developped.

Managing a Seismic Vulnerability Database

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the possibility of exporting, to different national situations, the Italian experience in assembling and exploiting the level-II seismic vulnerability database made available for masonry buildings. It focuses on the collection of the data that are required to assemble the database and on the procedure for consulting it. An expert system need to fulfill two requirements to drive such operations: it must be able to detect operator mistakes and to check the global consistency of the data. The chapter emphasizes the benefit of consulting the database for optimizing the rehabilitation design of existing masonry buildings. The aftershock update of the database via causal probabilistic networks is discussed as well. Local governments and the Italy Group of Earthquake Mitigation (GNDT) of the National Research Council (CNR) sponsored the survey regarding the Italian vulnerability database for masonry buildings. These data cover the building type and the material characterization in the different administrative areas, the result being a statistical description of the vulnerability index for a given building type. The evaluation of the vulnerability index is pursued through a heuristic approach that exploits the available expertise and simple structural mechanics schemes. The method of classifying masonry buildings in seismic area makes use of a numerical value, called the “vulnerability index”. It represents the seismic quality of each building and is obtained as a weighted sum of the numerical values expressing the quality of the structural and non-structural elements of interest collected in the level-II vulnerability form.