Simplified evaluation of seismic vulnerability of early 20th century masonry buildings in Lisbon

This paper evaluates the seismic behaviour of a group of masonry buildings through the application of a simplified method. The method is based on the definition of a vulnerability index supported on few characteristics of the buildings and provides an estimation of the expected damage on the buildings as a function of the intensity of the seismic action. The application of the method to a large group of buildings enables to conduct loss estimation studies to support seismic risk management. In this work, the method was applied to an aggregate of old masonry buildings in Lisbon. An overview of the procedure and its inherent uncertainties is presented. In the future, this method will be calibrated based on the results from detailed analytical models of the buildings. Then, the study would give an important contribution to generalize and apply the procedure to other aggregates of masonry buildings in Lisbon and to conduct a city scale seismic assessment.