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To support decision-making on upgrading strategies of historic city centres, loss estimation techniques are needed, suitable for application to masonry buildings. This paper describes the development and application of such techniques to a case study in the Alfama District of Lisbon. The project involved a survey of 200 buildings to investigate structural features and condition, mapped using a GIS system, followed by analysis of key collapse mechanisms to define static collapse loads under horizontal forces for each building. The results, obtained in terms of earthquake ground motions likely to produce equivalent damage, led to the development of vulnerability functions for the case study, verified by comparison with functions derived from statistical analysis of world-wide damage reports and with damage reports of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The method is used to predict the reduction in losses achieved by the introduction of low-cost unobtrusive strengthening techniques, such as tie-rods connecting facade walls to floors and cross-walls. Cost benefit analysis, considering only structural costs, indicates that the return on the investment would be considerable.

ISBN 9781 85339 182 8All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publishers.A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

On December 26, 2004 a great earthquake (M W 9.3) occurred off the western coast of Sumatra triggering a series of tsunami waves that propagated across the Indian Ocean causing damage and life loss in 12 countries. This paper summarizes the observations of lifeline performance, building damage and its distribution, and the social and economic impact of the tsunami made by the Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) in Thailand and Sri Lanka. EEFIT operates under the umbrella of the UK's Institution of Structural Engineers. It is observed that good engineering practice can reduce economic losses, but additional measures are required to reduce risk to life.

Earthquake damage data is of vital importance both as an indicator of the likely performance of buildings in future earthquakes, as well as for the calibration of existing theoretical-analytical models regarding building vulnerability. The analysis of damage data collected shortly after the August 14, 2003 Lefkada Island, Greece earthquake revealed the higher vulnerability of masonry buildings vis-à-vis all other building typologies on the island. However, promising means in strengthening the existing masonry stock emerge, when considering the improved performance of buildings of a dual-system of stone-masonry and timber frame -a construction practice uniquely adopted in the island. Based on the parameterless seismic intensity scale (psi) proposed by Spence et al. (1991) a set of preliminary vulnerability curves for the typologies of the island's buildings are proposed.