In this study, we performed seismic vulnerability assessment and mapping of the ML5.8 Gyeongju Earthquake in Gyeongju, South Korea, as a case study. We applied logistic regression (LR) and four kernel models based on the support vector machine (SVM) learning method to derive suitable models for assessing seismic vulnerabilities; the results of each model were then mapped and evaluated. Dependent variables were quantified using buildings damaged in the 9.12 Gyeongju Earthquake, and independent variables were constructed and used as spatial databases by selecting 15 sub-indicators related to earthquakes. Success and prediction rates were calculated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The success rates of the models (LR, SVM models based on linear, polynomial, radial basis function, and sigmoid kernels) were 0.652, 0.649, 0.842, 0.998, and 0.630, respectively, and the prediction rates were 0.714, 0.651, 0.804, 0.919, and 0.629, respectively. Among the five models, RBF-SVM showed the highest performance. Seismic vulnerability maps were created for each of the five models and were graded as safe, low, moderate, high, or very high. Finally, we examined the distribution of building classes among the 23 administrative districts of Gyeongju. The common vulnerable regions among all five maps were Jungbu-dong and Hwangnam-dong, and the common safe region among all five maps was Gangdong-myeon.
