Semi-quantitative seismic risk screening tool for existing buildings in Canada

Abstract

The National Research Council Canada (NRC) recently developed a semi-quantitative seismic risk screening tool (SQST) for existing buildings in Canada. The SQST aims to supersede the Manual for Screening of Buildings for Seismic Investigation developed by NRC in the early 1990s. The SQST consists of three key components: (1) a structural scoring system that quantitatively assesses the structural seismic risk based on probability of collapse; (2) a non-structural component scoring system that qualitatively assesses the seismic risk of non-structural components based on seismic demand; and (3) a ranking procedure that prioritizes potentially hazardous buildings for seismic evaluations and possible upgrading. The SQST intends to inexpensively identify and exempt buildings with acceptable life safety risk and optimize the allocation of resources to assess the seismic risk of portfolios of buildings. Seismic screening with the SQST can be completed with either paper-based screening forms or a web-based application. The applicability of the SQST is demonstrated by conducting a pilot study for 33 existing buildings across Canada.

Earthquake economic loss assessment of existing concrete shear wall residential buildings in Eastern Canada

“…9,35 To define seismic design levels for Canadian buildings, a comprehensive approach has been used according to Level 2 of the Canadian NRC-SQST-part 2 guideline and related conducted studies. 16,19,[36][37][38] In NRC-SQST-part 2, two different editions for building codes are considered as threshold versions: "pre-code edition" and "benchmark NBC edition." Although specific seismic provisions for strength and ductility were not adopted in the "pre-code edition," the "benchmark NBC edition" includes substantial improvements in seismic design requirements.…”

“…It includes information about building-specific seismic parameters for buildings, technical guidelines for seismic screening, and improving the performance of existing buildings. 18,19 Despite those mentioned central works in the field of seismic risk assessment, there are some recent studies with the concentration of loss estimation that have been conducted on the regional scale. [20][21][22][23][24] These tools and documents facilitate the process of seismic risk assessment for seismic-prone communities and provide decision support guidance towards planning for emergency response and mitigation strategies.…”

An update on the seismic categorization for seismic risk assessment of existing Canadian buildings

“…This study presents an update on Motazedian (2017) and seismic categories in the NRC SRSTs (Fathi-Fazl et al 2018;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020a;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020b;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020c;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020d;Fathi-Fazl et al 2021) to develop the seismic categorization system for existing Canadian buildings in Canada and abroad with certain modifications. These modifications are needed because the NRC SRSTs determined S a thresholds for various seismic categories based on equivalent MMI-S a relationships using a set of MMI-PGV and PGV-S a relationships that are suitable only for Canada.…”

“…In 2018, NRC developed multi-level seismic risk screening tools (SRSTs) to assist building owners in efficiently assessing the seismic risk of existing Canadian buildings within their portfolios (Motazedian, 2017;Fathi-Fazl et al 2018;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020a;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020b;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020c;Fathi-Fazl et al 2020d;Fathi-Fazl et al 2021). The NRC SRSTs associated six seismic categories (very low, low, moderate, moderately high, high, and very high) with various MMI values.…”

“…It is noted that the NRC SRSTs were designed to exempt buildings in low seismicity categories from detailed seismic risk assessment. MMI V and MMI VI are the thresholds for no building damage and for light non-structural damage, respectively(Fathi-Fazl et al 2018;Fathi-Fazl et al 2021). Consequently, based on Table1, PGV values for building exemptions are limited to equal or slower than 0.1 m/s.…”