Earthquake Engineering – Reconnaissance and Assessment of Existing Buildings

Abstract

Most existing built infrastructure, especially historical monuments, has not been designed in accordance with earthquake resistant standards. Earthquake engineering as a specific field of science and practice has only been developed over the past fifty years. Therefore, many buildings across the globe need to be inspected and to be assessed in order to determine their resistance against earthquakes based on today's knowledge. Based on safety standards and a risk assessment, the earthquake engineer provides information to the owner as to use the building in the future in order to fulfill economic as well as safety demands. This paper outlines the inspection procedure, defines the methodology of reconnaissance on site and describes the subsequent assessment of buildings from the practical point of view.