Restored Quality of Life-based approach (REQUALIFE) for urban seismic resilience assessment: Case study

Abstract

Management of urban seismic resilience relies on effective assessment approaches. However, developing an approach for the quantitative assessment at the urban scale remains to be a challenging task due to the complexity and heterogeneity of urban systems. Accordingly, Part I proposed a Restored Quality of Life-based approach to bridge this gap. As an extension of Part I, this study conducted a case study on a test city in China that experienced the devastating Wenchuan earthquake in 2008 to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The desired and actual performance curves of the city were delineated according to the collected data and materials of the field survey. The overall urban seismic resilience of the city was then assessed, and details from the temporal and spatial dimensions were investigated. The case study demonstrated that the need satisfactions of residents in different phases varied. Moreover, the resilience differences within the city were demonstrated. The causes for these differences were further analyzed. This case study calibrates the proposed approach and serves as a valuable reference for the effective assessment and improvement of urban seismic resilience.