Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Methodology for Historical Buildings with Cultural Value

Banat seismic region represents the second most important seismic area of Romania. The area is characterized by shallow earthquakes, with a peak ground acceleration ag=0,20g [1]. The city was influenced by several architectural styles, keeping until nowadays many valuable masonry historical buildings. Most of the historical buildings present severe decay due to the lack of proper maintenance over time. Timisoara was selected to be European Capital of Culture 2021, so the buildings in the historical districts are expected to be visited by a large amount of tourists. This paper presents the seismic vulnerability assessment of two of the most important historical urban districts of Timisoara. The evaluation is based on existing Italian vulnerability assessment methodology [2], following on-site investigation. Moreover, there is considered also the influence of the cultural value of the historical buildings. Following a set of new proposed architectural-artistic, urbanistic and social-economic factors, there was developed a new investigation form, presented and explained in the paper [1]. In the end, the authors present a detailed empirical seismic vulnerability assessment influenced by the cultural value for historical masonry buildings in Timisoara city, Romania. This study could help the local authorities to realize prioritization lists for rehabilitation work, considering first the historical buildings that are the most important for the local community identity. The cultural value and the history of a city must be well known and promoted

RESILIENCE OF HISTORIC CITIES AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE

In recent years the interest for the resilience of cities and historic urban centers is growing. Climate change is one of the challenges of this century and it is having a great impact on the society and economy of cities and buildings. According to climate change scenarios cities will have to face frequent extreme events in the future years, like droughts, heat waves, abundant precipitations or snowfalls. However, there are little studies that try to analyze the effects from different points of view and to find a solution that can have an impact on buildings, the city environment as well as on the well being of the society. Therefore this article proposes a complex assessment and intervention strategy based on the case study of Oravita, a small mountain town from the western part of Romania, that will improve the resilience of the city trough a multidisciplinary approach. The aim is to understand and to adapt the historic city to the contemporary climatic needs by an interdisciplinary holistic understanding of the context through different professional views: architectural, landscape architecture, historical, engineering, social, economical and geographical