European building inventory framework

Increased resilience is a strategic objective of the European strategy for disaster management, particularly concerning the protection urban areas. For the assessment of the seismic resilience of urban areas, three components are essential: a description of the hazard, an inventory of the exposed assets and an accurate estimation of their vulnerability. Exposure data have been collected during the national housing censuses and within the framework of research projects dealing with seismic risk or with the energy performance of buildings. These sources of information are reviewed with focus on the building characteristics of interest for seismic risk assessment and the space resolution. The inventories compiled within research projects contain data aggregated at the level of countries, which is not sufficient for seismic risk assessment. They were inferred from a variety of sources that present notable divergences and they do not account for the distribution of buildings in small geographical units, which is proven to influence the loss estimates. On the other hand, housing censuses cover the important building features for several countries and may be aggregated at the desired geographical areas. However, a significant effort is required to collect and elaborate the census data.JRC.G.4-European laboratory for structural assessmen

STREST – Exploitation plan

The present deliverable contains the detailed dissemination and exploitation plan of the project results, with particular emphasis on communicating to stakeholders and user communities addressing the outcomes of STREST on the enhancement of societal resilience through infrastructure stress tests. This deliverable presents the objectives of the dissemination activities, the identification of stakeholders and the detailed description of tasks concerning the use and dissemination of the STREST project foreground.JRC.G.4-European laboratory for structural assessmen

Preparation for call for proposals for access to ELSA

The JRC Strategy 2030 for ‘Infrastructure fit for purpose’ includes an action to open up JRC’s research infrastructure to external use. This will give European research and business organisations access to equipment that they would not normally have. It will also raise the value and visibility of DG JRC’s research infrastructures. ELSA-OPEN is a pilot project of this action that will make available to researchers and industry the ELSA reaction wall and the HOPLAB facilities. Access will be granted through open calls and proposals will be evaluated by a selection panel, considering a set priority topics and other criteria. This report gives an overview of the facilities, the framework for access and the procedure and timetable for the submission and evaluation of proposals and the execution of accepted proposals.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

The evolution of Eurocodes for bridge design

This report presents the national experience in the implementation of the Eurocodes for the design of bridges along with a structured work plan for their evolution. Based on feedback collected from National Contacts, it appears that despite difficulties encountered in the process of national calibration, the implementation of the Eurocodes for bridge design is advanced and that there is high potential for further harmonization. The report also presents a five-year project to support the evolution of the Eurocodes for the design of bridges that was prepared by CEN/TC250 Horizontal Group “Bridges”. Based on experience and on the feedback collected from National Contacts, a priority list of items to consider for future development has been compiled, whereas specific topics and research needs to underpin the proposed work have been identified. The project will integrate research results and guidelines that are already available and will harmonise national initiatives.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen

Seismic resilience: concept, metrics and integration with other hazards

Resilience is a new approach in earthquake engineering that introduces the time dimension to cover the post-event recovery phase. It also broadens the scope beyond the single structure, to systems and communities. In the wider sense, resilience incorporates technical, organization, social, economic and environmental issues. The current goal of minimising casualties, economic and functionality loss, is extended to the requirement for the affected community or system to return to ‘normal’ conditions within the shortest possible time. This report covers both conceptual and operational aspects of seismic resilience. It presents mathematical expressions used for the quantification of resilience, together with single- and multi-dimensional functionality measures for assets and systems. Moreover, it deals with interdependencies between systems, uncertainties, and multiple hazards and events. In view of the establishment of a common methodology for resilience assessment, topics that need to be further investigated include the definition of boundaries in relation to space, time and the aspects to consider in resilience assessment, the collection and dissemination of data, the calibration of recovery functions on existing data and the validation of methods through application to real-life complex systems.JRC.G.4-European laboratory for structural assessmen

Guidelines for typology definition of European physical assets for earthquake risk assessment

It is an essential step in urban earthquake risk assessment to compile inventory databases of elements at risk and to make a classification on the basis of pre-defined typology/taxonomy definitions. Typology definitions and the classification system should reflect the vulnerability characteristics of the systems at risk, e.g. buildings, lifeline networks, transportation infrastructures, etc., as well as of their sub-components in order to ensure a uniform interpretation of data and risk analyses results. In this report, a summary of literature review of existing classification systems and taxonomies of the European physical assets at risk is provided in Chapter 2. The identified main typologies and the classification of the systems and their sub-components, i.e. SYNER-G taxonomies, for Buildings, Utility Networks, Transportation Infrastructures and Critical Facilities are presented in Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen

SERA – CEN/TC 250/SC 8 workshop on seismic hazard

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission organised a workshop on seismic hazard assessment, together with SERA partners and experts from CEN/TC 250/SC 8, which is responsible for the development of Eurocode 8, within the SERA communication activities. The objectives of the workshop were to provide first-hand insights on the outputs of SERA, integrate SERA activities with other scientific efforts in the field and ensure a widely accepted basis for the development of the new European Seismic Hazard Model. The workshop was attended by about 40 participants, including SERA partners, experts and national delegates in CEN/TC 250/SC 8, researchers, academics and practitioners with experience in seismic hazard assessment. SERA and CEN/TC 250/SC 8 agreed to further enhance collaboration with the objective of optimizing efforts and results in order to ensure consistency of requirements and outputs, and investigate the means for Eurocode 8 to take profit of the research performed by SERA to advance towards a harmonised European seismic zonation.JRC.E.4-Safety and Security of Building

Enhancing the collaboration of earthquake engineering research infrastructures

Towards stronger international collaboration of earthquake engineering research infrastructures International collaboration and mobility of researchers is a means for maximising the efficiency of use of research infrastructures. The European infrastructures are committed to widen joint research and access to their facilities. This is relevant to European framework for research and innovation, the single market and the competitiveness of the construction industry.JRC.G.4-European laboratory for structural assessmen

The Molise (Italy) Earthquakes of 31 October and 1 November 2002. Report and Analysis froma Field Mission.

Abstract not availableJRC.G-Institute for the Protection and the Security of the Citizen (Ispra

Eurocodes Promotion in Third Countries

The work reported is a deliverable within the framework of the Administrative Arrangement between DG ENTR and JRC on support to the implementation, harmonization and further development of the Eurocodes. The document addresses the need to coordinate the activities on the international promotion of the Eurocodes at the Community level and proposes a strategy and an initial programme for their coordinated promotion in third countries. The goals and interests of the stakeholders in the international promotion of the Eurocodes are analysed. Their convergence naturally calls for the setting up of a framework for coordinated promotion of the Eurocodes in third countries. The coordinated actions will provide considerable benefits to the stakeholders through: Putting into operation common implementation strategy, tools and resources, Organizing joint missions involving more than one stakeholder, and Making the most effective use of the co-financing instruments available at the Community level. A methodology for promotion of the Eurocodes in third countries is proposed, which aims at a better use of the resources available and tailored the promotion actions according to the needs of the individual countries. The methodology encompasses: The approach and the tools necessary for coordinated international promotion, The identification of target groups within a country, The involvement of organisations/individuals interested in the international promotion.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen