Are Cities of Northern Europe at Risk ?

Abstract

A benchmark study on seimic risk has been realised on Liege, Belgium, at the request of the Regional Authority. Its main interest is that it deals with the seismic risk of a city in a low seismicity region. The work involves a hazard study based on the recently defined map of seismicity of Belgium, the definition of the individual vulnerability of buildings, the combination of hazard and vulnerability to define risk and static evaluations of connecting details in non engineered structures. For the evaluation of vulnerability, a simplified screening method has been defined. The main conclusion is that in regions where the Peak Ground Acceleration is higher than 0,1g and the building stock does not possess good structural quality, the seismic risk may be considered high.Peer reviewe