Calibration of a mechanics-based method for large-scale vulnerability assessment

This paper presents an analytical method for large-scale vulnerability assessment used in order to simulate damage scenarios corresponding to those observed during past earthquakes in Italy. The method, already published in the technical literature with the acronym SP-BELA (Simplified Pushover-Based Earthquake Loss Assessment), has been adopted to calculate the vulnerability of the Italian building stock classified as reinforced concrete and masonry buildings. The current paper describes the calibration of the method through the comparison of numerically calculated damage scenarios and data on observed damage collected during earthquakes occurred in Italy starting from the 1976 Friuli earthquake. The use of observed damage data allowed to validate the method and to add reliability to the calculation of damage scenarios. The damage scenarios are useful to plan the emergency response immediately after an earthquake. Finally, a Web Geographical Interface System tool that implements SP-BELA to calculate seismic risk and real time damage scenario is presented.