Seismic fragility curves for the European building stock : review and evaluation of existing fragility curves

Earthquakes continue to represent a serious threat for some European countries, particularly for Mediterranean bordering countries, where these events have been triggering significant destruction and loss over the last decades. Despite the unpredictable nature of earthquakes, seismic risk assessment should be addressed having in mind the main cause of damage, which is related to the inadequate seismic resistance of the existing structures such as residential, industrial or cultural heritage buildings. A literature review on the existing methodologies for deriving fragility curves suitable to the European building stock is herein presented. Even though a brief overview of all the existing approaches for deriving fragility curves is made, this report focuses on analytical fragility curves and discusses the most relevant features inherently associated with the computation of these curves. Additionally, these methodologies are qualitatively evaluated by means of different sets of criteria. With this report it is intended to provide a clear insight about the main differences between existing analytical methodologies for deriving fragility curves, highlighting as well some of their most important advantages and drawbacks. The proposed evaluation criteria can be used further on to help not only on the selection of the most suitable fragility curves for a given geographical location and structural typology, but also for the further comparison and validation of fragility curves.