This study evaluates the impact of varying bedrock depths on local site amplification factors and their consequent influence on the vulnerability of buildings under seismic actions. An index-based methodology is implemented to analyze the seismic vulnerability of old masonry buildings in the historic center of Galata, & Idot;stanbul. As part of a site-specific analysis, soil models are developed to replicate a dipping bedrock at six different depths varying between 5 and 30 m beneath the ground surface. Consequently, potential damage scenarios are generated employing a seismic attenuation relation and damage distributions are compared for the cases with/without amplification effects. The findings point out that, the structural response undergoes the greatest amplification at a bedrock depth of 20 m, exceeding 1.6 and attaining its maximum value of 2.89 at the structural period of 0.22 s. The maximum shift in damage grades occurs for buildings with natural periods between 0.16 and 0.20 s on 15 m bedrock depth, whereas, for longer periods, the greatest increase occurs at 20 m bedrock depth compared to the scenarios without site amplification. As a result, this study emphasizes the significance of site-specific conditions that might amplify structural response and consequently, increase the seismic damage level in assessing the vulnerability of built heritage. By integrating geo-hazard-based evaluation into the large-scale seismic assessments, this study offers a framework for more accurate damage forecasting and highlights the need to include local site amplification effects in seismic risk mitigation plans, enhancing strategies for preserving built heritage.

The current Indian Standard Seismic Code IS 1893: Part 1 (2016) for general buildings lacks detailed guidelines on modeling soil-structure interaction (SSI) in the estimation of seismic demand and earthquake-induced damage in reinforced concrete buildings. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of SSI, with a focus on its nonlinear behavior, on the seismic demand of ductile reinforced concrete frames designed as per IS 1893: Part 1. The selected RC buildings are designed for second-highest seismic risk zone in India and represent short, medium, and long-period structures commonly found across Indian sub-continent. The influence of SSI is studied for soil type II and type III, as specified in the Indian Code, which corresponds to medium stiff and soft soil sites, respectively. Using a nonlinear Winkler-based model, numerical finite element models of linear and nonlinear SSI have been developed for isolated shallow foundations. This study utilizes the results of incremental dynamic analysis to evaluate the fragility parameters for code specified performance limit states. Further, the estimated fragility parameters are integrated with the regional hazard curve coefficients to quantify the annual exceedance probability of specified damage levels. The simulation results highlight the critical impact of nonlinear SSI on the earthquake resilience of IS code designed low- to high-rise reinforced concrete buildings. Notably, the percentage increase in estimated fragilities is higher for low-rise buildings than high-rise buildings when subjected to ground motions on soil sites. Additionally, the vulnerability to failure of these buildings elevates significantly when they are analyzed on soft soil sites compared to medium soil and bedrock sites. Therefore, it is recommended to account for the significance of nonlinear SSI while assessing the expected structural performance and fragility of IS 1893: Part 1 designed stiff low- to medium-rise reinforced concrete buildings, as this step can substantially enhance the resiliency of such buildings in the aftermath of a disastrous earthquake.

The 2018 Sulawesi Earthquake and Tsunami serves as a backdrop for this work, which employs simple and straightforward remote sensing techniques to determine the extent of the destruction and indirectly evaluate the region's vulnerability to such catastrophic events. Documenting damage from tsunamis is only meaningful shortly after the disaster has occurred because governmental agencies clean up debris and start the recovery process within a few hours after the destruction has occurred, deeming impact estimates unreliable. Sentinel-2 and Maxar WorldView-3 satellite images were used to calculate well-known environmental indices to delineate the tsunami-affected areas in Palu, Indonesia. The use of NDVI, NDSI, and NDWI indices has allowed for a quantifiable measure of the changes in vegetation, soil moisture, and water bodies, providing a clear demarcation of the tsunami's impact on land cover. The final tsunami inundation map indicates that the areas most affected by the tsunami are found in the urban center, low-lying regions, and along the coast. This work charts the aftermath of one of Indonesia's recent tsunamis but may also lay the groundwork for an easy, handy, and low-cost approach to quickly identify tsunami-affected zones. While previous studies have used high-resolution remote sensing methods such as LiDAR or SAR, our study emphasizes accessibility and simplicity, making it more feasible for resource-constrained regions or rapid disaster response. The scientific novelty lies in the integration of widely used environmental indices (dNDVI, dNDWI, and dNDSI) with threshold-based Decision Tree classification to delineate tsunami-affected areas. Unlike many studies that rely on advanced or proprietary tools, we demonstrate that comparable results can be achieved with cost-effective open-source data and straightforward methodologies. Additionally, we address the challenge of differentiating tsunami impacts from other phenomena (et, liquefaction) through index-based thresholds and propose a framework that is adaptable to other vulnerable coastal regions.

The present study proposes a rapid visual screening methodology for multi-hazard vulnerability assessment (termed as MH-RVS) of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in the Indian Himalayan region considering earthquakes, debris flow, debris flood, and soil subsidence. An extensive field survey of 1200 buildings was conducted in three hill towns situated in the Northwestern Indian Himalayan region to identify prevalent multi-hazard vulnerability attributes. The presented MH-RVS methodology is statistically developed based on the information obtained from the current field survey and existing post-hazard reconnaissance studies. The proposed methodology effectively addresses the concern of underpredicting the expected damage states of RC buildings situated in hilly regions subjected to multi-hazard scenarios when they are assessed using RVS methodologies of seismic vulnerability assessment. Further, a simplified MH-RVS form is developed to collect field data and conveniently segregate the RC buildings based on their expected damage state under multi-hazard scenarios involving earthquakes, debris flow, debris flood, and soil subsidence. Stakeholders and decision-makers can use the proposed MH-RVS methodology to assess the perceived vulnerability of RC buildings in the Indian Himalayan region and devise timely strategies for structural strengthening and risk mitigation.

Tropical cyclone is a natural disaster phenomenon that is considered one of the main challenges for human populations in many countries across the globe. This study investigates the Tropical Cyclone Shaheen that hit Oman on October 3, 2021, causing severe damage near Muscat and Al-Batinah governorates. Herein, we focused on developing an integrative method using remote sensing and GIS to understand the streams' physical characteristics and the main factors that influence flood damage. The results showed that the cyclone had severe impacts on the study area, especially on the urban and agricultural areas. It was illustrated that the disturbance level differed within the study site, as the highest disturbance occurred in zone C where vegetation coverage decreased by 27% and urban areas by 5%. This zone had dam but still showed the highest amount of water flooding, illustrating that the dam couldn't prevent the flood due to the differences in the physical characteristics of the streams between the different zones. It was also illustrated from the results that variation in the degree of damage was associated with the physical characteristics of the streams, including the length of the stream, the number of stream sub-orders, stream depth, slope degree, and the soil type. Also, locations dominated by loamy and clayey soils with high, steep slopes had a great influence on the water movement, leading to a higher level of disturbance. We concluded that the discovered lines of evidence on the stream's physical characteristics in this study, including the combination of the examined stream's physical factors, could help predict the level of future cyclone risks.

Cliff-attached structures are structures attached to slopes and connected tightly, which is particularly complex to analyze due to the foundations' unequal grounding and the lateral stiffness' irregularity. In rare earthquakes, seismic waves are usually obliquely incident on the foundation at a certain angle. Therefore, it is not appropriate to consider only seismic waves' vertical incidence, and it is necessary to consider multi-angle oblique incidence. In this paper, based on the theory of viscous-spring artificial boundary and the principle of equivalent nodes at the interface of oblique incidence of ground shaking P-waves, and combined with the dynamic properties related to Buckling-Restrained Brace, the numerical models of slopes and two kinds of cliff-attached structures considering the slope amplification effect and soil-structure interaction are established. The dynamic response of the obliquely incident seismic waves under the action of the cliff-attached vibration reduction structure is studied in depth, and the additional effective damping ratios of the nonlinear energy-dissipated units based on the deformation energy are compared and analyzed. It is shown that under the four oblique incidence angles of incidence (compression waves in the vertical plane) studied in this paper, the seismic dynamic response and damage degree peaked at an angle of incidence of 60 degrees, with a tendency to increase and then decrease with increasing angles of incidence. The ability of an energy-dissipating vibration reduction device to change structural vibration characteristics decreases with an increase in incidence angle. The difference between the total strain energy of the structure in the X-direction (Transverse slope direction) and Y-direction (Down-slope direction) and the total energy dissipation of the dissipative components is obvious, with the X-direction being about 10 times that of the Y-direction.

This study discusses the effects of local sites and hazard amplification on the seismic vulnerability assessment of existing masonry buildings. In this context, a rapid seismic evaluation procedure was implemented on an old masonry building stock in the historical center Galata, located in Istanbul, to determine the seismic risk priority of the built heritage. Damage scenarios were generated for all soil classes, different moment magnitudes, and source-to-site distances to obtain more accurate results for the seismic vulnerability assessment of the studied building stock. Consequently, damage distributions estimated under nine different scenarios with/without site effects were compared and illustrated in maps to discuss changes in vulnerability owing to amplification effects. In this study, by re-examining the rapid seismic evaluation procedure by including geo-hazard-based assessment, the importance of site effects on the vulnerability and risk assessment of built heritage was underlined. The proposed framework integrating field data and local site effects is believed to advance the current applications for vulnerability assessment of masonry buildings and provide an improvement in the application of rapid seismic assessment procedures with more reliable results.

This study analyzes the progression, utilization, and inherent challenges of traditional non-linear static procedures (NSPs) such as the capacity spectrum method, the displacement coefficient method, and the N2 method for evaluating seismic performance in structures. These methods, along with advanced versions such as multi-mode, modal, adaptive, and energy-based pushover analysis, help determine seismic demands, enriching our grasp on structural behaviors and guiding design choices. While these methods have improved accuracy by considering major vibration modes, they often fall short in addressing intricate aspects such as bidirectional responses, torsional effects, soil-structure interplay, and variations in displacement coefficients. Nevertheless, NSPs offer a more comprehensive and detailed analysis compared to rapid visual screening methods, providing a deeper understanding of potential vulnerabilities and more accurate predictions of structural performance. Their efficiency and reduced computational demands, compared to the comprehensive nonlinear response history analysis (NLRHA), make NSPs a favored tool for engineers aiming for swift seismic performance checks. Their accuracy and application become crucial when gauging seismic risks and potential damage across multiple structures. This paper underscores the ongoing refinements to these methods, reflecting the sustained attention they receive from both industry professionals and researchers.