Risk Uncertainty Quantification for Various Occupancy Classes Using Stochastic Ground Motion

Abstract

Seismic events are amongst the natural hazards that are known to produce excessive economic losses and human casualties throughout history. Seismic risk can be observed as a function of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. While hazard and exposure are dependent on the site of interest and are unchangeable, studies on vulnerability can help in reducing the seismic risk by adopting retrofitting methods. One of the features that affect the damage and loss characteristics of a building is its occupancy class (commercial, residential, educational, hospitals etc.). The occupancy class of a building mainly affects the number and severity of the casualties as well as the contents damage produced during a seismic event. This work aims to compare the damage and loss properties, i.e., the number of casualties, the economic loss and the damage in properties along with the associated uncertainty of buildings having various occupancy classes by considering a single building model type and subjecting them to a set of stochastic ground motions. All building occupancy classes are according to HAZUS-MH. Normalized losses and injuries are computed using Performance Based Engineering (PBE) workflow developed by Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI).