Sustainable structural intervention methodology for vulnerable buildings from a lifecycle perspective

Abstract

The frequency of disasters recorded around the globe, combined with inadequate enforcement of design codes, the natural deterioration of the existing built fabric and poor use of land due to rapid urbanisation make urban infrastructure vulnerable to experience damage. This eventually creates the need for building retrofitting, which triggers further environmental degradation. Furthermore, the lack of a well-defined approach to guarantee sustainable structural recovery derives on structural interventions focusing on strengthening elements to improve their performance only, hence ignoring the plethora of building deficiencies associated to post-disaster retrofit. The aim of this investigation is therefore to embed structural upgrading within the principles of sustainability while developing the metrics to enable structural damage reduction. This will contribute to optimising post-disaster building interventions. The proposed approach is applied to a pilot case to illustrate identified alternatives for improving the performance of otherwise vulnerable infrastructure from a life-cycle perspective.