Multi-parameter Vulnerability Analysis of Settlement-Affected Masonry Buildings with Shallow/Piled Foundations

Abstract

The paper presents a probabilistic analysis aimed at identifying the most appropriate subsidence related intensity (SRI) parameter (e.g., differential settlement, relative rotation, deflection ratio) that can be used to forecast the severity level of building damage at municipal scale through the generation of empirical fragility and vulnerability curves. The analysis refers to a rich sample of more than seven hundred monitored (by remote sensing techniques) and surveyed masonry buildings – mainly resting with their (shallow or piled) foundations on highly compressible fine-grained “soft soils” – affected by settlements in four urban areas in The Netherlands. The achieved outcomes, once further calibrated and validated, could allow for an improvement of existing geotechnical damage criteria for buildings as well as help local authorities in charge of the management/protection of subsiding urban areas to plan adequate foundation repairing/replacing measures before damage reaches intolerable severity levels.