ASSESSING SEISMIC RISK IN RETFALA NOVA, OSIJEK
The Croatian territory, as part of the Mediterranean-trans-Asiatic belt, experiences pronounced earthquake activity. Seismic risk is the expected damage caused by earthquakes to buildings, measured both in social and economic losses, which can be described through seismic hazard, seismic vulnerability, and exposure. The city of Osijek is located in the eastern part of Croatia, and Retfala Nova is a residential settlement in the western part of the city. An important step in assessing earthquake loss is defining the exposure, so we created a form used to collect information on buildings and make a building database. In this paper, we estimated seismic vulnerability based on the capacity spectrum method, which involves constructing fragility curves and converting them to damage probability matrices, as well as constructing capacity curves.
Measures for the earthquake risk reduction in the City of Zagreb, Croatia
The ongoing study on earthquake risk reduction conducted in collaboration with the City of Zagreb is presented in this paper. Zagreb is the capital of the Republic of Croatia, with almost 20% of country population. It is located in the seismically active zone. Most of the residential units were designed according for seismic loads that are significantly lower than those in currently valid seismic codes (Eurocode 8). Therefore, an earthquake poses a great hazard for the city. Zagreb building stock data have been very limited, but the new project proposal for a comprehensive study on Zagreb seismic risk, including the establishment of the building inventory, is currently awaiting approval. In the scope of the process, necessary screening forms for buildings and bridges were proposed. Faced with many unknowns regarding the building inventory, in this project phase the focus was on local specific buildings and buildings of great importance for the City, which were analyzed in detail. Preliminary vulnerability assessment was performed using proposed forms developed in the study. In the next step, performance of selected structures was evaluated, based on numerical models and experimental testing. It was found that verification and calibration of numerical models based on testing was essential for some specific buildings. Preliminary results were obtained and damage was estimated according to EMS-98, and critical structural elements for all analyzed buildings were also detected.
A disaster risk management performance index
The Risk Management Index, RMI, proposed in this paper, brings together a group of indicators that measure risk management performance and effectiveness. These indicators reflect the organizational, development, capacity and institutional actions taken to reduce vulnerability and losses in a given area, to prepare for crisis and to recover efficiently from disasters. This index is designed to assess risk management performance. It provides a quantitative measure of management based on predefined qualitative targets or benchmarks that risk management efforts should aim to achieve. The design of the RMI involved establishing a scale of achievement levels or determining the distance between current conditions and an objective threshold or conditions in a reference country, sub-national region, or city. The proposed RMI is constructed by quantifying four public policies, each of which is described by six indicators. The mentioned policies include the identification of risk, risk reduction, disaster management, and governance and financial protection. Risk identification comprises the individual perception, social representation and objective assessment; risk reduction involves the prevention and mitigation; disaster management comprises response and recovery; and, governance and financial protection policy is related to institutionalization and risk transfer. Results at the urban, national and sub-national levels, which illustrate the application of the RMI in those scales, are finally given.