Seismic vulnerability assessment of historical buildings in Sofia: A multi-Methodological approach

The proposed research aims to estimate the seismic vulnerability of historical buildings in a district of Sofia, Bulgaria. Initially, a sample of buildings was selected, and an inventory was created based on their structural and typological characteristic using the Italian CARTIS form and the EMS-98 scale. Following this, a comprehensive vulnerability assessment of the built environment was conducted using a multi-level analysis. This involved the application and comparison of three methodologies, including RISK-UE, a vulnerability index-based approach tailored for clustered buildings, and the procedure SAVE (Strumenti Aggiornati per la Vulnerabilità sismica del patrimonio Edilizio e dei sistemi urbani – Updated Tools for the Seismic Vulnerability Evaluation of the Italian Real Estate and of Urban Systems). The findings were incorporated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool to visualize the distribution of seismic vulnerability across the studied urban area. Additionally, a parametric analysis was performed to explore various potential damage scenarios. This analysis utilized an intensity prediction equation derived from Sofia's historical earthquake records, considering different values for macroseismic intensity, moment magnitude, and epicenter distance to provide a comprehensive overview of the assets at risk.