Assessing seismic vulnerability for historical buildings in Timisoara – Romania and relating it on multiple domains such as: population, economy, infrastructure

Abstract

Timisoara is one of the biggest cities in Romania, located in the Banat plain. The area in which the city is located is the second most hazardous seismic zone in the country – Banat region, which is subjected to shallow earthquakes, the main particularities of this type being the small depth of the seismic source and a reduce surface of the epicenter area.

The main objective of this paper is based on both the evaluation of the seismic vulnerability analyzed in one of the major areas of Timisoara, namely the Iosefin neighborhood, as well as relating it to a number of domains such as infrastructure, population, economy, culture, patrimony through a statistic of losses.

Buildings in the city's historic centers are particularly vulnerable to seismic events. To reduce damage and losses in historic city centers, the seismic vulnerability of buildings needs to be assessed on the ground with approaches that take into account how parameters related to geometric / structural characteristics, seismic deficiencies impact on seismic failure modes. The historical district of Iosefin is one of the 3 districts of Timisoara developed in the 18th century around the main district – Cetate, being a testimony to the evolution of the entire city. Iosefin is located in the southwest part of the city and since the 20th century, it has developed a strong commercial character, especially on the two main arteries – Regele Carol I and 16 Decembrie. The seismic vulnerability assessment was carried out by an empirical method of calculating it, which is particularly suited to historical areas because of its ability to capture heterogeneity and belonging to an ensemble, namely the vulnerability index method, a method applied to a number of 67 buildings.

The outcome of the study has shown that the VIM methodology is not necessarily tailored to the specific seismicity of the city of Timisoara (surface earthquakes), generating probable worse damage than historical records show. Taking into account the age of the investigated buildings and the absence of significant structural damage, we can conclude that the reality is a bit more optimistic about the chance of survival of buildings than the loss scenario resulting from the use of the VIM methodology. Nevertheless, analyzing the results as a whole, it can be noticed that in the case of a seismic intensity event 7 the district can suffer significant losses in several aspects such as: social, economic, cultural-historical, population, built-up, infrastructure.