Current status and perspectives on seismic monitoring of structures and rapid seismic loss estimation in Romania

Scientific paper - Original scientific paper

• Author: Alexandru Tiganescu
• Author: Dragos Toma Danila
• Author: Bogdan Grecu
• Author: iolanda Gabriela Craifaleanu
• Author: Stefan Florin Balan
• Author: Claudiu Sorin Dragomir
• Author's institution: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Civil Engineering
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: TECHNICAL SCIENCES; Civil Engineering

Abstract (english)

The management of emergency situations generated by natural or man-made disasters is a worldwide
critical task for both public and private entities. In Romania, seismic hazard represents one of the most
dangerous threats, in terms of potential physical and socio-economic losses. In recent years, taking
advantage of the new technology developments and increase of the computational power, significant
improvements have been done for seismic risk mitigation, using automatic systems and real-time
data. There are two main institutions that perform real-time seismic monitoring of structures in
Romania: INFP and URBAN-INCERC. A system for rapid damage and loss assessment (Seisdaro) is
currently running at INFP, using post-earthquake generated ShakeMaps, while URBAN-INCERC is in
the process of implementing a structural health monitoring system for instrumented buildings in its
network, based on the ARTeMIS software. A brief history on the evolution of seismic monitoring of
building structures and rapid seismic loss assessment in Romania will be presented. The paper also
covers general lessons learned from previous earthquakes that affected the country, data regarding
past and present exposure datasets, country-specific fragility functions and various methods and
algorithms used for structural health monitoring over the time. Through international and national
projects, constant improvements have been done regarding the seismic monitoring of structures and
loss estimation. The roadmap for future developments involving the main institutions in charge of the
seismic risk reduction, including research, academia and authorities, will be also outlined. Finally, given
the complex situations revealed by the pandemic and its potential conjunction with other hazards,
some reflections are presented about new multi-disciplinary methods and concepts that should be
developed, implemented and tested, taking into account more variables such as: social vulnerability,
influence of transportation networks and hospital capacities. The validation of these methods should
help both private and public entities to increase life safety, to reduce economic losses and downtime.

• Keywords (english): seismic monitoring, structures, loss estimation, Romania
• Language: english
• Publication type: Scientific paper - Original scientific paper
• Publication status: Published
• Peer review: Unknown
• Publication version: Published version
• Publication title: 1st Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 1CroCEE
• Numbering: pp. 81-91
• p-ISSN: 3043-8071
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5592/CO/1CroCEE.2021.120
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:237:223584
• Publication: 2021-03
• Conference: Title: st Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering; Location: Zagreb, Croatia; Start date: 2021-03-22; End date: 2021-03-24; Assembly type: Lecture
• Type of resource: Text
• Publisher: Sveučilište u Zagrebu Građevinski fakultet
• Access conditions: Open access
• Repository: Repository of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Zagreb
• Created on: 2024-08-30 10:05:33