Development of a macroseismic model for the seismic risk classification of existing buildings

The assessment and reduction of the seismic risk associated to the existing constructions is a topic of great interest, especially when the life safety and the optimal use of available resources are pursued. The paper presents and describes a new methodology for the classification of the seismic risk associated to the Italian existing constructions. Such methodology is based on the qualitative macroseismic classification proposed by the European Macroseismic Scale (EMS98) and proposes a "quantitative" version, analyzing the relationships among the seismic intensities, the vulnerability classes and the direct economic losses. The researched presented within this paper represents the base for the "Guidelines for the seismic risk classification of buildings" published by the Italian Ministry of Infrastructures and Transportations (Annex A of D.M. 65 del 07-03-2017).