Multi-hazard risk assessment of traditional vs. low-damage reinforced concrete buildings

Natural hazards and climate change are posing increasing threads to our built environment. The development of new buildings in areas exposed to multiple hazards should follow a holistic risk-based approach, to reduce socio-economic losses after extreme events and enhance com- munity resilience. Recent earthquakes have shown the limitations of the current life-safety fo- cused design. To enhance safety and minimize disruption, buildings must withstand design-level earthquakes with minimal damage. Advances in construction methods and low-damage tech- nologies are leading to more resilient, “earthquake-proof” structures. Moreover, urgent adap- tation strategies are needed due to the rising frequency of climate change-induced disasters, making the integration of multi-hazard low-damage technologies crucial to shape a sustainable and resilient future. This paper explores a resilient building integrated solution aimed at enhancing performance against seismic and flood hazards. A mid-rise reinforced concrete building is considered as a case study, featuring a fully prefabricated, low-damage integrated system. It incorporates cost- effective dissipative & rocking connections for structural components, and modular easily re- placeable non-structural elements. A refined component-based risk assessment methodology is implemented to assess direct and indirect economic losses under earthquake and flood scenar- ios, comparing the proposed system to a traditional code-compliant reinforced concrete build- ing. Results highlight the potential of these technologies to reduce post-disaster losses by 50%, supporting the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient built environment.