Post-earthquake risk-based decision making methodology for Turkish school buildings

Safety assessment of damaged school buildings is one of the challenging tasks after damaging earthquakes. In this study, a new post-earthquake safety assessment method is proposed for school buildings. The method enables researchers to evaluate the level of risk and to judge the safety of the school building by taking into account the observed level of structural and non-structural damage. First, the vulnerability of the building is identified by considering the relevant damage indicators. Subsequently, the likely consequences of the various performance levels of the school building are identified. The likelihood of a specific consequence is evaluated by jointly considering all failure mechanisms that can lead to the considered consequence. Critical decisions regarding the school are made based on the level of risk and the available resources for risk mitigation. The methodology is expected to be a useful supporting tool for the post-earthquake decision-making process. Using the proposed method, critical decisions, such as continued use, strengthening or decommissioning school buildings can be handled in a rational and consistent way.