Quantifying the value of seismic structural health monitoring of buildings

The decision to adopt a monitoring system for a structure should be based on sound appraisal of the expected economic benefits of such decisions. These benefits can be quantified in terms of the reduction of the risks posed by the failure of the structure versus the cost of monitoring. This paper discusses a framework for rationalising the adoption of monitoring for buildings subjected to seismic risks. The approach adopted is that of the preposterior decision analysis. Methods for automatic damage detection and joint utilisation of monitoring and visual inspection data are considered from a point of view of how they can be used in the pre-posterior analysis. Two short numerical examples are included to illustrate the proposed conceptual developments.