Simplified integrated assessment of the structural and energy performance of existing buildings at the urban scale: a case study in Puglia, Italy

The general aim of the paper is to present an integrated approach to assess the seismic vulnerability and energy performance of existing building. A specific algorithm for the integrated assessment at the urban scale is proposed, by considering seismic and energy vulnerability, which are then properly combined in order to provide a final assessment able to highlight the criticality levels. The method is addressed at the territorial scale, where it is often required to manage large set of buildings and it is not rationale - or even possible - to perform detailed investigations and numerical modeling. For this reason, the procedures are developed basing on poor data collected by existing archives such as historical maps, technical documentation, and supplemented by quick visual inspections and surveys. The first step of the procedure is the calculation of a seismic and an energy vulnerability index for each building. This is made by a suitable procedure in which, for each of the two aspects, a proper set of “characteristic” parameters able to represent the features of the building performance is selected and appraised for each building (i.e. relevant geometrical, morpho-typological, constructive and structural data). The two indices obtained – seismic and energetic - are normalized in order to be immediately comparable and the integrated assessment is obtained by combining them through proper weighing factors: the result is an integrated index for each building. The approach has been applied to a case study in Puglia, Italy: the neighborhood “Borgo Croci” in the historical center of Foggia. Preliminarily, a collection of the available information has been performed, supplemented by quick surveys. Then, seismic and energy indicators for each building have been processed and finally combined into a unique index by means of the proposed algorithm. The application of the method has shown that, basing on poor data, it is possible to obtain an index representative of critical issues of a large number of existing buildings with a limited use of resources and time.