A Multisource Methodology for the Regional Seismic Fragility Assessment of Existing Masonry Buildings in Historical Centres

This article presents a methodology tailored for estimating the seismic fragility at regional scale of existing masonry buildings in historical centres, using multisource data about typological, morphological, constructive features of urban fabric and building stock of the considered geographical area. In detail, the proposed procedure exploits these data for defining a specific taxonomy, aimed at identifying specific macroclasses. After, by exploiting architectural, geometrical, and structural information, an abacus of architectural types is proposed. Associating the macroclasses and the abacus of regional architectural types through data derived by surveys carried out on specific municipalities of the region, the most representative regional building typologies can be identified, which can be subsequently investigated through modelling and analysis for deriving seismic fragility curves. The proposed procedure was released by specifying the minimum requirements for the application and was tested on the case of Puglia Region, Southern Italy. As shown throughout the manuscript, several advantages can be highlighted: (a) definition of a new taxonomy for historical centers within a region; (b) possibility to associate fully characterized architectural types to different historical centers presenting the same macroclass by exploiting few data; (c) reduction of uncertainties in the characterization of existing building stock, typical of regional-scale studies.