The Applied Technology Council (ATC), a non-profit California corporation founded to synthesize and translate structural and earthquake engineering research findings into active engineering practice, will conduct a workshop to identify priorities for research on the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings that could be conducted using the National Science Foundation-funded George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) infrastructure. This workshop will capture the recommendations of practicing structural and geotechnical engineering professionals nationwide and will be co-organized by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA funding will be used to broaden the scope of the workshop to identify key issues related to (1) the short-term implementation and updating of guidance for the seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings, and (2) for the long-term development and enhancement of seismic rehabilitation guidance. This workshop constitutes a major coordinated effort of strategic importance to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). This workshop also addresses one of the 11 goals for research outlined in the American Competitiveness Initiative: Leading the World in Innovation, Domestic Policy Council, Office of Science and Technology Policy, February 2006: "Advances in materials science and engineering to develop technologies and standards for improving structural performance during hazardous events such as earthquakes and hurricanes (NIST, NSF)." A major product of the workshop will be a workshop findings report that prioritizes needed NEES research efforts on existing buildings. The workshop report will be prepared by an ATC Working Group, a subset of the Workshop Steering Committee. A similar report that focuses on ways to enhance the development and implementation of guidance on the seismic rehabilitation of existing buildings will be prepared, with funding from FEMA, by an EERI Working Group, the other subset of the Workshop Steering Committee.
The intellectual merit of this workshop is to establish clear community-based strategic guidance on priorities for NEES research efforts to reduce the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings. Currently available resource documents that identify research needs in earthquake engineering provide only broad guidance on this topic and do not identify specific priorities for research questions that the NEES infrastructure can uniquely address. Much of the nation's existing buildings located in seismically active regions of the United States have yet to be evaluated or strengthened. The lack of fundamental and problem-focused research data has led to significant conservatism in existing evaluation methodologies that discourages building owners and local public officials from addressing potential vulnerabilities in their existing building stock This workshop provides a path forward for a better defined research program that would focus on methods for more accurate analysis of and cost-effective rehabilitation strategies for these older structures. More cost-effective collapse prevention rehabilitation techniques, as well as techniques for achieving higher levels of seismic safety, will encourage mitigation efforts and save lives in future major earthquakes.
