Abstract:
A screening framework that identified the risk and vulnerability factors of unreinforced masonry (URM) churches was developed based on international literature and church damage observations following the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes. This screening framework was applied to an inventory of church buildings located in the Waikato and Taranaki regions of New Zealand. The inventory contains 78 churches, including 9 churches that are primarily or partially composed of URM wall elements. General, architectural, structural, and seismic risk assessment information was gathered for each of the buildings in the inventory. A procedure using fuzzy rule based modelling was developed to evaluate the seismic risk of churches in the inventory in terms of the Scenario Projected Building Damage and the Building Importance/Exposure. Scenario Projected Building Damage was determined using vulnerability functions for URM churches and an estimated Modified Mercalli Intensity for the site. Building Importance/Exposure was determined by fuzzy rule based modelling and was composed of five basic risk items, being Importance Level, Occupancy, Economic Impact, Heritage Impact, and Timeframe for repair. Using the 9 URM churches as preliminary case studies, the seismic risk assessment procedure is presented herein. Based on the results of the assessment, each church was assigned a seismic risk rating that will be used by the stakeholders to prioritise seismic strengthening interventions.
