N E W S L E T T E R
“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis for buildings, lifeline networks
and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012
> > http://www.syner-g.eu/
SYNER-G is a European Collaborative Research Project
focusing on the systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis of buildings, lifelines and infrastructures. The
research consortium relies on the active participation of
twelve partners from Europe, one from USA and one from
Japan. The consortium includes a partner from the industry
(VCE) and one from the insurance (Willis) area.
Project Workflow
SYNER-G is designed with eight work packages:
WP5. SYSTEMIC VULNERABILITY & LOSSES
WP1. Coordination Project Management
Executive Committee
Seismic Hazard
Scenarios
WP3. PHYSICAL
VULNERABILITY & LOSSES
Fragility functions
for elements and systems
WP4. SOCIO ECONOMIC
VULNERABILITY & LOSSES
for elements and systems
Buildings &
aggregates
Utility
systems
Transportation
infrastructures
Critical
facilities
Interdependencies between systems
WP6. APPLICATION & VALIDATION
Urban scale
Thessaloniki city
Vienna city
Utility-Transportation
Pipeline network
Motorway in Italy
Electric network in Italy
Harbor of Thessaloniki
Critical facilities
Hospital facility
in Italy
WP8. GUIDELINES -
DISSEMINATION
WP7. SOFTWARE
TOOLS
WP2. GENERAL METHODOLOGY
Information about the progress of WPs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 is
given in the following.
The SYNER-G consortium:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (coordinator) Vienna Consulting Engineers Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minieres Joint Research Centre (European Commission)
Norwegian Geotechnical Institute
University of Pavia
University of Roma “La Sapienza”
Middle East Technical University AMRA, University of Naples Federico II University of Karlsruhe University of Patras
Willis Group Holdings Mid-America Earthquake Center, University of Illinois Kobe University
Recent News
• A special session for SYNER-G will be
organized during the 15th World
Conference on Earthquake Engineering
@ Lisbon, Portugal, 24-28 Sept. 2012
• Deliverables are available online: www.syner-g.eu
• SYNER-G has been presented:
at GEM Annual Outreach Meeting
@ Beijing, People's Republic of China,
6-9 June 2011
at the Symposium: Building safer &
resilient societies against mega
disasters, organized by Kobe University
Centre @ Brussels, Belgium, 19
September 2011
at the 4th Japan-Greece Workshop on
Seismic Design of Foundations and
Innovations in Seismic Protection
@ Kobe, Japan, 6-7 October 2011
General Assembly Meetings
Meetings held in 2011:
• Mid-term Meeting
@ Oslo on 28-29 April 2011
• WP5 Workshop
@ Orleans on 2 November 2011
• 2nd Annual meeting
@ Orleans on 3-4 November 2011
N E W S L E T T E R
“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis for buildings, lifeline networks
and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012
WP2: Development of a methodology to evaluate systemic vulnerability
• A general methodological framework to
assess vulnerability at a system level
considering interdependencies between
elements at risk (physical and non-
physical), belonging to different systems
and between different systems as a whole,
at city and regional scale, has been defined.
• The treatment of uncertainties has been
considered in the general methodology, in
particular: on the seismic activity of the
seismo-genetic sources/faults, on the local
seismic intensities at the sites for any given
scenario, on the physical damageability of
the components of the Infrastructure, on the
functional consequences at component
and/or system level of the physical damage
at the component level, on the socio-
economic consequences of physical damage,
and on the epistemic uncertainty in all the
above models.
• The main indicators to assess performance
at component, system and infrastructure
level have been defined.
The network of random variables modelling uncertainty in the
regional seismic vulnerability assessment problem
• An object-oriented model of the
Infrastructure describing the relations
between all systems and components (inter-
and intra-dependencies) within the
taxonomy has been developed.
• The developed model is described through
class diagrams of different hierarchical levels
describing the methods, the attributes of
components/networks/infrastructures, the
inter/intra dependencies etc.
• An overview of the available data sources
and methods for collecting data, i.e. census
and owner/operator data, ground surveys
and remote sensing techniques, on the
typical European elements at risk within
systems have been provided and templates
in spreadsheet format for collecting,
archiving and processing the data have been
produced. Example studies for the
compilation of inventories in Thessaloniki
and Vienna, as well as a proxy building
inventory for Europe have been presented.
Class diagram for the Water
and Electric Power network classes
N E W S L E T T E R
“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis for buildings, lifeline networks
and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012
WP3: Fragility functions of elements at risk
• Fragility curves have been proposed for all the systems’ elements based on the taxonomy/typology of
the WP2 framework.
• A fragility curve archive has been produced, which will provide the basis for all calculations within the
software tool. The fragility manager produces the fragility curves in the correct form and the software
platform can directly take this output and use it. In case of buildings and bridges focus is given in
compiling, harmonizing and archiving (in a query-able database) all the existing fragility functions.
SYNER-G fragility function manager tool for bridges
WP4: Socio-economic vulnerability and losses
• Social indicators for individual
health impacts and for health
care impacts were identified
based on literature research, and
tested using available European
statistical data.
• Eight Principal Components at
city level and eight Principal
Components at sub-city district
level were defined based on the
European Urban Audit indicators
in the period 2003-2006. These
components will be applied to the
socio-economic impact
assessment framework in the
emergency shelter and health
care facilities sectors.
Multi-criteria Framework for Health Impact Analysis
N E W S L E T T E R
“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis for buildings, lifeline networks
and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012
• The benchmarking of socio-economic indicators
has been completed based on empirical data
that were provided by the Italian Civil
Protection for L’Aquila event. Three different
levels of analysis are considered: i) correlation
of building usability states with building
damage states, ii) relationship between
building damage and socio-economic impacts,
iii) validation of SYNER-G “shelter model”
Number of public shelters and the population housed
per Mixed Operations Center (COM) in L’Aquila
Left: Damage level based on number of storeys, Right: Usability results based on number of storeys for zone 3 of
L’Aquila benchmarking study
WP5: Systemic vulnerability specification
• Performance(s) (physical vulnerability,
serviceability/ functionality) definition at the
components, systems and system of systems
levels has been performed (in terms of
appropriate performance measures) and linked
with WP4.
• The analysis of the electric power system is
carried out at the capacitive level, computing the
powers and voltages in the network, both in the
undamaged or reference condition and in the
damaged one. Analysis of short-circuit propagation is also performed.
• Systemic vulnerability analysis and loss
assessment of gas and oil networks and water
and waste-water systems is performed based on
connectivity and flow analysis taking into
consideration direct/ physical dependencies
between at least two systems. Software
implementation and structure of classes and sub-
classes are defined.
+ -
Autotransformer line
Bars
Bars-connecting lineLow voltage side High voltage side
Bus # 2Bus # 1
Line without transformer
Layout of a typical transformation/distribution
substation
N E W S L E T T E R
“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis for buildings, lifeline networks
and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012
WP6: Validation studies
• City of Thessaloniki (road network,
water system, buildings, socio-
economic impact).
• City of Vienna (buildings, networks,
socio-economic impact).
• Road Network in Italy (connectivity
study, travel time under “free flow”
condition, interaction with health care
system).
Road network in Calabria, Southern-Italy
• Electric Power Network in Italy
(capacitive study of Sicily network).
• Gas Network in L’ Aquila (pipelines
and M/R stations, connectivity,
performance).
• Harbour of Thessaloniki (cranes,
quaywalls/wharfs, electric power
network).
• Health-Care Facility in Italy (Hospital
of Lamezia Terme in Calabria,
Southern-Italy).
Division of Thessaloniki into 20 Sub-City-Districts
Division of Vienna into 9 Sub-City-Districts
Electric power network of Sicily
Electrical Power
Normal Building Power
MV/LV Transformer UPS EPG
Emergencygenerator
LinksTransmission
lines
NodesDistribution
stations
Sub-fault trees of Hospital equipment
N E W S L E T T E R
“Systemic seismic vulnerability and risk
analysis for buildings, lifeline networks
and infrastructures safety gain” Issue 3, February 2012
WP7: Prototype software
• The MAEViz platform has been
customized for European
conditions. The new software
represents a stand-alone
European tool consisting of
input, computation and output
modules which have been tested
and implemented.
• The fragility manager was
implemented in the software
platform. The formats of the
manager and the platform were
also harmonized.
Workbench Layout of the SYNER-G software
• A proof-of-concept software has
been developed and applied to
the analysis of the seismic
vulnerability of a hypotethical
Infrastructure, consisting of a
subset of the whole SYNER-G
taxonomy. The software includes
modules for the seismic hazard,
vulnerability and network
analysis which can be executed
through the aforementioned
SYNER-G platform.
Fragility Curves Import
SYNER-G is supported by EC/DG Research (Grant agreement no: 244061)
Project Coordinator: Prof. Kyriazis Pitilakis � Aristotle University of Thessaloniki � [email protected]
Project Officer: Dr Denis Peter � European Commission, Research Directorate-General � [email protected]
Three technical workshops are planned to be held at Thessaloniki, Vienna and Ispra (final).
The dates will be announced soon.