Earthquake economic loss assessment of existing concrete shear wall residential buildings in Eastern Canada

Past major earthquakes have demonstrated that a significant proportion of existing residential buildings are vulnerable to seismic hazards, resulting in economic and social losses. The assessment of earthquake-induced losses is crucial for devising strategies aimed at enhancing seismic resilience through mitigation plans and emergency response measures. This study intends to provide an analytical methodology for evaluating economic losses for existing residential concrete shear wall buildings in Eastern Canada seismic zones based on Canadian-compatible seismic capacity parameters. A sampled data set related to residential buildings in Montreal was analyzed and statistical distributions were developed that represent the proportion of buildings in different seismic design code levels and number of stories. Vulnerability analyses were performed, which involved estimating buildings' response under seismic hazard inputs according to the 2020 National Building Code of Canada and conducting loss assessment for structural components, nonstructural displacement-sensitive components, nonstructural acceleration-sensitive components, and contents. The results of vulnerability analyses in terms of loss ratio curves showed that the seismic performance varies between mid-rise and high-rise concrete shear wall buildings with different seismic design code levels, and nonstructural displacement-sensitive components exerted the most significant influence on overall economic losses among building components. In addition, a comparison was conducted between Canadian-compatible economic loss ratio curves and those developed based on the standard seismic capacity parameters in the Hazus technical manual and differences in predicted loss ratios were discussed. The developed loss ratio curves can be integrated into regional scale loss assessment tools for rapid estimation of earthquake-induced economic losses for concrete shear wall buildings as a function of seismic intensity.