An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Seismic Assessment of Built Cultural Heritage: Case Studies in Lisbon and Outskirts

The seismic assessment of built cultural heritage requires an interdisciplinary approach for efficiently dealing with all the steps involved: “knowledge path,” the subsequent structural analysis and the potential intervention design. In this study, this approach is presented with reference to the old masonry and mixed masonry-reinforced concrete residential buildings in Lisbon and also to the Sintra National Palace. The latter was selected as a significant case study in what concerns the wide range involved competences and mandatory role each of them plays. Particular attention was paid to the contribution of the historical information, the material and the geometric characterization of the structure (the “knowledge path”), all necessary steps to identify potential vulnerabilities and to enable the understanding of the effective structural models, also in view of proposing adequate retrofit solutions. For the seismic assessment of built heritage constructions in Lisbon, fragility functions were derived, using the Performance Based Analysis (PBA) and considering a Displacement Based Approach. The obtained results reveal the seismic vulnerability of the of built heritage constructions buildings in Lisbon and the corresponding need for structural retrofitting measures. For the seismic evaluation of the Sintra National Palace an interdisciplinary methodology was set in place and the details of the main initial adopted steps are presented and analysed, namely: historical studies and critical surveys, in situ experiments, numerical modelling and structural analysis.