Seismic Risk Assessment of Existing RC Buildings in Muğla

Turkey is located in a highly seismic region and has experienced major earthquakes with substantial casualties and economic losses in the past two decades. The February 6, 2023, Mw 7.7 and 7.6 sequential earthquakes were catastrophic ones that affected eleven cities with many casualties and high economic losses. The increased financial burden would not be necessary if our building stock were in decent shape. Therefore, it is critical to assess the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings to be able to take precautions. Muğla is one of the high-seismic cities located in the western part of Türkiye. In this study, a walk-down survey method proposed by the code The Principles of Identifying Risky Buildings (RYTEIE, 2019), a simple and rapid method, is used to assess the risk levels of RC buildings in the Emirbeyazıt neighborhood of Menteşe, Muğla. 469 RC buildings are examined considering parameters such as age, number of stories, and technical deficiencies, including soft or weak stories. The performance score is calculated for each building and ranked in ascending order to decide the risk prioritization. 26 RC buildings were selected from a different range of performance scores to be able to evaluate the preliminary assessment method using the concrete compressive strength and confinement rebar searched by non-destructive testing methods. The blueprints were used to calculate the base shear capacities and assessed by a preliminary assessment method to observe the performance levels and relationship with performance score.