Review of Seismic Retrofitting Strategies for Residential Buildings in an International Context

After increasingly strong earthquakes in the Groningen area in the north of the Netherlands, which are induced by gas extraction, the Dutch government decided to cut output from the gas field as well as upgrade existing houses in this region. Due to the fact, that it is expected, that the frequency as well as magnitude of these earthquakes will rise, the development of structural upgrading strategies plays a major role in this context and a review of possible measurements from other countries has been carried out and will be described within this paper.
The study includes a review of various building codes and general information about seismic resistant buildings in “earthquake-experienced” regions, namely California, Italy and New Zealand. Further on different structural materials, building techniques and seismic retrofitting methods, which are used for residential buildings, will be
considered. Most of the affected houses in the region in and around Groningen are masonry structures, which are vulnerable to seismic loading. This requires a thorough understanding of the structural behavior and performance in order to develop appropriate strengthening and upgrading strategies for them. Based on the experience from other
countries various design proposals will be suggested to improve the durability of the existing housing stock in the Groningen area.