ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the seismic vulnerability assessment of the historical center of Timisoara. It examines the vulnerability analysis of the historical center of Timisoara, a city located in the western part of Romania. The identification of procedures for the seismic risk mitigation of historical centers necessarily requires a preliminary study of the seismic vulnerability assessment on a urban scale of its building heritage. Damage estimation of historical buildings against seismic actions and vulnerability assessment are fundamental steps in order to reduce the seismic risk of existing construction. Fragility curves and vulnerability maps are then obtained, assessing the vulnerability of the classes under seismic actions. Buildings typological and structural characteristics and their parameters variation influence the behavior of constructions in response to the seismic action. The fragility curves express the conditional probability of a structure, or a portion of it, to match or exceed a certain level of damage considering different levels of seismic demand.
