ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a new procedure for the seismic vulnerability assessment on a territorial scale through the adoption of a probabilistic approach instead of traditional deterministic methods. The procedure enables vulnerability assessments of entire urban areas through the knowledge of a limited number of basic information, obtainable through limited on-site surveys. Usually information which are necessary for the implementation of the local mechanisms analyses are affected by uncertainty or are missing, therefore in lots of cases it is only possible to hypothesize them on the basis of the other buildings information collected during the on-site survey. Ministerial bodies and research centers can retrieve buildings information to perform predictive assessments having the aim of reducing seismic vulnerability and, consequently, seismic risk. Designers involved in seismic improvement or extraordinary maintenance intervention are encouraged to provide "essential" construction information about analyzed buildings. The analysis of local mechanisms of collapse is a fundamental step for the study of existing buildings seismic behavior.
