This research developed an evidence base to inform decision making on the mitigation of the seismic risk posed by the most vulnerable Australian buildings subject to earthquakes. Without this evidence base, it is impossible to make cost-effective and economically justifiable decisions by building owners and government officials on all matters concerning seismic strengthening of existing and design of new buildings.  While the focus of this project was on buildings, many of the project outputs are also relevant for other Australian infrastructure such as bridges, roads and ports, while at the same time complementing other CRC project proposals for severe wind and flood. 

In order to achieve the overall project aim, work was undertaken on three complementary fronts to:

1. understand the seismic vulnerabilities of existing unreinforced masonry (URM) and limited ductile reinforced concrete (LDRC) buildings and methods to address them through seismic retrofit
2. risk assessment of the building stock through development of an economic loss model with trial evaluations for a regional town (York, WA) and a metropolitan area (Melbourne)
3. advance an end-user focused research utilisation project in the area of community risk reduction. This is done through an Earthquake Mitigation Case Study for the historic town of York in Western Australia.

Read the final report here.