The Resilient Buildings Project - Stage 3

Abstract

This Stage 3 report provides the Earthquake Performance Outcome (EPO) Framework that was established to systematically map building performance with user outcomes. More specifically, it describes key social, economic and environment outcome indicators and shows how they relate simply and directly onto dimensions of building performance to reduce injury, protect property and reduce loss of amenity and function.

The accompanying building usage categorisation system identifies the types of building types (such as marae and aged care facilities) whose functionality after an earthquake would be particularly valued by their communities and would warrant higher seismic performance standards.

The EPO framework was also used to assess the current Building Code against the findings from the societal expectations research. While the current Code is consistent with those expectations for protecting life safety (i.e., minimising deaths and injuries), in the event of moderate and strong shaking, the current Code falls significantly short of societal expectations on protection of property and return to function. This means that people would prefer buildings that sustained less earthquake damage and were able to retain function or return to function much sooner than the current Code delivers.

This review also identified existing evidence that suggests that the cost premiums for increasing seismic resilience of new buildings is low (~0-2%) in terms of construction costs, with some highly cost-effective interventions that would improve new building resilience here in New Zealand.