1. Scope
1.1 This document provides guidance on conducting seismic risk assessments for building portfolios. As such, this guide assists a User to assess aggregate losses from earthquakes.
1.1.1 Hazards addressed in this guide include earthquake ground shaking, and differential settlements induced by soil liquefaction on flat sites caused by earthquakes;
1.1.2 Hazards not addressed in this guide include losses caused by site instability, including fault rupture, landslides, lateral spreading and settlement from liquefaction, and earthquake-caused off-site response impacting the property, including loss of power, water or other utilities, loss of access, or earthquake-induced flooding from dam or dike failure, tsunamis and seiches;
1.1.3 Losses not addressed include those resulting from the collapse of structures not a part of the portfolio under consideration;
1.1.4 It is the responsibility of the User of this guide to establish appropriate life safety and damage prevention practices and determine the applicability of current regulatory limitations prior to use.
1.2 The objectives of this guide are:
1.2.1 To synthesize and document guidelines for seismic risk assessment of building portfolios from earthquakes;
1.2.2 To encourage standardized seismic risk assessment and reporting of risks;
1.2.3 To establish guidelines for assessment of site conditions and building damageability, and the investigation considered appropriate, practical, sufficient, and reasonable for the seismic risk assessment of portfolios;
1.2.4 To establish guidelines on what reasonably can be expected of and delivered by a Provider in conducting the seismic risk assessment of building portfolios;
1.2.5 To provide guidelines on the effective use of software for portfolio seismic risk assessment;
1.2.6 To establish guidelines by which a Provider can communicate to the User risk results and the uncertainty of those results in a manner that is meaningful and not misleading either by content or by omission.
1.3 This guide does not describe how to conduct single-site investigations for seismic hazards, site stability, building damageability, building stability, contents damageability, or the susceptibility to business interruption (B.I.) — the reader is referred to ASTM E2026 and E2557 for such investigations. However, for business interruption, portfolio seismic risk assessment can provide a framework for evaluation of systems or network impacts on functionality or revenue.