TY: CONF T1 - Vulnerability assessment of traditional buildings in Coimbra, Portugal, supported by a GIS Tool A1 - Vicente, R. A1 - Varum, H. A1 - Silva, J. A. R. Mendes da N2 - The increasing concern and consequent appraisal on durability, conservation state and change of use of old buildings in urban centres is greatly related with structural safety assessment, particularly to seismic actions. It is largely recognised that the seismic vulnerability of the majority of historical city centres, with buildings without adequate seismic capacity, is high. The need to catalogue buildings according to their seismic vulnerability, particularly traditional buildings, is a key issue in any renewal or rehabilitation process. Recently, different methods for seismic vulnerability assessment have been proposed, with different levels of detail. Research carried out on seismic vulnerability have underlined that the performance of traditional buildings under earthquake actions is governed by several structural features, some of which can be peculiar of each urban context and construction technology. Seismic vulnerability assessment extended to whole historic centres has outlined the importance of GIS mapping applications in order to aid in the intervention and risk management plans. The need for an integrated multi-purpose tool, connected with a GIS, as well as with a relational database, in order to have a deeper and interdisciplinary knowledge of the site and hence to be able to create a modular approach and manage the historical building stock, conservation works, retrofitting strategy, risk assessment, building characteristics and vulnerability, damage and cost estimation is essential. In this paper, it is presented and discussed the strategy and methodology adopted for the vulnerability assessment of the city centre of Coimbra, in Portugal, through the GIS mapping of the building stock of the project perimeter. Development of vulnerability studies in urban centres can be conducted aiming to identify building fragilities and to reduce the seismic risk. UR - https://ria.ua.pt/handle/10773/8128 Y1 - 2006 PB - No publisher defined