A seismic vulnerability model for masonry buildings in Montenegro

Many European countries benefit from risk-informed mitigation and prevention tools, including seismic vulnerability models (VMs) that express the susceptibility of structures to earthquake damage. However, in the Balkan countries including Montenegro, comprehensive seismic risk investigations are still lacking, despite being a region affected by moderate seismicity. In this paper, we propose a novel heuristic approach to evaluate the VM for masonry buildings in Montenegro. Based on previous studies on the seismic exposure of Montenegro and accounting for additional vulnerability factors, we classify masonry buildings into three categories: unreinforced stone masonry (URM-St), unreinforced brick masonry (URM-Br), and confined masonry (CFM). These typologies are firstly compared with reference vulnerability models (RVMs) found in the literature for neighboring countries. The RVMs are then weighted using an expert-based approach, considering their similarities and differences with Montenegrin building classes, to create hybrid VMs for each class. These hybrid VMs are finally combined using a heuristic approach based on real damage data from two historical reports on the 1979 Montenegro earthquake.