The Construction of Physical Vulnerability Evaluation Index System for Urban Old Civil Buildings

The increasing incidents of collapses in urban old civil buildings in recent years highlight the urgent need for vulnerability analysis. To enhance the resilience and disaster response capabilities of these buildings, this paper adopts an Indicator-based methodology (IBM) to develop a comprehensive evaluation index system for assessing the physical vulnerability of urban old civil buildings. The text mining method is applied to extract core factors from 8 representative official investigation reports. Expert consultation is then used to complement and categorize these key factors. As a result, a comprehensive physical vulnerability index system comprising 16 influencing factors is constructed. The findings of this research reveal that the physical vulnerability of civil buildings encompasses two main aspects: structural vulnerability and external disturbance vulnerability. This index system can help operators effectively evaluate the physical vulnerability of old civil buildings and make decisions regarding reinforcement and risk mitigation strategies. Furthermore, the proposed index system can assist operators in establishing a foundational indicator library for evaluating the physical vulnerability of old civil buildings in urban areas.