Seismic performance of school buildings in recent earthquakes: lessons for Serbia

Abstract

Seismic safety of schools should be one of the highest priorities for each community. Besides being important to design the school buildings such as to avoid damage or collapse in earthquakes, they should also remain safe and functional as a shelter for evacuation after an earthquake. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of the importance to study and assess the seismic risk of existing schools, as well as to emphasize a need for adequate seismic design of new school buildings. Examples of damage in school buildings due to recent earthquakes in the region were presented since they are relevant for Serbia. Observations from the survey of school buildings in Serbia have been used for a comparison with the representative examples of damaged school buildings in Croatia and Albania, thus deriving the conclusions of what could be expected in Serbia in a case of moderate earthquake.