Simplified Evaluation Method of Seismic Resistance for Water Treatment Facilities

As the Seismic Design Code (SDC) has revised its requirement following major earthquakes in the past decades, old water infrastructure in Japan must be seismically upgraded to keep up with the latest SDC. As a first step, such upgrade usually requires an assessment whether a specific civil structure is seismically resistant. The Detailed Evaluation Method (DEM) is well-known as a full evaluation method; but, due to its complexity and required high technical knowledge, the Simplified Evaluation Method (SEM) is normally applied to prioritize the structures for DEM testing. This simple assessment method, however, falls behind the current civil engineering technology in some respects, being thirty years old. Therefore, we propose a new SEM with a revised procedure which adopts a three-step approach where the target structure is evaluated according to "threat of liquefaction," "year of construction" and then "structural resistibility."