Integrating Environmental Impacts as Another Measure of Earthquake Performance for Tall Buildings in High Seismic Zones

This study assesses the environmental impacts of an archetypical contemporary 42-story residential concrete building designed to meet minimum code requirements and compares it to the impacts from a “beyond code” design. The earthquake performance of the building in terms of financial loss and repair time was previously evaluated using a FEMA P-58 based approach; this research used Life Cycle Assessment to estimate the environmental impact of both initial construction and seismic repair when the building is subjected to an earthquake with a 475-year return period. Three seismic force resisting configurations (fixed-base, base-isolated, and damped-outrigger) as well as two design approaches (minimum code equivalence and a resilience-based design approach) were considered. This study found that the magnitude of environmental impact of seismic damage repair can be significant; that the ratio of environmental impact to cost is higher for seismic repair than initial construction; and that the protection of non-structural components, such as partitions, can result in significant reduction in overall environmental impact of seismic damage when subjected to large earthquakes.