Assessment of Seismic Vulnerability of School Buildings: A case study in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is an earthquake-prone country. In many earthquakes, school buildings suffer the most damage than other public facilities. In 2020, the conditions of around 70% of 218,234 school classrooms in Indonesia were deteriorating. This contributed to a significant earthquake vulnerability. Limited funding for rehabilitation and renovation became an obstacle to reduce the vulnerability. This study proposed that Rapid Visual Screening (RVS), which is a simple method and has a wide coverage, could be a solution to prioritize building rehabilitation. Bandung, the capital city of the most populated province in Indonesia, has complex earthquake hazard risks, which made it a suitable study area for implementing RVS. This study conducted a seismic vulnerability assessment of school buildings in the city of Bandung, Indonesia. The methodology used is based on Indonesia National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB)’s Regulation No. 4 of 2012 on Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) procedure compared to FEMA 154 RVS procedure with local hazard data and building data. RVS was conducted in total 334 elementary school buildings in 30 districts. The result of the BNPB’s RVS procedure showed an average RVS score (S) of 4.455 where 36.53% buildings were in safe condition and 63.47% buildings required further assessment of the conditions from construction experts. The result of the FEMA 154 RVS procedure showed an average RVS score (S) of 0.905 where 22.16% of the buildings were in high probability of grade 4 damage and 77.84% of the buildings were in high probability of grade 3 damage.