Methodological proposal for the rapid evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of hotels built before 1985 in the traditional zone of Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico.

Abstract

The coast of Guerrero is located in an area with high
seismic activity. According to recent studies, the
absence of major seismic events in this region has
increased the probability of an earthquake of a
Richter magnitude 8.0 or higher. For this reason, it
is urgent to take into account, measures to identify if
the civil infrastructure has an adequate structural
performance –mainly, hotel buildings of cities
located in the coastal strip, like the Port of
Acapulco–. These structures, mostly built before
1985, have in most cases, structural, construction or
maintenance deficiencies.
In this paper, the results of a new qualitative
methodology (based mainly on the building
geometric characteristics) to perform rapid
structural evaluations, is presented. It was applied in
a group of 154 hotels, –from the traditional zone of
Acapulco–, allowing to define its current level of
structural security, in three categories: Low,
medium or high.
The proposed methodology allows establishing, in a
direct and preliminary way, the need to implement
strategies, if necessary, for their rehabilitation and /
or reinforcement. Thus, the process, that includes
the modeling of the building for its subsequent
analysis by a detailed analysis method, is presented
as an example.