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NATIONAL SEISMIC REGULATIONS
Understanding the evolution and code-compliance of seismic regulations are fundamental for the development of exposure models, for the purposes of probabilistic seismic risk modelling and development of earthquake scenarios. This database aims at sharing information about current and past design regulations for specific countries, as well as the expected enforcement, and seismic zonations associated with each regulation. This information has been compiled within the scope of GEM products, bilateral collaborations, data collected through surveys and by reviewing the literature. We provide this information to support earthquake engineers and risk modellers in the development and calibration of earthquake loss models. However, we note that this information does not replace the official regulations, maps and other resources made available by the public authorities of the respective countries.
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To access the seismic regulations information from each country, click on the country of interest on the global map or on the list below.We organize the different design regulations according to four categories, as proposed by Crowley et al. (2020). These categories are described below.
Code level | Description |
No code | Codes that followed weak seismic provisions or no provisions at all. Some codes used allowable stresses and very low material strength values and considered predominantly the gravity loads. |
Low code | First generation of design regulations. These codes considered the seismic action by enforcing values of the seismic coefficient (typically called a lateral force coefficient). Structural design for these codes was typically based on material specific standards that used allowable stress design or a stress-block approach. |
Moderate code | Second generation of design regulations. These codes include modern concepts of ultimate capacity and partial safety factors (limit state design) and/or with better detailing to improve global ductility. The seismic action was also accounted for in the design by enforcing values for the lateral force coefficient. It is noted that the distinction low and moderate code is often not straightforward and varying interpretations could be made by different engineers. |
High code | Third generation of design regulations. These codes refer to modern seismic design principles that account for capacity design and local ductility measures. |
We classify the enforcement level of each regulation according to five categories (from no enforcement to fully enforced), as illustrated below.
Enforcement level | Description |
A | Fully enforced (100%) |
B | Mostly enforced (75%) |
C | Partially enforced (50%) |
D | Poorly enforced (25%) |
E | Not enforced (0%) |