Evaluation of seismic vulnerability assessment parameters for portuguese vernacular constructions with nonlinear numerical analysis

Considering that vernacular architecture may bear important lessons on hazard mitigation and that well-constructed examples showing traditional seismic resistant features can present far less vulnerability than expected, this study aims at understanding the resisting mechanisms and seismic behavior of vernacular buildings through detailed finite element modeling and nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. This paper focuses specifically on a type of vernacular rammed earth constructions found in the Portuguese region of Alentejo. Several rammed earth constructions found in the region were selected and studied in terms of dimensions, architectural layout, structural solutions, construction materials and detailing and, as a result, a reference model was built, which intends to be a simplified representative example of these constructions, gathering the most common characteristics. Different parameters that may affect the seismic response of this type of vernacular constructions have been identified and a numerical parametric study was defined aiming at evaluating and quantifying their influence in the seismic behavior of this type of vernacular buildings. This paper is part of an ongoing research which includes the development of a simplified methodology for assessing the seismic vulnerability of vernacular buildings, based on vulnerability index evaluation methods.

Seismic vulnerability of vernacular buildings in urban centres: the case of Vila Real de Santo António

Following detailed studies of Portuguese vernacular building typologies, this paper deals with buildings located in historical urban centres. An analysis of the history of the urban centre and, in particular, of some vernacular buildings is enhanced. Additionally, a discussion on the influence of changes of the geometry, and on added built volumes to original buildings in the seismic vulnerability of the buildings is also provided.

Where@UM - Dependable organic radio maps

In the past decade, the research community has been dedicating considerable effort into indoor positioning systems based on Wi-Fi fingerprinting techniques, mainly due to their capability to exploit existing infrastructures. Crowdsourcing approaches, also known as organic, have been proposed recently to address the problem of creating and maintaining the corresponding radio maps. In these organic systems, the users of the system build the radio map themselves while using it to estimate their own position/location. However, most of these collaborative methods, proposed by several authors, assume that all the users are honest and committed to contribute to a good quality radio map. In this paper we assess the quality of a radio map built collaboratively and propose a method to classify the credibility of individual contributions and the reputation of individual users. Experimental results are presented for an organic indoor location system that has been used by more than one hundred users over a period of around 12 months.