Our new visiting professor Dr Mislav Stepinac recently shared with us some of the lessons learned following his experience of conducting a rapid assessment of building stock damaged during the 2020 Zagreb earthquake earlier this year. 

Indeed, conducting a damage assessment during a global pandemic was not without its challenges – especially when it came to gaining entry into people’s homes! 

Using a combination of mobile platforms (apps), GIS and aerial assessment (drones), Mislav and his colleagues (almost 500 local engineers and architects) were able to assess almost 26,000 buildings, including 24,000 residential dwellings, 214 health facilities, 513 educational facilities, 192 cultural institutions, 13 public government heritage buildings and 159 religious structures. Observed damages included out-of-plane failure of walls, collapse of chimneys, as well as damage to roofs and shafts. In total, about 11.3 billion euros of damage was observed, while the cost of reconstruction and recovery will most likely be close to 17.5 billion euros.