The need for a simple but rigorous seismic assessment procedure to predict damage to reinforcedconcrete buildings during a seismic event has been highlighted following the Canterbury Earthquakesequence. Such simplified assessment procedure, applied to individual structure or large buildinginventory, should not only have low requirement in terms of input information and involvestraightforward analyses, but also should be capable to provide reliable predictive results within shorttimeframe.This research provides a general overview and critical comparison of alternative simplifiedassessment procedures adopted in NZSEE 2006 Guidelines (Assessment and Improvement of theStructural Performance of Buildings in Earthquakes), ASCE 41-13 (Seismic Evaluation and Retrofitof Existing Buildings), and EN: 1998-3: 2005 (Assessment and Retrofitting of Buildings). Particularfocus is given to the evaluation of the capability of Simplified Lateral Mechanism Analysis (SLaMa),which is an analytical pushover method adopted in NZSEE 2006 Guidelines. The predictive resultsfrom SLaMa are compared to damages observed for a set of reinforced concrete buildings inChristchurch, as well as the results from more detailed assessment procedure based on numericalmodelling.This research also suggests improvements to SLaMa, together with validation of the improvements, toinclude assessment of local mechanism by strength hierarchy evaluation, as well as to developassessment of global mechanism including post-yield mechanism sequence based on local mechanism.
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