PSI - Issue 78

Rita Couto et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 78 (2026) 1951–1958 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2025) 000–000

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unable to adequately heat their houses (Eurostat, 2023), and was assessed for each Portuguese district through the Municipal Energy Vulnerability Index (MEVI), defined at a municipality level by Carvalho et al. (2023). ERA plays a crucial role in influencing individuals’ willingness to adopt safety measures, making it a key component of prioritisation frameworks. In this study, earthquake risk awareness in the country, which is generally low due to the absence of recent high-magnitude events, was derived from a national survey conducted in Portugal (Tavares et al. 2011). The individual socioeconomic metrics reveal distinct regional patterns, highlighting Alentejo and Algarve as socially vulnerable, Norte as most affected by energy poverty, and Lisbon as most aware of seismic risk, while the combined socioeconomic vulnerability indicator (I G,SVI ), illustrated in Fig. 2(c), shows a highly heterogeneous distribution across districts, with the highest vulnerability in Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, and Bragança, and the lowest in Lisboa, and Setúbal.

(a) (c) Fig. 2. (a) Seismic risk-based prioritisation map and seismic risk indicator (I S ) value per district, (b) Energy performance-based prioritisation map and energy performance indicator (I E ) per district, and (c) Global socioeconomic-based prioritisation map and socioeconomic vulnerability indicator (I G,SVI ) per district. 4. Integrated prioritisation This section analyses the results of four integrated multi-sectoral indicators (Fig. 3) combining seismic risk, energy performance, and socioeconomic vulnerability. In the engineering-focused scenario (I I,S–E ), the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) and Algarve emerge as the most critical due to poor performance in both seismic and energy aspects. Conversely, districts like Guarda, Viseu, and Vila Real show low vulnerability, partly due to unexpectedly low energy consumption despite colder climates. When seismic risk and socioeconomic vulnerability are combined (I I,S–G ), districts such as Faro, Viana do Castelo, and Castelo Branco become high-priority due to their higher social vulnerability, even if their seismic risk alone is moderate. This shift underscores the importance of integrating equity into risk mitigation. The indicator combining energy and socioeconomic dimensions (I I,E–G ) highlights districts in the Norte region, Lisboa, and Castelo Branco as critical. In this case, areas like Lisboa and Porto, though not socioeconomically fragile, are highly energy inefficient, raising their priority. Meanwhile, the Centro region maintains a low-priority status due to higher energy efficiency and socioeconomic resilience. These (b)