PSI - Issue 78

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

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varying patterns demonstrate the importance of tailoring intervention strategies to specific regional vulnerabilities, ensuring a balanced response that addresses both physical and social risks. When all three macro sectors, seismic risk, energy performance, and socioeconomic vulnerability, are combined into a single prioritisation indicator (I I,S–E–G ), a more comprehensive understanding of regional needs across mainland Portugal emerges. This integrated indicator is designed to guide equitable financial allocation, identifying areas where compounded vulnerabilities hinder resilience and sustainability. Districts like Faro, Porto, and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) rank highest, indicating critical needs across all three domains. Additionally, Viana do Castelo and Castelo Branco are flagged as priority areas, mainly due to their socioeconomic fragility, despite better performance in seismic and energy metrics. In contrast, districts in the Centro region and Santarém show the lowest levels of combined vulnerability, benefiting from more socioeconomic resilience, lower seismic risk, and better energy efficiency, suggesting a lower urgency for intervention.

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Fig. 3. Multi-sectoral integrated prioritisation patterns: (a) seismic and energy-based prioritisation (I I,S-E ), (b) seismic and socioeconomic-based prioritisation (I I,S-G ), and (c) energy and socioeconomic-based prioritisation (I I,E-G), and (d) seismic, energy and socioeconomic-based prioritisation (I I,S-E-G ). 5. Conclusions This study introduced a comprehensive prioritisation framework for building retrofitting and renovation in mainland Portugal, integrating seismic risk, energy performance, and socioeconomic vulnerability. The framework, built on state-of-the-art engineering and socioeconomic data, helps decision-makers develop effective national-scale intervention strategies. It is seen that the Algarve and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) are most critical from an building response perspective, while other regions, such as Centro, show lower vulnerability. When socioeconomic factors are considered, the prioritisation shifts, highlighting new critical areas such as Faro, Viana do Castelo, and Castelo Branco. The integrated framework supports more balanced and flexible resource allocation by revealing how different combinations of vulnerabilities affect regional priorities. It emphasises that addressing one sector alone—seismic, energy, or socioeconomic—may limit long-term benefits. The methodology is scalable and adaptable to various regions, municipalities, or building types, and future refinements are encouraged as better data become available. Ultimately, this prioritisation scheme promotes resilience, equity, and tailored retrofitting strategies, supporting a more sustainable and socially inclusive national response to structural and energy inefficiencies. Acknowledgements This work was carried out within the activities of CONSTRUCT - Instituto de I&D em Estruturas e Construcões (UID/04708), CERIS (UIDB/04625) and the project 2022.08138.PTDC (SERENE), all funded by Fundacão para a