Hi Mariana,
The algorithm we use in the background to assign a Seismic Design Level based on the Year of Construction assumes that the region of interest is in a UBC Zone 4 in California. We use Table 5-35 from the Hazus Technical manual (see a copy attached below) as the basis of the assignment. It would be relatively straightforward for us to extend our script to support all zones listed in Table 5-35 and allow you to select the zone that applies to your analysis. However, the break points in that table correspond to major code benchmark years in California and I noticed that your site is in Texas, near El Paso. To get realistic results, you would need an assignment logic that corresponds to the design eras in that area. These eras might be building-specific, like we have special rules for W1 buildings in California. You can prepare such logic in a python script and feed it to the workflow in R2D; we use such scripts for examples 7 and 8 to analyze hurricane impacts, see here in the DL panel:
https://nheri-simcenter.github.io/R2D-Documentation/common/user_manual/examples/desktop/E7HurricaneWindWater/README.htmlI see a few different options going forward and we are happy to support you regardless of which one you choose:
- You can manually modify the year of construction for your URM buildings to be less than 1975. This will avoid them getting assigned to High-Code and let the analysis run. I suggest giving this a try just to confirm that you can run a regional analysis in R2D. Note that the results you get with this approach are not at all realistic, I do not recommend using them for anything but testing purposes.
- We can extend our algorithm to support all Zones in Table 5-35 and you can pick a Zone that you think represents the conditions in your target area. Depending on the evolution of design codes in your target area, this might work. Please let us know if you find this feature helpful for your work so that we can add it to the list of requests we have. I anticipate this extension to fit in for the next release of R2D that we are planning for late March. If you need to have it earlier than that, we can probably provide you a developer version of the tool in a few weeks that has this feature.
- Finally, you can prepare your own algorithm to assign Hazus fragility curves to buildings based on the local design evolution in El Paso. If you plan to use the results for serious research, I recommend going down this route. Let us know if you are interested and we are happy to provide you guidance on how to prepare such a script.
I hope this helps.
Adam
