A digital platform for monitoring seismic resistance and managing urban development safety in seismically active areas of the Russian Federation

More than a third of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are located in seismically hazardous areas, with urbanization rates exceeding 70%, particularly in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal Districts. A distinctive feature of seismically hazardous areas is the constant occurrence of low-intensity earthquakes, which are not always felt and are only recorded by instruments. Constant structural vibrations of varying intensity and duration are a typical cause of accelerated “aging” of apartment buildings due to the accumulation of damage, degradation of the structural material structure, and their fatigue strength. This leads to a decrease (deficit) in the seismic resistance of buildings and an increased risk of natural and man-made emergencies. According to expert estimates, approximately 200 million m2 of standard-design apartment buildings have a seismic resistance deficiency, and approximately 26 million m2 are in a limited operational condition. Given the unpredictability of strong earthquakes, urban development safety requires preventative measures based on objective seismological and seismometric engineering data in real time on seismic events and the response of buildings to these events. To this end, a Unified Digital Platform has been developed. This platform is an information system with distributed databases that include information on the seismic resistance class of urban buildings and their seismic hazard level. A description of the platform’s operating principles is provided in this paper.