2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2CroCEE

Even today, moderate earthquakes can cause considerable damage and social disturbance, especially in areas populated with old and masonry buildings. Two recent moderate earthquakes that hit the Balkan peninsula in 2016 and 2020 affected the capital cities of Skopje and Zagreb, respectively. Both have shown the high vulnerability pattern of a current masonry building stock and emphasised the necessity for improvement of existing response, preparedness, and protection measures. The manuscript analyses, summarizes, and presents the crucial seismo-tectonic aspects and seismological data of both affected cities, then defines P-nodal planes for both strongest earthquake events affecting Skopje 2016 (ML=5.3) and Zagreb 2020 (ML=5.5). We analysed and compared macroseismic data, and strong motion records in respect to their amplitude and frequency characteristics and showed the building damage and usability statistics. The observed differences and similarities that have resulted from this comparative study are to be used further to increase the awareness of the impact of moderate earthquakes, identify gaps and inconsistencies in the coping capacity domain and propose systematic measures to decrease vulnerability of the existing masonry building portfolio.