Indian Himalayan region is susceptible to seismic hazard. The haphazard growth of built infrastructure in hilly regions is highly vulnerable to impending earthquakes. Most of the highly populous cities in the Indian. Himalayan region come under seismic zone V [1]. Therefore, it is important to perform seismic vulnerability assessment of built infrastructure, especially buildings in hilly regions, to predict the expected seismic damage. To conduct mass level seismic vulnerability assessment of buildings, rapid visual screening can be opted as a tool to quickly segregate them based on their expected performance. In this study, rapid visual screening of 1009 buildings is performed in Mandi region of Himachal Pradesh, India. Out of them, 81 buildings are important such as hospitals, educational institutes, hotels, and government buildings. Table 1 shows the total number of different important buildings surveyed in the study area, along with their typology and tentative occupant count. It is observed that in the Mandi region, important buildings constructed with stone masonry are still functional to their full capacity. Moreover, important buildings are assessed based on different structural irregularities, such as soft story, setback, plan irregularity, etc., present in them. Figure 1 shows the number of buildings in which different irregularity parameters are observed. It is noticed that the presence of structural irregularities such as lack of adequate walls and plan irregularity are very common. Apart from structural irregularities, it is also noticed that buildings are poorly maintained in terms of water seepage and cracks in non-structural building components. Furthermore, three different rapid visual screening methods, FEMA P154 [2], Sreerama et al. [3], and NDMA [4], are used to assess the important buildings in the study area. Some consistencies in the results of the expected damage grade of the building are also observed that emphasize on the need to improve the existing rapid visual screening methods for the buildings in the hilly region.

Assessment; Buildings; Hilly Regions; Important Buildings; Rapid Visual Screening; Seismic Vulnerability Assessment; Seismic Hazard; Structural Irregularities