The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Barriers to adoption and implementation of PBEE innovations

May, Peter J.

PEER-2002/20, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2002-08, 41 pages (400/P33/2002-20)

Performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE) has gained prominence in the engineering community as an approach that allows for more transparent choices about desired earthquake performance of engineered structures. This report considers prospects for the adoption of PBEE innovations by the design community and for use of innovations in making decisions about seismic performance more generally. The relevant literature is considered and case studies are presented regarding innovations in seismic isolation, load and resistance factor design (LRFD), and performance-based earthquake engineering. It is difficult at this point to gauge the speed with which innovations in performance-based earthquake engineering will be adopted and implemented. Although code guidelines addressing performance-based approaches have been developed, rigorous methods and techniques for performance-based earthquake engineering are still largely on the drawing board. New seismic provisions and some engineering practice, especially with respect to the rehabilitation of buildings, have incorporated performance-based concepts. However, many engineers are just learning about performance-based earthquake engineering. And, under current ways of doing business, building owners, insurers, and other stakeholders only rarely explicitly engage in discussions of desired performance levels. Patterns in other earthquake innovations, reviewed in this report, suggest that it takes at least two decades to move beyond the initial threshold of early applications and guidelines to widespread adoption of the innovation. If that pattern holds for PBEE, and if one argues that the initial threshold was reached in the mid to late 1990s, it will be at least another 15 years before PBEE gains widespread currency. Even within a 15-to-20-year time frame, adoption and implementation are far from assured. For PBEE innovations to gain widespread currency, a number of technical and decision-related challenges must be addressed. The challenges that PBEE faces for adoption and implementation are arguably more daunting than those previously confronting seismic isolation or load and resistance factor design. The lessons reviewed in this report suggest that the key barriers and steps to overcoming them for PBEE are (1) overcoming uncertainty about the PBEE methodology and its benefits, (2) addressing concerns about the costs of employing the methodology, (3) addressing the complexity of the methodology, (4) legitimizing the methodology, (5) establishing a comparative advantage, and (6) facilitating early adoption.

Available online: http://peer.berkeley.edu/publications/peer_reports/reports_2002/0220.pdf