Rapid seismic assessment of existing buildings consists of four important parts. Different parts of this process include establishing the objective and scope of the application, rapid seismic evaluation stages of existing buildings, defining basic requirements, assessing initial performance and seismicity levels, identifying the upper and lower edge of a seismic vulnerability index, ocular seismic evaluation, form completion, qualitative seismic evaluation and preliminary analysis.

The main purpose of rapid seismic assessment of buildings is to investigate their seismic vulnerability with respect to important features affecting seismic performance, without incurring the costs of technical assessments. The results of the rapid seismic assessment of buildings can be used to classify and prioritize buildings. In other words, after collecting the desired information, this evaluation method is done in a two-step process that includes ocular and qualitative seismic evaluation. In these processes, by completing the building evaluation sheets based on the defined frameworks and calculating the seismic evaluation index, a criterion is provided for judging and selecting one of the following three options for the building: Relative safety or low seismic vulnerability of the building and lack of priority for technical assessment, high seismic vulnerability of the building and the need for technical evaluation, or extremely seismic vulnerability of the building, lack of priority for technical assessment.

The aim of this Special Issue is to collate original research and review articles with a focus on the rapid seismic assessment of existing buildings and seismic assessment of buildings damaged after an earthquake. We welcome submissions focusing on buildings that are based on the latest version of seismic design standards and their current use is consistent with the intended use of the original design. These include stone and brick buildings, mortar-free or mud-mortar buildings, which often have very high seismic vulnerabilities, reinforced masonry buildings, light steel frame buildings, and wooden buildings.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Seismic ocular assessment
• Qualitative seismic assessment
• Determining the upper and lower edge of the seismic assessment index
• Determining the base seismic assessment index and determining the type of building
• Upper and lower edge of the seismic assessment index
• Basic seismic evaluation index