Since its inception in the 1960s, probabilistic seismic‐hazard analysis (PSHA) (Cornell, 1968; McGuire, 2004, 2008) has emerged as the principal methodology for assessing the potential hazard posed by earthquake ground motion in a broad range of contexts. Seismic‐hazard analysis serves different needs coming from a wide spectrum of users and applications. These may encompass engineering design, assessment of earthquake risk to portfolios of assets within the insurance and reinsurance sectors, engineering seismological research, and effective mitigation via public policy in the form of urban zoning and building design code formulation.

The GEM Global Active Faults Database (GAF‐DB) is the first public, comprehensive database of active faults with worldwide coverage. The GAF‐DB is a compilation of many regional datasets. The GAF‐DB contains ∼13,500 faults, each with associated attributes that describe the geometry, kinematics, slip rate, references, and other characteristics, as the information is available. Spatial completeness is high, and about 77% of the faults have slip rate information. The GAF‐DB is built from its constituent datasets algorithmically and is designed to fluidly incorporate changes to or addition of any of the underlying datasets. This process reflects a philosophy of easily incorporating a change to avoid obsolescence and to quickly provide the most up‐to‐date information possible to the users. The database is licensed under a free and open‐source license (CC‐BY‐SA 4.0) and is available at https://github.com/GEMScienceTools/gem‐global‐active‐faults .

Seismic hazard modeling is a multidisciplinary science that aims to forecast earthquake occurrence and its resultant ground shaking. Such models consist of a probabilistic framework that quantifies uncertainty across a complex system; typically, this includes at least two model components developed from Earth science: seismic source and ground motion models. Although there is no scientific prescription for the forecast length, the most common probabilistic seismic hazard analyses consider forecasting windows of 30 to 50 years, which are typically an engineering demand for building code purposes. These types of analyses are the topic of this review paper. Although the core methods and assumptions of seismic hazard modeling have largely remained unchanged for more than 50 years, we review the most recent initiatives, which face the difficult task of meeting both the increasingly sophisticated demands of society and keeping pace with advances in scientific understanding. A need for more accurate and spatially precise hazard forecasting must be balanced with increased quantification of uncertainty and new challenges such as moving from time‐independent hazard to forecasts that are time dependent and specific to the time period of interest. Meeting these challenges requires the development of science‐driven models, which integrate all information available, the adoption of proper mathematical frameworks to quantify the different types of uncertainties in the hazard model, and the development of a proper testing phase of the model to quantify its consistency and skill. We review the state of the art of the National Seismic Hazard Modeling and how the most innovative approaches try to address future challenges.

Recent major earthquakes in the Italian territory have reaffirmed the seismic vulnerability of precast industrial buildings typical of past Italian building practices, highlighting structural deficiencies observed during previous events and primarily related to the transfer of horizontal forces between structural and nonstructural elements. An intrinsic lack of shear and ductility capacity has been observed in simply supported beam-to-joist and beam-to-column connections, primarily constituted by vertical steel dowels or solely relying on shear friction, with or without neoprene pads. These connections were designed neglecting seismic loads and their premature failure was observed during recent seismic events to cause a loss of support of beam elements, owing to the relative movements of elements, and the collapse of part of the buildings, primarily the roof. The seismic displacement demand of the industrial buildings under consideration is larger than traditional RC frame structures owing to their higher flexibility, according to both higher interstory height and to a cantilevered static scheme. Furthermore, this high flexibility may also result in displacement incompatibility between structural and nonstructural elements, such as precast cladding panels, causing their connection failure. On the basis of detailed field observations on a relevant number of buildings, collected just after the earthquakes, seven representative industrial facilities are examined to outline the primary vulnerabilities of one-story precast concrete structures not designed and detailed for seismic loads.

Since 2015, the Global Earthquake Model (GEM) Foundation and its partners have been supporting regional programs and bilateral collaborations to develop an open global earthquake risk model. These efforts led to the development of a repository of probabilistic seismic hazard models, a global exposure dataset comprising structural and occupancy information regarding the residential, commercial and industrial buildings, and a comprehensive set of fragility and vulnerability functions for the most common building classes. These components were used to estimate probabilistic earthquake risk globally using the OpenQuake‐engine, an open‐source software for seismic hazard and risk analysis. This model allows estimating a number of risk metrics such as annualized average losses or aggregated losses for particular return periods, which are fundamental to the development and implementation of earthquake risk mitigation measures.