Performance-based design for fire safety has been introduced in several international design frameworks. The fire models and simulations include various assumptions and simplifications, and the current fire resistance evaluation is based on deterministic approaches, leading to uncertainties in the performance of the structural members exposed to fire. An alternative is the application of probabilistic methodologies to assess the fire resistance of the structural members. The authors present the application of an efficient probabilistic methodology to perform a sensitivity analysis to identify the critical variables of a thermal model of a structural element exposed to characteristic fire loading. Furthermore, the methodology determines the reliability of the structural element. The methodology combines the elementary effects method with variance-based methods to rank the influence of the governing variables of the thermal and fire models on the thermal performance of a reinforced concrete slab and to determine their uncertainty contribution to the time-dependent thermal response. Furthermore, the Monte Carlo method is applied to calculate the probability of failure and the reliability index of the structural member exposed to fire loading. The critical governing variables from the fire model are the firefighting measures index, which accounts for firefighting measures used in the compartment ($FFMi$ ), characteristic fuel load density ($q_{f,k}$ ), compartment opening factor ($O$ ), and the ratio of the compartment’s floor area to total area ($A_f/A_t$ ). The critical governing variables from the thermal model are the coefficient of convection ($h$ ), concrete specific heat ($c_c$ ), concrete density ($d_c$ ), and concrete conductivity ($k_c$ ). As one moves away from the exposed surface, $h$ , $q_{f,k}$ , and $A_f/A_t$ are not as influential in the thermal response. Also observed is that the uncertainty of $FFMi$ , $O$ , $c_c$ , and $h$ are the primary sources of the thermal response’s uncertainty. Considering the variability of the input variables, a low-reliability index is determined for buildings with no basic firefighting measures, and adding intervention measures, sprinkler systems, and detection systems will increase the reliability index by 53%, 85%, and 89%, respectively.

Integrated seismic–environmental retrofit is gaining attention in research and practice, as it combines resilience and sustainability objectives in building retrofits. However, current research and practice remain fragmented. This paper presents a systematic literature review to analyse how retrofit is addressed across four key dimensions: structural, environmental, social, and governance. A thematic analysis in NVivo was combined with Python-based quantitative analysis of code frequency and co-occurrence. The integrated retrofit literature reframes environmental assessment, shifting towards whole-building lifecycle assessment and having seismic environmental impacts and energy efficiency as embedded components. Retrofit practices are mainly discussed in technical and compliance terms, but are not properly examined using unified quantitative metrics; the broad use of metrics and indicators limits comparability and replication. Social and governance dimensions remain peripheral, with weak connections to structural and environmental dimensions, which constrain cross-domain integration and challenge scaling up retrofit interventions. These gaps encompass the barriers facing integrated retrofit, with potential pathways to overcome, including aligned standards and datasets, capacity building, community engagement, and coordinated regulatory frameworks.

Purpose: This research paper aims to investigate reinforced concrete (RC) walls' behaviour under fire and identify the thermal and mechanical factors that affect their performance.Design/methodology/approach: A three-dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) model is developed to predict the response of RC walls under fire and is validated through experimental tests on RC wall specimens subjected to fire conditions. The numerical model incorporates temperature-dependent properties of the constituent materials. Moreover, the validated model was used in a parametric study to inspect the effect of the fire scenario, reinforcement concrete cover, reinforcement ratio and configuration, and wall thickness on the thermal and structural behaviour of the walls subjected to fire.Findings: The developed 3D FE model successfully predicted the response of experimentally tested RC walls under fire conditions. Results showed that the fire resistance of the walls was highly compromised under hydrocarbon fire. In addition, the minimum wall thickness specified by EC2 may not be sufficient to achieve the desired fire resistance under considered fire scenarios.Originality/value: There is limited research on the performance of RC walls exposed to fire scenarios. The study contributed to the current state-of-the-art research on the behaviour of RC walls of different concrete types exposed to fire loading, and it also identified the factors affecting the fire resistance of RC walls. This guides the consideration and optimisation of design parameters to improve RC walls performance in the event of a fire.