Croatia and Swiss researchers launch the Zagreb Earthquake Resistance Project

ZAGREB, May 26 (Hina) – A four-year, €3 million Croatian-Swiss project aimed at strengthening the resilience of historic urban blocks in Zagreb has been launched at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, following the devastating earthquakes that struck Croatia in 2020.

The ZAGGREGATE project is jointly implemented by the Faculty of Civil Engineering and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

More than 80% of the funding will be invested in funding new doctoral and postdoctoral positions, with young researchers working alternately in Zagreb and Lausanne, said Dean of the Faculty Domagoj Damjanovic.

“The earthquakes were, on the one hand, a great tragedy and, on the other hand, a great opportunity to raise earthquake engineering in Croatia to a higher level,” said Igor Tomic, a researcher at EPFL.

The project includes data collection on building models, research, numerical modeling and development of reinforcement strategies.

The researchers highlighted a specific problem affecting historic urban blocks, where strengthening a single building in isolation can increase seismic risk to neighboring structures, a problem that current engineering approaches have not adequately addressed.

They said the project’s findings would apply not only to Zagreb, but also to other European cities with historic stone blocks, including Bern, Lausanne, Barcelona and Split.

Faculty of Civil Engineering professor Josip Atalic said that Zagreb’s historic center had already been identified in Croatia’s first national earthquake risk assessment in 2014 as the country’s largest problem area, something confirmed by the 2020 earthquake.

He added that the Ministry of Urban Planning has increasingly realized that the building blocks in the historic city center must be addressed collectively during reconstruction efforts.

Croatia lacked a proper system when the 2020 earthquake struck, but such a framework has since been created, said Dominik Skukandić, Special Advisor to the Minister of Urban Planning, Construction and State Assets.

He announced the preparation of new earthquake risk maps and a new law setting guidelines for response after natural disasters.

Culture Minister Nina Oboljin Korzenek said that the ministry has so far restored more than 500 historical buildings in areas affected by the earthquake.

“Our unique experience in rapid and expert damage assessment and restoration of cultural heritage in a way that preserves all its characteristics while making buildings safe and resilient to future disasters is an example that we will share with others,” she said. “No one will be able to carry out these complex reconstruction operations without learning from the Croatian experience.”

She noted that at the beginning of the reconstruction process she established an International Advisory Committee for Structural Restoration of Cultural Heritage in Earthquake-Affected Areas, whose members included Katrin Beyer, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering at EPFL, to lay the foundations for the current cooperation.

Hervoj Mestrich from the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth said that the ministry received two million euros from the state budget, while an additional one million euros will be provided from the Unity through Knowledge Fund.

He added that Croatian investment in research and development reached a record level of 1.2 billion euros in 2024.

Bayer said that the cooperation between EPFL and the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Zagreb has been ongoing since 2020, and described the project as an excellent platform for developing a new generation of experts with international experience and strong practical knowledge.

Swiss Ambassador Beatrice Scheier welcomed the project as an example of how concrete international cooperation can achieve tangible results and highlighted EPFL’s role as one of the leading European institutions in earthquake engineering.

Srdan Bakovic

Executive Editor

Croatian News Agency (HINA)

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