A method for determining the financial cost of damage to buildings caused by seismic ground vibrations

A method for determining the value of the damage to a single-family residential building located near an open-pit mine caused by ground vibrations is presented. The article describes how to objectively determine the degree of actual wear and tear to a residential building (Zr) affected by ground vibrations created during rock mining using blasting. It consists of the method of “weighted average degree of technical wear and tear of individual elements” known from literature and used to calculate the actual wear and tear of the building. The natural wear and tear of the building is then calculated from dependences given in the literature. The percentage of the building’s natural wear and tear (Zn) is subtracted from the percentage of the building’s actual wear and tear. As a result of the subtraction, a percentage of accelerated wear and tear of the building (Zb), which is caused by vibrations of the ground during rock blasting, is obtained. Multiplying the percentage of accelerated wear and tear of the building by the value of a new building gives a value of the damage caused by ground vibrations. Examples of determining the value of the damage caused by ground vibrations in practice are described.