Most of the Italian architectural heritage is located in zones that are characterized by a moderate or high seismic hazard and often public activities and services are located in these buildings. So that it is important to undertake the evaluation of the seismic capacity of these structures and, where necessary, make strengthening interventions. The huge number of buildings that have to be analyzed implies that it is not possible to assess all of these at once because it requires a strong financial commitment. In this paper is presented a simplified strategy that allows to assess the seismic capacity of buildings on the basis of very few data and through quick analysis. In this way it is possible to obtain a rough classification of buildings on the basis of their seismic capacity, so to allow the Government to destine the limited resources available firstly to the buildings with lower seismic capacity. A worked example shows the described methodology allows a rapid application and requires only few information about the analyzed building. Thus, the necessary data for the assessment may be collected during a rapid survey.
