Civil Engineering and Architecture 9(5A): 68-77, 2021 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.091308 Assessing the Vulnerability of Kota Kinabalu Buildings Noor Sheena Herayani Harith 1,2,* , Viliana Jainih 1 , Mohd Azizul Ladin 1 , Mohd Irwan Adiyanto 3 1 Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia 2 Natural Disaster Research Center, Faculty of Science & Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia 3 Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Gambang, Malaysia Received February 28, 2021; Revised July 30, 2021; Accepted August 9, 2021 Cite This Paper in the following Citation Styles (a): [1] Noor Sheena Herayani Harith, Viliana Jainih, Mohd Azizul Ladin, Mohd Irwan Adiyanto , "Assessing the Vulnerability of Kota Kinabalu Buildings," Civil Engineering and Architecture, Vol. 9, No. 5A, pp. 68 - 77, 2021. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.091308. (b): Noor Sheena Herayani Harith, Viliana Jainih, Mohd Azizul Ladin, Mohd Irwan Adiyanto (2021). Assessing the Vulnerability of Kota Kinabalu Buildings. Civil Engineering and Architecture, 9(5A), 68 - 77. DOI: 10.13189/cea.2021.091308. Copyright©2021 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract A gradual increase in moderate and low seismic activity has occurred in Sabah over the course of several years due to the presence of certain moderately active fault lines in the region. Around 300 moderate earthquakes with magnitudes ranging from M W 4.0 to 7.0 have occurred in the last 120 years. The majority of existing buildings in Sabah are wind and gravity loaded. This study proposes a preliminary seismic vulnerability assessment methodology based on empirical and analytical vulnerability method for 250 existing buildings in Kota Kinabalu city. The empirical vulnerability assessment focuses on building evaluation utilizing a standard Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) method and the FEMA 154 guidebook’s moderate seismicity assessment form. A field survey was conducted on the buildings ranging in height from low-rise to high-rise. As a result, when subjected to moderate-intensity earthquakes, 60% of the buildings are classed as susceptible and vulnerable to seismic hazard. The current study included the use of nonlinear static analysis to seven different building cases for further investigation. The findings of the analysis demonstrate that the majority of the buildings respond linearly elastical when subjected to peak ground acceleration (PGA) at 0.17g, which indicate that, buildings without seismic design accumulate damage early when subjected to moderate earthquake loadings. Keywords Rapid Visual Screening, Building Vulnerability, Kota Kinabalu 1. Introduction Active seafloor in Sulawesi and the Philippines influences earthquake activity in Sabah, which is located in the South China Sea Basin. Local earthquakes have an impact on the region as well. An earthquake occurs when there is a sudden and unexpected shift in the ground. The stress along faults is released, and this results in the emission of seismic energy, causing the ground to shake. Malaysia is situated on the Sunda tectonic plate, which covers a large portion of Southeast Asia [1]. Malaysia was once thought to be relatively stable continent. However, the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struct Ranau, Sabah in June 2015 has alarmed both local and international researchers and institutional organizations, prompting them to investigate the area’s seismic vulnerability and local ground movements. The earthquake was the most powerful recorded in Malaysia in the previous 120 years, dating back to 1900. Seismic activity in Sabah dates all the way back to 1900 [2,3], and is triggered by shallow crustal faults.