The objective of this document is to give the practitioners guidelines for rapid visual screening of buildings for potential seismic hazard.

This handbook presents a method to quickly identify, inventory, and rank buildings posing risk of death, injury, or severe curtailment in use following an earthquake. The Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) procedure can be used by trained personnel to identify potentially hazardous buildings with a 15- to 30-minute exterior inspection, using a data collection form included in the handbook. A significant difference in the second edition is the need for a higher level of technical engineering expertise on the part of the users. The structural scoring system has been revised, based on new information, and the handbook has been shortened and focused to make it easier to use.The target audiences for this guide are building officials, engineers, architects, building owners, emergency managers, and interested citizens.

This document provides a general guidelines which is adaptable and applicable to other places.