Ambient Vibration Measurements: A Tool for the Preservation of the Heritage of Byblos City

Existing masonry buildings are a challenge for engineers. Each construction is endowed with different material, structural, and dynamic characteristics. This variability depends on the workforce expertise, which constructed the building, as well as on the history and aging of the construction, among others. The ambient noise vibration method can be used as a reliable tool providing information about the current state of a masonry building, helping thus, to assess the building’s performance and vulnerability at the structural level as well as loss assessment at a city level, among others. This paper deals more specifically with the masonry buildings in Byblos city. The city is at least 7000 years old, a UNESCO heritage as it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities and one of the 100 Resilient Cities Project. To this purpose, a measurement campaign already took place, and ambient noise recordings were acquired for many Byblos buildings typologies. This preliminary study presents the results of the ambient noise measurement campaign and identifies the benefits of the method.