An Introduction to the 2015 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures

The 2015 NEHRP Recommended Seismic Provisions for New Buildings and Other Structures (NEHRP Provisions) serves as the consensus resource document for US seismic codes and standards. The NEHRP Provisions are developed by the Building Seismic Safety Council (BSSC) through a five-year project sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Provisions are developed for the BSSC by its Provisions Update Committee (PUC). The PUC is supported by a group of Issue Teams, which develop technical proposals in the form of either seismic provisions with commentary or resource papers. The proposals are in the form changes to ASCE 7-10 and Commentary (ASCE 7-10), which are adopted as the basis for the Provisions. This paper provides a summary the key topics included in the 2015 NEHRP Provisions. The authors served as Chair and Assistant to the Chair of the PUC in the 2015 cycle and present this work as part of FEMA and BSSC’s commitment to ongoing outreach to the engineering community.