Qatar has experienced rapid high-rise development, particularly in Doha, while historically being regarded as a region of relatively low seismic activity. Nevertheless, seismic design cannot be dismissed for tall buildings because earthquakes in the wider Arabian-Iranian region have been felt in Qatar and because the long natural periods, large mass, vertical irregularity, wind-sensitive behavior, and occupant and nonstructural-system requirements of high-rise buildings make dynamic response an important design consideration. This review examines the seismic performance of high-rise buildings in Qatar with emphasis on seismic hazard, Qatar Construction Specifications (QCS), site conditions, structural systems, dynamic analysis, drift and stability, soil–structure interaction, nonstructural components, and performance-based design. QCS-2014 requires building seismic design to use local seismic accelerations in conjunction with ASCE 7-10, IBC 2012, or BS EN 1998-1:2004 and provides uniform-hazard spectral values for 475- and 2475-year return periods [1]. Published assessment of existing Qatar reinforced-concrete buildings found that the 2014 seismic provisions could generate demands more critical than wind for some low- and mid-rise cases, while seismic lateral movements could exceed wind-induced movements [2]. For high-rise buildings, however, wind generally remains a dominant serviceability and lateral-response consideration, making combined wind–earthquake assessment essential rather than treating the two hazards independently. The review identifies response spectrum analysis, nonlinear time-history analysis, P–Delta effects, torsional response, foundation flexibility, podium–tower interaction, seismic joints, and drift-sensitive façades and partitions as key issues. The paper concludes that Qatar would benefit from a high-rise-specific, performance-based seismic framework integrating regional hazard characterization, site-specific response spectra, advanced soil–structure interaction, nonlinear analysis, and explicit resilience criteria for structural and nonstructural components.
Keywords:High-rise buildings; seismic performance; Qatar; Doha; earthquake engineering; QCS 2014; seismic hazard