Which structural systems your seismic zone rules out
The zone rules systems out before the client has looked at a single quote. It only says what is excluded, never what may be used: with the restrictions verified, a list of prohibitions stays true where a list of permissions would be a trap.
Systems ruled out by seismic zone
6 systems are ruled out
This is not table A.3-1. These are the restrictions that were verified by reading the code, which is why the tool only says what is ruled out and never what may be used.
Unreinforced masonry
Permitted only in a low seismic hazard zone where Aa is 0.05 or less, use group I, one and two storeys. It is the narrowest limit in the code, and Barranquilla and Cartagena already fall outside it with their Aa of 0.10.
NSR-10, Tabla A.3-1
Concrete shear walls, moderate energy dissipation (DMO)
Not permitted in a high seismic hazard zone.
NSR-10, Tabla A.3-1
Concrete shear walls, minimal energy dissipation (DMI)
Permitted only in a low seismic hazard zone.
NSR-10, Tabla A.3-1
Concrete moment frame, moderate energy dissipation (DMO)
Not permitted in a high seismic hazard zone.
NSR-10, Tablas A.3-1 a A.3-4
Concrete moment frame, minimal energy dissipation (DMI)
Not permitted in a high seismic hazard zone, nor in an intermediate one. It is the hard proof that the zone changes the design, not just the reinforcement.
NSR-10, Tablas A.3-1 a A.3-4
Infill masonry walls
Not permitted for new buildings. In no zone, with no exception for use group or height.
NSR-10, D.2.1.6
And if you were planning to design under Título E
On what you have answered, the case falls within the limits of Título E. Título E covers one- and two-storey houses in confined masonry and reinforced earth-and-cane construction, use group I, in schemes of at most 15 dwellings and under 3,000 m². Outside that, it is not that building is forbidden: it is that the design can no longer be done under Título E.
NSR-10, E.1.1.1.1, cross-referring to A.1.3.11
Steel framing is in the code: Título F, chapter F.4, cold-formed steel sections. It gets repeated a great deal that it is «outside the code», and it is not.
Where the zone comes from
Departmental capitals are in table A.2.3-2 and every other municipality only in appendix A-4. Citing the wrong table is a checkable mistake, and it is the one made when looking up a municipality that is not a capital.
These are the 1,117 municipalities of appendix A-4, extracted from the PDF of the code, not typed in.
Colombia has 66 municipality names that repeat, and 39 of those pairs do not share a seismic hazard zone. The extreme case is Mosquera: the one in Cundinamarca has Aa = 0.15 and sits in an intermediate zone; the one in Nariño has Aa = 0.50 and sits in a high one. That is why the search here goes by department and municipality, and cross-checks underneath by DANE code: a search by name alone would hand a project in Nariño a design acceleration three times lower than its own.
The seismic hazard zone is set by Av, not by Aa, and that is why some municipalities surprise you: Valparaíso, in Caquetá, has the lowest Aa in the country (0.05) and is still an intermediate zone, because its Av is 0.15. Reading the table by Aa would put it in a low zone and open up unreinforced masonry, which cannot be used there.
On cost, carefully
The NSR-10 does not mention cost anywhere. That a high seismic hazard zone makes a building more expensive is professional inference (reasonable, and ours), not a provision of the code. What the code does say is which systems are ruled out, and that happens before the client has looked at a single quote.
Where it comes from
The restrictions
NSR-10 (the Colombian seismic code) table A.3-1 and tables A.3-1 to A.3-4: in a high seismic hazard zone confined masonry is limited to use group I and two storeys; unreinforced masonry is permitted only in a low zone where Aa is 0.05 or less, use group I, one and two storeys; concrete shear walls with moderate dissipation (DMO) are not permitted in a high zone; the minimal-dissipation frame (DMI) is permitted neither in a high zone nor in an intermediate one. And D.2.1.6: infill masonry walls are not permitted for new buildings.
Your municipality’s zone
Appendix A-4 of the NSR-10, annexed to Decreto 926 de 2010: the 1,117 municipalities in the appendix with their Aa and Av values and their zone. It was extracted from the PDF of the code rather than typed in, and cross-checked by DANE code against the DANE’s DIVIPOLA register as at December 2024. Departmental capitals are additionally in table A.2.3-2; citing that table for a municipality that is not a capital is the most repeated mistake on this subject.
Seven municipalities are not in the appendix
The appendix was adopted in 2010 and the current DIVIPOLA register contains seven municipalities that did not then exist or had a different code: Norosí, Guachené, San José de Uré, Tuchín, Nuevo Belén de Bajirá, Nariño (Nariño) and Coveñas. For those the tool says it does not list them, and does not lend them a neighbour’s zone.
The limits of Título E
E.1.1.1.1, referring to A.1.3.11: it covers one- and two-storey houses in confined masonry and reinforced earth-and-cane construction, use group I, in schemes of at most 15 dwellings and under 3,000 m². It is over-cited. And steel framing is in the code: Título F, chapter F.4, cold-formed steel sections.
The NSR-10 is still in force
Latest amending decree: 1580 de 2023. The Ministry of Housing’s regulatory agenda as at 31 August 2026 carries no project on seismic resistance, and the AIS 100-24 is a technical document of the AIS with no adopting decree.
What this tool does not claim
A tool that answers what its source does not say is worse than no tool at all. This is what is deliberately left unanswered here, and why.
- This is not table A.3-1, and that is why it only says what is ruled out and never what may be used. The tables in the code cross dozens of systems against three zones; what is here are the restrictions that were verified. A system that does not appear on the list is not authorised by its absence: it is that it was not checked.
- It does not invent a zone for the seven municipalities the 2010 appendix does not list. It says that it does not list them, and why. A new municipality’s zone is not its neighbour’s: that is settled by a study, not by a table.
- It does not replace seismic microzonation. Where a municipality has one adopted by decree, the design is done against that and not against the general values in the appendix. Which municipalities have one was not verified, so they are not listed here.
- The NSR-10 does not mention cost anywhere. That a high seismic hazard zone makes a building more expensive is professional inference, ours, and not a provision of the code.
- It does not replace the structural engineer. The system is chosen by whoever signs the design, with the ground investigation and the architectural scheme in front of them.
- It does not cover dissipation coefficients, irregularities or the height limits per system, which are in the same tables and were not transcribed.
I have a plot and I want to build on it.
We check what the planning rules allow on your plot, what can be built and what it costs, before drawing anything. Then we develop the full project through to the drawings and the permit application with the curaduría (the licensed private office that issues building permits in Cali and other large Colombian municipalities; in smaller ones, the municipal planning office).