To truly understand the current standard, one must appreciate the departure from its predecessor. Historically, Australia treated earthquake loading similarly to wind loading—a force to be resisted within elastic limits. The older codes focused on ensuring that a structure remained undamaged during an earthquake.
: The standard (supported by the commentary) scales requirements based on Earthquake Design Categories (EDC) , ranging from simple static analysis for EDC I to full dynamic analysis for EDC III. as 1170.4 commentary