A road map for seismic prevention of damage

Abstract

The seismic prevention of damage is a challenge for the third millennium. In spite of the tremendous work on analytical and experimental studies to reduce seismic risk, many cities in the world are prone to seismic risk and the dead and loose are increasing exponentially in the past century. The scientific, social and political awareness of Italian community leads the Italian Department of Civil Protection to funding the Research Project on earthquake damage scenarios for a high risk area in the Mediterranean. The area chosen was the mid-sized city of Catania, located in the Sicily island, situated in the central part of the Mediterranean area. The road map for the evaluation of seismic prevention of damage follows the subsequent parts: the earthquake-source characterisation and seismic action evaluation at the bedrock for the scenario earthquakes (section 2); the site effects evaluation (section 3); the vulnerability analysis of physical environment for evaluating the risk related to cavities, landslides and liquefaction (section 4); the soil-structure interaction analysis for shallow foundation and retaining walls (section 5); the vulnerability analysis of monuments and r.c. buildings (section 6); the seismic structural improvement of r.c. buildings (section 7); vulnerability analysis of urban road and infrastructures (section 8). The road map followed for the seismic prevention of damage could be considered a pilot project for detailed earthquake scenarios analyses and for seismic prevention of damage in many cities, characterised as the city of Catania by severe site amplification phenomena, landslides, liquefaction, presence of cavities, presence of many monuments and buildings not designed to resist against earthquakes. The seismic structural improvement of these buildings must be based on site dependent response spectra, evaluated from the characterisation of the earthquake source. The seismic structural improvement is needed for the sustainable development of many cities prone to seismic risk.