Wind hazard, vulnerability and risk

Abstract

With the onset of the twentieth century, mankind grew a renewed awareness about the risks affecting whole areas exposed to wind phenomena of devastating strength, such as tropical cyclones, tornadoes and thunderstorms. This chapter deals with this issue pointing out the trend, which gained ground in this period, aimed at collecting the data concerning the location, recurrence and intensity of wind storms, the relationships between the intensity of calamitous phenomena, the characteristics of structures and of their elements, and the damage they suffered, the consequences of such damage and the strategies to mitigate losses through the attenuation of hazard and vulnerability.