Empirical damage and actual repair costs on masonry private buildings after L'Aquila earthquake

Abstract

In the first phase of the emergency management after the April 6, 2009, L'Aquila earthquake, field inspections were carried out through the AeDES form, a first level survey form for post-earthquake damage and usability assessment, to evaluate the usability conditions of buildings. Once the damage and usability assessment was completed, the reconstruction process of residential buildings outside the historical centre of L'Aquila and surrounding municipalities was regulated by several Ordinances of the Prime Minister. The public grant was released according to funding requests made by practitioners and checked by a proper commission entrusted by the Government. The data collected on a set of about 1,000 residential masonry buildings in terms of vulnerability class, construction age, number of storyes, empirical damage, as well as of Actual Repair Costs (ARCs) are herein discussed and presented. Building Damage Factor, DF has been computed based on the damage data of structural and non-structural component collected with the AeDES forms. A calibration of different parameters, as the damage extent and severity on each structural and non-structural component and the weight of the damage on a single component on the total repair costs of the building, was carried out. The calibration allow us to determine the best correlation between the empirical damage and ARC. The proposed relationship between empirical damage and ARC may drive decision makers, in the immediate post-earthquake, to make preliminary estimates of the repair costs, only based on quick surveys on residential buildings. The relationship may also be used as a tool to figure out repair costs based on damage scenarios.