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Twenty Years of EMS-98 Practice in Italy: A Successful Experience

Description: 

Macroseismic intensity originated with the purpose of measuring the strength of an earthquake observing the effects caused on buildings, people, and objects. From this perspective, buildings can be considered seismic sensors that permanently record the shaking. During the last century the residential building stock in Italy has undergone a radical change. Masonry, predominant until the 1960s, was superseded by reinforced concrete. At the beginning of the 21st century a new building code was enforced and important changes in the structural design of buildings were adopted. However, the Italian building stock is still extremely heterogeneous, with areas with widespread high vulnerability buildings, often reconstructed or restored after destructive seismic events. The heterogeneity of building typologies results in a variability in earthquake resistance. The use of the EMS-98, which consider the vulnerability of the buildings as a parameter for the intensity assessment, has become necessary to keep up macroseismic practice with the development of constructive technologies and the application of the building code.
For about twenty years, the QUick Earthquake Survey Team (QUEST), INGV's rapid response group for post-earthquake macroseismic surveys, has been conducting surveys after damaging earthquakes using the EMS-98. In this period about 40 macroseismic campaigns have been carried out, including those following the 2009 L’Aquila (Mw 6.3) and the 2016-2017 Central Italy seismic events (Mw 6.5). On the two occasions, over 20.000 buildings were inspected. During these years, the QUEST group had to tackle the assessment of macroseismic intensity in a wide range of situations, from very light damage to total destruction. For the first time, after more than a century, intensity 11 has been assigned after the 2016-2017 Central Italy earthquakes. This paper describes the main activity of QUEST and provides considerations about the application of the EMS-98 to earthquakes in Italy, highlighting the advantages and criticalities of this scale in the Italian macroseismic practice.

Session: Macroseismic Intensity: Past, Present and Future [Poster]

Type: Poster

Date: 4/17/2025

Presentation Time: 08:00 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Andrea

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Poster Number: 23

Authors