RESEARCH ARTICLE


Definition of Seismic Vulnerability Maps for Civil Protection Systems: The Case of Lampedusa Island



Panagiotis G. Asteris1, Liborio Cavaleri2, *, Fabio Di Trapani2, Giuseppe Macaluso2, Gaia Scaduto2
1 Computational Mechanics Laboratory, School of Pedagogical & Technological Education, Heraklion, GR 14121 Athens, Greece
2 Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace and Materials Engineering (DICAM), University of Palermo, 90128 Viale delle Scienze, Palermo, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© Asteris et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/legalcode), which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Civil, Environmental, Aerospace and Materials Engineering (DICAM), University of Palermo, 90128 Viale delle Scienze, Palermo, Italy; Tel: +39 091 23896733; Fax: +39 091 6657749; E-mail: liborio.cavaleri@unipa.it


Abstract

The opportunity to locate and quantify the major criticalities associated to natural catastrophic events on a territory allows to plan adequate strategies and interventions by civil protection bodies involved in local and international emergencies. Seismic risk depends, most of all, on the vulnerability of buildings belonging to the urban areas. For this reason, the definition, by a deep analysis of the territory, of instruments identifying and locating vulnerability, largely favours the activities of institutions appointed to safeguard the safety of citizens. This paper proposes a procedure for the definition of vulnerability maps in terms of vulnerability indexes and critical peak ground accelerations for mid-small urban centres belonging to Mediterranean areas. The procedure, tested on the city centre of the Island of Lampedusa, is based on a preliminary historical investigation of the urban area and of the main formal and technological features of buildings involved. Moreover, the vulnerability of the constructions is evaluated by fast assessment methods (filling of evaluation forms). The vulnerability model, allowing the definition of the fragility curves, is calibrated on the basis of the results of an identification process of prototype buildings, selected to be adequately representative. Their characterizations have been provided using the results of an experimental dynamic investigation to develop high representative numerical model. Critical PGA values have been determined by pushover analyses.The results presented provided an unambiguous representation of the major criticalities with respect to seismic vulnerability and risk, of the city centre of the island, being a suitable tool for planning and handling of emergencies.

Keywords: Masonry, PGA, pushover, seismic risk, vulnerability assessment.