Assessing earthquake impacts and monitoring resilience of historic areas: Methods for GIS tools
This paper proposes methods that can be implemented through a geographical information system to assess earthquake-induced physical damages and the resulting impacts on the functions of HAs and to monitor their resilience. Historic areas (HAs) are highly vulnerable to natural hazards, including earthquakes, that can cause severe damage, if not total destruction.
For the assessment of damages, making reference to the universally recognized procedure of convoluting hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, this paper proposes:
- A framework for assessing hazard maps of both real and end-user defined earthquakes;
- A classification of the exposed elements of the built environment;
- An index-based seismic vulnerability assessment method for heritage buildings. Moving towards the continuous monitoring of resilience, an index-based assessment method is proposed to quantify how the functions of HAs recover over time. The implementation of the proposed methods is demonstrated in this paper with reference to the historic area of Camerino-San Severino (Italy).