Historic masonry building: From damage to first aid interventions

Over centuries, the Italian territory has undergone several seismic events which caused deep injuries to existing buildings environment, especially to cultural heritage sites. The recurring of the same mechanisms of collapse in masonry structures allows the study of their seismic behaviour in order to define reinforcement interventions for their conservation. Thanks to recent researches, several tools are nowadays available to manage the preservation of historical buildings in face of seismic emergency but further studies are still necessary to optimize securing operations. In particular, the choice of first aid interventions seems to be disconnected from the damage survey and moreover the design and realization of temporary interventions rarely consider the following phases of definitive restoration with a consequent waste of resources. In light of these considerations, a research has been carried out within the PhD Programme at Parma University, in collaboration with Emilia Romagna regional offices for the post-seismic reconstruction. The study analysed the management of the emergency caused by the 2012 earthquake in the Emilia Romagna region in order to define a methodology to optimize the definition of first aid techniques and the cost assessment. The research focuses on religious buildings, one of the most vulnerable architectural typology to seismic actions. Several case studies have been investigated in order to identify the elements of vulnerability, the main securing actions, the advantages and disadvantages of each one and the aspects to care while preparing the emergency response. Moreover, statistical analyses have been carried out on the cost assessment, leading to a methodological proposal that allows to identify the most suitable first aid intervention for the specific case, optimize their operative application and evaluate restoration costs in an homogeneous way.