Latest Quick Response Report Gives a Glimpse of L’Aquila Vulnerability

The Natural Hazards Center is pleased to announce the release of its latest Quick Response Report, Vulnerability of Reinforced Concrete Frame Buildings and their Occupants in the 2009 L’aquila, Italy Earthquake.

The report, by University of Colorado (CU) Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering researchers Abbie Liel and Kathryn Lynch, is the result of a field study following the April 6 L’Aquila, Italy, earthquake. The authors collected information on more than 450 reinforced concrete structures. By examining that information along with census and other social data, they found 38 percent ofL’Aquila residents living in reinforced concrete structures experienced moderate or heavy damage to their homes. The damage led to significant disruption of the community and social fabric, including the closure of government offices, churches, restaurants, and schools.

The fieldwork, funded by the Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Grant Program, will be the basis for a National Science Foundation RAPID research project on progress and priorities in L’Aquila’s recovery and reconstruction. The original research team will work with CU Engineering Professor Ross Corotis, CU Institute of Behavioral Science Research Associate Jeannette Sutton, and University of Chieti-Pescara Professors Guido Camata and Enrico Spacone to study decision making and recovery progress over the next nine months.

The Italian government’s new approach to disaster recovery—and probable resulting changes in decision making and organizations—makes the study particularly compelling. Interviews with reconstruction and building industry leaders, government officials, and community leaders are expected to wrap up in Spring 2010.

Preliminary Report from GEER

The Preliminary Report on the Seismological and Geotechnical Aspects of the April 6 2009 L’Aquila Earthquake in Central Italy can be read on GEER’s website (click title).

EEFIT UK Team Draft Report Ready + Virtual Disaster Viewer

The EEFIT UK earthquake field investigation team has prepared a draft web report. This will be available fro download on tuesday from the EEFIT website: www.eefit.org.uk

Images from the field can also be seen on the Virtual Disaster Viewer at www.virtualdisasterviewer.com

These georeferenced images are presented together with pre- and post- earthquake satellite images and existing mapped faults. We have not finished uploading our photos yet, but a selection is there. If any other team would like to use this facility to upload info please contact me t.rossetto@ucl.ac.uk.

Related EERI Publications

EERI members can download the following publication at no charge from the members-only area of the web site http://www.eeri.org/site/membership/membership-renewal. A limited number of printed versions are available free-of-charge to members and nonmembers by calling 510-451-0905 or e-mailing EERI Here.

Recent Italian Earthquakes: Examination of Structural Vulnerability, Damage, and Post-Earthquake Practices, by Joe Maffei, Paolo Bazzurro, Joshua Marrow, and Agostino Goretti. Italy has comprehensive systems in place for the collection of earthquake damage data and the prediction of building vulnerability. Published in 2006, this 180-page report capitalizes on the “living laboratory” of earthquake damage experience and research in Italy, where sophisticated methods of damage and vulnerability assessment have been developed over the last 30 years. The report explores the distinctive Italian practices from several angles: by reviewing Italian damage and vulnerability assessment procedures in general, by studying specific buildings, by examining the uniquely detailed Italian methods of classifying construction types, and by reporting findings based on Italian data collection.

EERI members can download the following special issue of Earthquake Spectra originally published in July 2004 (http://scitation.aip.org/vsearch/servlet/VerityServlet?KEY=EASPEF&ONLINE=YES). It is also available to members and nonmembers for $25 plus shipping from http://www.eeri.org/cds_publications/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_26&products_id=246

2002 Molise, Italy, Earthquake Reconnaissance Report, Paolo Bazzurro and Joe Maffei, tech. eds. On October 31 and November 1, 2002, two magnitude Mw 5.7 earthquakes struck the rural Molise region in southeastern Italy, killing 30 people, 27 of whom were children trapped in the collapse of an elementary school. This 360-page report covers the findings of ongoing studies of the technical and social lessons afforded by the disaster. In 1998 the area was declared a medium seismicity zone, but an administrative delay in updating the seismic zonation meant that up until the time of the earthquake, there were no seismic requirements for new construction

Anecdotes

In the past week of working in the field in L’Aquila and the surrounding areas, the EERI/PEER team has met amazing people with incredible stories of survival. We present the following two in this segment.

After walking through the devastated historic center of Tempera escorted by a firefighter, we saw a man and a woman who were anxiously looking at the fallen buildings. We started talking and asking about the earthquake, and whether their house was affected. We were told that their house was fine, but that the woman’s parents’ house was in the historic center and had been destroyed. After feeling a foreshock at 2 a.m., they called their daughter, whose house was outside the historic center, to come pick them up, since they didn’t feel very safe. That phone call probably saved their lives; their house was destroyed when the earthquake hit at 3:32 a.m.

Clock from Tempera church, which stopped at the time of the earthquake.

The historic center of San Gregorio was also devastated, with the church and most historic buildings completely destroyed. When walking through what was once the small historic center, we encountered a man on a tractor who was rifling through the debris and gathering what he could. We soon found out that his elderly father had lived in what was now a pile of rubble; when the earthquake hit, the man and his brother, whose house was a few hundred meters away, immediately ran to the wreckage and were able to save their father. He then insisted that we take a picture of him with one of his finds, and he brought his prized find from the back of the tractor: a fully cured prosciutto covered in dust. Peeking out from the tractor were two other prosciuttos, a dozen bottles of homemade wine, and a huge jar of dried cherries, all of which were salvaged from the rubble.

As he drove away in his tractor, he yelled, “We know what we’re eating tonight!”

Near-real-time estimate of human losses

laquila-delays

GEER findings – dams

We have visited the three dams at Campotosto Lake, which is a large reservoir north of L’Aquila. Performance was good. At least one of the dams is instrumented but we have not been able to secure the data. Read more

GEER findings – damage patterns

We examined damage patterns at two scales  – damage within L’Aquila and regional damage distribution based on impact in small villages (figure below). The figure below shows our track logs and call out places we visited as of Wednesday April 15. In most cases we have approximate damage statistics for those villages. Read more

GEER findings – source description (very preliminary)

The faulting associated with this earthquake is complex and is not yet well understood. We hope to have a working hypothesis for the faulting mechanism by the time we publish our preliminary report in early May. The relevant data sources include the aftershock pattern and its variation with time, moment tensor solutions of the mainshock and aftershocks, and SAR data. Read more

GEER findings – ground motions

We have not looked at individual records yet, but we have the motions for the mainshock, largest aftershock, and triggered event from a DPC website. The mainshock data have been forwarded to PEER and CESMD for processing. We have 56 mainshock recordings, including 4 in the immediate vicinity of L’Aquila. Three of those are west of the city in a sparsely developed valley (however, this is near the hospital). The fourth is near the historic center of L’Aquila. The center sits on a Pleistocene terrace. There is a swale east of the center, and the instrument is above a pedestrian tunnel portal on the edge slope of the Pleistocene terrace (nearby structure is a car park). We were not able to walk up to the instrument because access to the car park is  denied.  This instrument recorded about 0.35 g. The instruments W of L’Aquila recorded 0.5-0.7 g.

Next Page »