Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–203... more Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement have all recognized the importance of developing and operationalising multi-hazard early warning systems that integrate the specificities of single-hazard early warning systems in a holistic, systematic and coordinated manner to promote synergies and maximize efficiency. While much progress has been made in recent years towards the advancement of knowledge and practice related to early warning systems worldwide, the lack of multi-disciplinary and transboundary cooperation among and across communities of scientists, decision-makers and practitioners continues to be a key challenge for the successful establishment and operation of these systems. To address this gap, major international and national organizations have collaborated to establish the International Network for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (IN-MHEWS), w...
Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments and important land... more Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments and important landmarks throughout the human history. Due to their size, conservation state, and lack of seismic provisions at the time of their construction, world heritage sites are particularly vulnerable to the effects of geological hazards. The first step towards the mitigation of the earthquake threat consists in understanding the existing seismic risk, and evaluation of possible strategies to reduce it. This study presents a simplified procedure to evaluate the probability of damage due to ground shaking on UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites within Europe. The recently released seismic hazard model for this region (SHARE) has been employed to derive hazard exceedance curves, which were combined with a simplified fragility model to calculate the annual probability of suffering damage or collapse. These calculations were performed assuming different soil conditions, and the resulting risk metrics c...
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 recognizes the need to "subst... more The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 recognizes the need to "substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030" as one of its global targets (target "g"). While considerable progress has been made in recent decades, early warning systems (EWSs) continue to be less developed for geo-hazards and significant challenges remain in advancing the development of EWSs for specific hazards, particularly for fastest onset hazards such as earthquakes. An earthquake early warning system (EEWS) helps in disseminating timely information about potentially catastrophic earthquake hazards to the public, emergency managers and the private sector to provide enough time to implement automatized emergency measures. At the same time, these systems help to reduce considerably the CO2 emissions produced by the catastrophic impacts and subsequent effects of earthquakes, such as those generated by fires, collapses, and pollution (among others), as well as those produced in the recovery and reconstruction processes. In recent years, EEWSs have been developed independently in few countries: EEWSs have shown operational in Japan and Mexico, while other regions in California (USA), Turkey, Italy, Canada, South Korea and China (including Taiwan) are in the development stages or under restricted applications. Many other countries in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Eastern Africa, Southeast Africa, as well as Central America, South America and the Caribbean, are located in some of the most seismically active regions in the world, or present moderate seismicity but high vulnerability, and would strongly benefit from the development of EEWSs. Given that, in many instances, the development of an EEWS still requires further testing, increased density coverage in seismic observation stations, regional coordination, and further scientific understanding, there is a strong need to enhance the technical and operational capacities required for these systems and to further understand the implications for policy. In an effort to address this gap, in December 2015, UNESCO launched the International Platform on Earthquake Early Warning Systems (IP-EEWS). The main objective of the Platform is to assess the current state of the art in the development and operationalisation of EEWS globally, foster dialogue and international cooperation for capacity building around these systems, and therefore promote and strengthen EEWS in earthquake-prone countries worldwide. This paper will discuss the opportunities and challenges for the development and operationalisation of these systems, as well as the specific aim, objectives and expected contributions of this newly established Platform. The following ten countries are already represented in IP-EEWS through leading scientific experts in top institutions: USA (University of California Berkeley), Japan (Meteorological Research Institute), Mexico (Centro de Instrumentacion y Registro Sismico), Italy (University of Naples Federico II), Switzerland (ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), Spain (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Turkey (Kandili Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Bogaziçi University), Germany (GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences), China (University of Beijing), and Romania (National Institute for Earth Physics). More countries are expected to join the initiative.
In: Sassa K., Mikoš M., Yin Y. (eds) Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides. WLF 2017. Springer, Cham, 2017
Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–203... more Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement have all recognized the importance of developing and operationalising multi-hazard early warning systems that integrate the specificities of single-hazard early warning systems in a holistic, systematic and coordinated manner to promote synergies and maximize efficiency. While much progress has been made in recent years towards the advancement of knowledge and practice related to early warning systems worldwide, the lack of multidisciplinary and transboundary cooperation among and across communities of scientists, decision-makers and practitioners continues to be a key challenge for the successful establishment and operation of these systems. To address this gap, major international and national organizations have collaborated to establish the International Network for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (IN-MHEWS), wi...
Ensuring the safety of people in case of natural hazards is one of the main concerns of public ad... more Ensuring the safety of people in case of natural hazards is one of the main concerns of public administrators in hazard-prone territories, particularly with reference to strategic and relevant major public buildings, such as schools. This requires the definition of a rational and effective strategy for risk reduction based on the level of risk, criticalities, countermeasures and costs. In order to evaluate these aspects, the SPRINT-Lab researchers of the University of Udine in Italy (1) developed the VISUS method (Visual Inspection for defining the Safety Upgrading Strategies). VISUS was first developed aiming to assess schools in a seismic scenario, but it has evolved into a holistic and multi-hazard approach that considers five issues: site conditions, structural performance, local structural criticalities, non-structural components and functional aspects. Each issue is analysed using a pre-codification of the expert reasoning, splitting the assessment in two main phases: the characterization and the evaluation. As a result, simple graphical indicators summarize the evaluation pointing out the main weaknesses and the needs of intervention. VISUS could be used as effective decision making tool for planning actions in risk mitigation at a regional scale following a rational approach. VISUS is adaptable to different local contexts and needs. The method provides different sub-products, such as the transfer of scientific knowledge through the capacity building of local engineers and decision makers; a mobile application for collecting related data; the production of school’s individual and collective reports; and geo-referenced national inventories of schools in mapping platforms such as OpenStreetMap or GeoNode. The method was elaborated and applied in the ASSESS project aimed at assessing more than 1000 schools in the Friuli Region (N-E of Italy) and recently it has been adopted in a prototypal project of UNESCO in 100 selected schools of three geographical departments of El Salvador (La Paz, La Libertad and San Salvador). UNESCO is planning to start new pilot projects in different countries worldwide.
ABSTRACT Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments throughou... more ABSTRACT Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments throughout human history. Due to their size, conservation state, and lack of seismic provisions, monuments are particularly vulnerable to the effects of geological hazards. The first step toward the mitigation of the earthquake threat consists of understanding the existing seismic risk and evaluating possible strategies to reduce it. This study presents a simplified assessment to evaluate the probability of damage due to ground shaking on UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites throughout Europe. The seismic hazard model (SHARE) has been employed to derive hazard curves, which were combined with a fragility model to calculate the annual probability of damage or collapse. These calculations were performed assuming different soil conditions, and the resulting risk metrics can be used for risk awareness, to inform the prioritization of the sites in need of structural interventions, and to support additional risk analysis.
Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–203... more Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement have all recognized the importance of developing and operationalising multi-hazard early warning systems that integrate the specificities of single-hazard early warning systems in a holistic, systematic and coordinated manner to promote synergies and maximize efficiency. While much progress has been made in recent years towards the advancement of knowledge and practice related to early warning systems worldwide, the lack of multi-disciplinary and transboundary cooperation among and across communities of scientists, decision-makers and practitioners continues to be a key challenge for the successful establishment and operation of these systems. To address this gap, major international and national organizations have collaborated to establish the International Network for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (IN-MHEWS), w...
Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments and important land... more Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments and important landmarks throughout the human history. Due to their size, conservation state, and lack of seismic provisions at the time of their construction, world heritage sites are particularly vulnerable to the effects of geological hazards. The first step towards the mitigation of the earthquake threat consists in understanding the existing seismic risk, and evaluation of possible strategies to reduce it. This study presents a simplified procedure to evaluate the probability of damage due to ground shaking on UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites within Europe. The recently released seismic hazard model for this region (SHARE) has been employed to derive hazard exceedance curves, which were combined with a simplified fragility model to calculate the annual probability of suffering damage or collapse. These calculations were performed assuming different soil conditions, and the resulting risk metrics c...
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 recognizes the need to "subst... more The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 recognizes the need to "substantially increase the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information and assessments to the people by 2030" as one of its global targets (target "g"). While considerable progress has been made in recent decades, early warning systems (EWSs) continue to be less developed for geo-hazards and significant challenges remain in advancing the development of EWSs for specific hazards, particularly for fastest onset hazards such as earthquakes. An earthquake early warning system (EEWS) helps in disseminating timely information about potentially catastrophic earthquake hazards to the public, emergency managers and the private sector to provide enough time to implement automatized emergency measures. At the same time, these systems help to reduce considerably the CO2 emissions produced by the catastrophic impacts and subsequent effects of earthquakes, such as those generated by fires, collapses, and pollution (among others), as well as those produced in the recovery and reconstruction processes. In recent years, EEWSs have been developed independently in few countries: EEWSs have shown operational in Japan and Mexico, while other regions in California (USA), Turkey, Italy, Canada, South Korea and China (including Taiwan) are in the development stages or under restricted applications. Many other countries in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, Eastern Africa, Southeast Africa, as well as Central America, South America and the Caribbean, are located in some of the most seismically active regions in the world, or present moderate seismicity but high vulnerability, and would strongly benefit from the development of EEWSs. Given that, in many instances, the development of an EEWS still requires further testing, increased density coverage in seismic observation stations, regional coordination, and further scientific understanding, there is a strong need to enhance the technical and operational capacities required for these systems and to further understand the implications for policy. In an effort to address this gap, in December 2015, UNESCO launched the International Platform on Earthquake Early Warning Systems (IP-EEWS). The main objective of the Platform is to assess the current state of the art in the development and operationalisation of EEWS globally, foster dialogue and international cooperation for capacity building around these systems, and therefore promote and strengthen EEWS in earthquake-prone countries worldwide. This paper will discuss the opportunities and challenges for the development and operationalisation of these systems, as well as the specific aim, objectives and expected contributions of this newly established Platform. The following ten countries are already represented in IP-EEWS through leading scientific experts in top institutions: USA (University of California Berkeley), Japan (Meteorological Research Institute), Mexico (Centro de Instrumentacion y Registro Sismico), Italy (University of Naples Federico II), Switzerland (ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich), Spain (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Turkey (Kandili Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Bogaziçi University), Germany (GFZ - German Research Centre for Geosciences), China (University of Beijing), and Romania (National Institute for Earth Physics). More countries are expected to join the initiative.
In: Sassa K., Mikoš M., Yin Y. (eds) Advancing Culture of Living with Landslides. WLF 2017. Springer, Cham, 2017
Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–203... more Recent international agreements such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement have all recognized the importance of developing and operationalising multi-hazard early warning systems that integrate the specificities of single-hazard early warning systems in a holistic, systematic and coordinated manner to promote synergies and maximize efficiency. While much progress has been made in recent years towards the advancement of knowledge and practice related to early warning systems worldwide, the lack of multidisciplinary and transboundary cooperation among and across communities of scientists, decision-makers and practitioners continues to be a key challenge for the successful establishment and operation of these systems. To address this gap, major international and national organizations have collaborated to establish the International Network for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems (IN-MHEWS), wi...
Ensuring the safety of people in case of natural hazards is one of the main concerns of public ad... more Ensuring the safety of people in case of natural hazards is one of the main concerns of public administrators in hazard-prone territories, particularly with reference to strategic and relevant major public buildings, such as schools. This requires the definition of a rational and effective strategy for risk reduction based on the level of risk, criticalities, countermeasures and costs. In order to evaluate these aspects, the SPRINT-Lab researchers of the University of Udine in Italy (1) developed the VISUS method (Visual Inspection for defining the Safety Upgrading Strategies). VISUS was first developed aiming to assess schools in a seismic scenario, but it has evolved into a holistic and multi-hazard approach that considers five issues: site conditions, structural performance, local structural criticalities, non-structural components and functional aspects. Each issue is analysed using a pre-codification of the expert reasoning, splitting the assessment in two main phases: the characterization and the evaluation. As a result, simple graphical indicators summarize the evaluation pointing out the main weaknesses and the needs of intervention. VISUS could be used as effective decision making tool for planning actions in risk mitigation at a regional scale following a rational approach. VISUS is adaptable to different local contexts and needs. The method provides different sub-products, such as the transfer of scientific knowledge through the capacity building of local engineers and decision makers; a mobile application for collecting related data; the production of school’s individual and collective reports; and geo-referenced national inventories of schools in mapping platforms such as OpenStreetMap or GeoNode. The method was elaborated and applied in the ASSESS project aimed at assessing more than 1000 schools in the Friuli Region (N-E of Italy) and recently it has been adopted in a prototypal project of UNESCO in 100 selected schools of three geographical departments of El Salvador (La Paz, La Libertad and San Salvador). UNESCO is planning to start new pilot projects in different countries worldwide.
ABSTRACT Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments throughou... more ABSTRACT Earthquakes have been responsible for the destruction of hundreds of monuments throughout human history. Due to their size, conservation state, and lack of seismic provisions, monuments are particularly vulnerable to the effects of geological hazards. The first step toward the mitigation of the earthquake threat consists of understanding the existing seismic risk and evaluating possible strategies to reduce it. This study presents a simplified assessment to evaluate the probability of damage due to ground shaking on UNESCO World Heritage cultural sites throughout Europe. The seismic hazard model (SHARE) has been employed to derive hazard curves, which were combined with a fragility model to calculate the annual probability of damage or collapse. These calculations were performed assuming different soil conditions, and the resulting risk metrics can be used for risk awareness, to inform the prioritization of the sites in need of structural interventions, and to support additional risk analysis.
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