Abstract 

​

This deliverable presents a synthesis of the state-of-the-art of the scientific literature concerning the preventive evaluation of the seismic damage of masonry buildings built with traditional techniques (unreinforced masonry - URM). The review of literature on this topic proposes significant contributions regarding analytical - experimental approaches and expeditious approaches, the latter more useful for studying large areas such as an entire historical center.

 

Furthermore, a topic of interest for the development of research in BE S2ECURE is the evaluation of how seismic damage to buildings can cause the fall of debris, creating an obstacle to circulation in the streets and squares of historic centers. This assessment is very important since streets and squares perform an important function as elements that enable the safety of the inhabitants and the rescue of victims in the inhabited centers in case of natural disasters. With this regard, a state of the art of the main studies are presented providing elements for the definition of the tools to be used in order to preventively evaluate the changes that the earthquake produces on the built environment.

It is possible identify two main category of methods: (i) analytical and experimental procedures, which require the use of specific fragility curves obtained through analytical assessment methods of vulnerability; (ii) and expeditious approaches.

​

Since the field of interest of the project concerns large areas of historical centres of Italian cities, methods based on detailed mechanical analyzes do not constitute a useful solution since, although more precise, they require high computational effort and time for the survey campaign. On the other hand, expeditious methods have sufficient reliability for the characterization of the behavior of a large number of buildings, although tend to present limitations for analysis focused on small and well-defined portions of the environment built.

​