A citizen science approach for supporting rapid earthquake impact assessments

Abstract

After a strong earthquake, the rapid identification of the extent of the affected area is the most crucial task of civil protection authorities. The information provided by those directly affected by an event makes the difference since it offers the opportunity to take advantage of direct observations and, in the case alert systems are available, to verify if they worked properly. Thanks to the fruitful collaboration between the Regional Civil Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS in Italy, a procedure for collecting rapid information about the impact of an earthquake using an expert crowdsourcing approach has been in place for some years. The volunteers of the civil protection, appropriately trained, upon receipt of the seismic event notification, are asked to rapidly compile a specific questionnaire, describing the impact of the event. Data are rapidly coded, and the results are summarized in a seismic impact map showing the effect of the earthquake throughout the territory in a simplified way. This map complements the impact estimation provided by the analysis of recorded shaking data. This paper describes the results obtained by analyzing the “Trained Volunteers Seismic Evaluation” questionnaire (TVSE) completed by volunteers for some of the most significant events in recent years.