Abstract
Historic areas (HAs) are highly vulnerable to natural hazards, including earthquakes, that can cause severe damage, if not total destruction. This paper proposes methods that can be implemented through a geographical information system to assess earthquake-induced physical damages and the resulting impacts on the functions of HAs and to monitor their resilience. For the assessment of damages, making reference to the universally recognised procedure of convoluting hazard, exposure, and vulnerability, this paper proposes (a) a framework for assessing hazard maps of both real and end-user defined earthquakes; (b) a classification of the exposed elements of the built environment; and (c) an index-based seismic vulnerability assessment method for heritage buildings. Moving towards the continuous monitoring of resilience, an index-based assessment method is proposed to quantify how the functions of HAs recover over time. The implementation of the proposed methods in an ad hoc customized WebGIS Decision Support System, referred to as ARCH DSS, is demonstrated in this paper with reference to the historic area of Camerino-San Severino (Italy). Our conclusions show how ARCH DSS can inform and contribute to increasing awareness of the vulnerabilities of HAs and of the severity of the potential impacts, thus supporting effective decision making on mitigation strategies, post-disaster response, and build back better.
Highlights
Historic towns, old urban quarters, villages, and hamlets as well as historic landscapes, referred to hereafter as historic areas (HAs), play a primary role in community life and well-being; they are part of the social fabric, the places we live in, and represent our cultural link with the past, which must be preserved and transmitted to future generations.HAs hold unique and diverse, tangible and intangible cultural heritage that awakens curiosity, stimulates creativity, and shapes the identity and thinking of local communities and visitors [1]
This paper presents methods that can be implemented in Geographical information systems (GIS)-based environments to assess earthquake-induced impacts on HAs and to monitor and compare the resilience achieved through mitigation strategies in the pre-disaster phase or through response and reconstruction strategies in post-disaster circumstances
This concept is perfectly in line with and expands the historic urban landscape (HUL) concept and approach defined by UNESCO in 2011 [1], which shifts the emphasis from the sole conservation of monumental architecture to the holistic conservation and development of HAs
Summary
Old urban quarters, villages, and hamlets as well as historic landscapes, referred to hereafter as historic areas (HAs), play a primary role in community life and well-being; they are part of the social fabric, the places we live in, and represent our cultural link with the past, which must be preserved and transmitted to future generations.HAs hold unique and diverse, tangible and intangible cultural heritage that awakens curiosity, stimulates creativity, and shapes the identity and thinking of local communities and visitors [1]. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recommends to strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage, [3] and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 states the imperative need to incorporate cultural heritage in disaster resilience [4]. Duzce 1999, the central Italy sequence of 2016–2017, and Kos 2017, just to mention few of them) caused the loss of invaluable HAs, pointing to the increasing need for mitigation actions targeted at preserving cultural heritage and cultural landscapes from natural disasters [5]. The need for a holistic and participatory approach applies to the post-disaster recovery and reconstruction of HAs, as the lack of interdisciplinary approaches might lead to severe consequences; as an example, post-disaster recovery and reconstruction after the Calabria (1783), Irpinia (1980), and Belice (1986) earthquakes in Italy ignored the history, memory, and identity of these places and resulted in the definitive abandonment of several villages [5]
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