Securing the church of Madonna del Sole during the emergency phase of 2016 earthquake: interoperability of different actors as an instrument for reducing seismic risk of damaged built heritage

Abstract

Potential damage from seismic risk is particularly high for historic buildings, as it can produce an irreversible loss of value and sense, not only concerning the material meaning but also the intangible one. Undoubtedly, the best strategy to reduce seismic risk of the built heritage consists in assessing and reducing vulnerability. In any case, it is not always possible to early intervene on historic buildings to improve seismic performance, neither it is possible to change or to completely remove some external factors (i.e., the hazard exposure due to local geotechnical features), nor to avoid that aftershocks increase the damage produced by the first event. On the contrary, it is possible to reduce the level of seismic risk for buildings also resorting to the coping capacity of a society, improving the effective reaction that authorities can oppose to a hazardous event, such as an earthquake, already during the emergency phase. This capacity, or preparedness to risk, applies also to the protection of damaged cultural heritage and particularly to churches, which constitute one of the most vulnerable typologies of historic buildings, due mainly to their shape and constructive characteristics.Recent seismic events have clearly shown that during the emergency phase which immediately follows an earthquake it is still possible to intervene on historic buildings, in order to limit the progress of damage. During a seismic emergency the protection of Cultural Heritage is in charge to public Agencies: the cooperation among them plays an essential role, as well as does the knowledge both of the buildings and of their vulnerability, or the technical ability to properly intervene in order to stop the progress of damage.This paper shows how interoperability in preparedness to risk can be effectively developed among the different actors involved in the protection of cultural heritage during the post-earthquake emergency phase. The study refers to the case of the church of “Madonna del Sole” in Capodacqua (AP), a hamlet in the heart of the Sibillini Mountains. This case study well demonstrates the importance of preparedness to risk, since a prompt reaction can effectively reduce negative consequences on the built heritage; at the same time, it shows the benefit of achieving a good interoperability of all the actors involved in the protection of cultural heritage during the emergency phase, as they can significatively increase the residual safety of damaged historic buildings.