Characterization of URM buildings and evaluation of damages in a historical center for the seismic risk mitigation and emergency management

Recent Italian earthquakes have been highlighted the role of the historical centers and their high vulnerability. To define effective mitigation strategies, the historical environments must be accurately investigated. The first and fundamental step is an assessment based on the knowledge of dimensional characteristics, construction techniques and materials. The seismic vulnerability evaluation depends on the quality and completeness of information available for the buildings under examination. In this paper, the characterization of an historical center and its buildings has been treated considering a new approach and existing common techniques for assessment of buildings' dimensional characteristics. Using GIS, data collected on the investigated historical center has been analyzed to obtain the typological characterization of the surveyed buildings in order to evaluate the seismic vulnerability, urban resilience, and recovery strategies for historical center. Based on comparison with an existing classical procedure, the approach seems also very promising in order to carry out a first evaluation of post seismic damage.