A estabilidade estrutural e a vulnerabilidade dos edifícios em centros históricos face ao risco sísmico

Several cities in Europe are coming around to a culture of risk-integrated management and assessment at national and city scale. Risk management is a process that covers a series of actions that support the implementation of measures to reduce the potential loss in the wake of catastrophic events like earthquakes, for example. However, vulnerability and risk assessment consist of a complex web of actions and strategic decisions relating to urban systems. Urban planning and management can cover many objectives, but the scope of this paper concerns risk assessment in the specific area of structural safety. It focuses on earthquake risk assessment, whose serious consequences are sometimes unfortunately part of the collective memory of communities. The severe potential loss caused by these events is a good enough reason for valuing prevention and preparedness strategies, and mitigation and planning measures, all of which might help reduce the physical, economic and social consequences and allow continued improvement actions, since a zero-risk environment is a utopian dream.