Build back better. The experience of the Irpinia 1980 earthquake in Potenza, Italy

March 2003 - ENEA Casaccia, Roma. Prof. Franco Braga recalls how the italian adventure of innovative earthquake protection started in Potenza, where he created a school of Earthquake Engineering at the University of Basilicata. From 1990 to 2000 he took the leadership in a project with the local government to train engineers on seismic retrofit of schools using energy dissipating braces, he designed and directed the construction of the base isolated buildings of the Unv. of Basilicata, and of the Rapolla building, subjected to an exciting campaign of "real" simulated earthquakes.

Italy, Basilicata region.

Basilicata, Italy. City of Potenza.

November 23 1980. Irpinia Earthquake.

Potenza, Piazza XIIX Agosto

Potenza, Bucaletto district, emergency housing for 700 displaced families.

Potenza, UniBas, University of Basilicata, founded in 1982, two years after the earthquake.

UniBas Campus, completed in 1996. Five base isolated buildings host the faculties of Agricolture and Science.

UniBas, Seismic Structural testing lab, completed 1997. Reaction wall for pseudodynamic tests and hydraulic systems functional in 2000 (courtesy M. Laterza).

UniBas, material and component testing lab. Static load test on rubber isolator device for the Rapolla building.

Rapolla, Potenza. Base isolated residential building for low income dwellings (design 1995, completed 2000). Subjected to full scale dynamic seismic tests (courtesy F. Braga, august 2000).


Rapolla, Potenza. Rubber base isolator (HDRB) placed between the structure and the foundation.


Rapolla, Potenza. Completed base isolated building and twin conventional (fixed base) building.

Potenza, Domiziano Viola school (my elementary school), retrofit with energy dissipating braces, completed 2002. The coloured braces act like "energy vampires" soaking up the earthquake energy that would otherwise damage the structure (courtesy F. Braga).
Potenza, Domiziano Viola school (my elementary school), retrofit with energy dissipating braces, (completed 2002, courtesy F. Braga).

Potenza, School retrofitted with energy dissipating braces, completed 2006 (courtesy F. Braga).

Potenza, "G. Leopardi" School retrofitted with energy dissipating braces, completed 2006, (courtesy F. Braga).

Potenza, School retrofitted with energy dissipating braces, completed 2006.

Brian Tucker. GEOHAZARDS INTERNATIONAL www.geohaz.org

"[...] The more I saw California successfully dealing with its [seismic] risk, the more I thought of the far greater risk abroad and the far fewer resources available there to address it. Over several years, the idea gradually grew in me to create a non-profit organization that would apply the science, engineering and public policy that had helped the U.S., Japan and Europe manage their earthquake risks to the world’s most vulnerable countries."

http://www.geohaz.org/contents/publications/Opinion.pdf

http://www.geohaz.org/contents/publications/BET_DC_speech_for_website6.pdf

“[…] Why should the citizens of industrialized countries, distant from most earthquake threatened developing countries, care that there is a growing gap between the seismic risk of developing and industrialized countries and that not nough is being done?

[…] We should also care out of self-interest. We in industrialized countries understand that the growing gaps between rich and poor in our own countries led to social tensions. We can therefore realize that the widening of the gap between the industrialized and developing worlds is threatening. We will be more secure if all countries can develop without being periodically set back by natural disasters. It is in our economic self-interest, particularly, that developing countries become earthquake-resistant because they are increasingly important economic partners of the U.S., Japan, and the E.U. Often the infrastructure, residences, and factories of developing economies represent investments made by the industrialized world. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also considers that helping developing countries manage their earthquake risk is in its self-interest. For example, NATO is organizing a workshop to address the problem of seismic risk of public buildings in the Maghreb Region (Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria) because (1) NATO is in the business of stability, (2) mass migrations are destabilizing, and (3) natural disasters (such as earthquakes) cause mass migrations. NATO’s previous “Science for Peace” program is now known as the “Security through Science” program. […].”

Brian E. Tucker

GeoHazards International

http://www.geohaz.org

200 Town and Country Village

Palo Alto, CA 94301

tucker@geohaz.org