Valutazione del rischio sismico in città patrimonio culturale dell'Albania

Responsabili di progetto

Massimiliano Moscatelli, Shkëlqim Daja

Accordo

ALBANIA - MoES - Ministry of Education and Sport of the Republic of Albania

Bando

CNR/MOES biennio 2018-2019 2018-2019

Dipartimento

Scienze del sistema terra e tecnologie per l'ambiente

Area tematica

Scienze del sistema Terra e tecnologie per l'ambiente

Stato del progetto

Nuovo

Proposta di ricerca

General purpose
This proposal contributes to the debate concerning disaster risks and the main objective of the project is to provide an overall approach for assessing seismic risk on a city scale for cultural heritage sites in Albania. The aim of the project is to propose general rules, promote safety improvements for the population and infrastructure, increase resilience of cultural (i.e., both archaeological and architectonic) heritages sites.
The main Albanian cities and in particular those of cultural interest have been subject to an increase in urbanization. In seismic-prone zones, such as Albania, increase of urbanization and population in turn produces increase of seismic risk, which is mainly related to several factors: the level of seismic hazard itself; the seismic resistance of dwelling houses and building constructions; the population density; the probability of initiation of phenomena associated to earthquake; the intrinsic vulnerability of historic centres and archaeological sites.
The aim of the project is to promote resilience and security improvement in the cities of Berat, Gjirokastra and Durres, through the development of new tools for risk assessment, urban and infrastructure planning, and emergency management.
For Berat and Gjirokastra, in particular, the Italian research group has carried out a research project funded by the UNESCO Office in Venice and aimed at the preliminary seismic microzonation of the two urban areas (Scalet et al. 2014). With this project, we want to put into effect what we have started under UNESCO auspices, extending the developed methodologies to the city of Durres, equally important in terms of cultural relevance.
Also taking into account the current reality of high vulnerability, the results of the project will allow working out recommendations for a new strategy of urban planning of selected cities, by proposing specific mitigation actions in districts with high seismic risk, as well as adequate protection of cultural heritage sites and strategic infrastructures in the event of an earthquake. So, on the base of proper comprehensive research, scenarios of possible earthquakes and their actions on strategic infrastructures will be simulated, in order to prepare new plans to prevent disasters.
The results of the project, also in terms of the new guidelines, will provide useful tools to extend the improvement of security at all historic and strategic settlements of Albania.

Reference
M. Scalet, D. Poletto, G.P. Cavinato, M. Moscatelli (2014). Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage Sites in Albania - Seismological-Geohazard Risk Analysis and Disaster Risk Reduction Guidelines for Apollonia archaeological park, Historic centres of Berat and Gjirokastra and Butrint. UNESCO - CNR IGAG. ISBN 978-88-6812-286-7. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002443/244350E.pdf


Expected results
The expected results of the project can be summarized in the following five points.
1. Definition of quantitative seismic microzonation maps and analyses of emergency limit condition of Berat, Gjirokastra, and Durres.
2. Implementation of adequate tools for seismic microzonation and risk assessment.
3. Exchange of expertise among researchers on seismic risk assessment, and development of a long-term collaboration in the context of seismic risk prevention on city scale.
4. Publication of recommendations for seismic risk mitigation of cultural heritage cities.
The expected results are directed to establish the set of actions aimed at risk mitigation before the initial onset of the disaster, and to the improve resilience of vulnerable cultural heritage cities once the seismic event has occurred. The products obtained under the project will constitute the basic elements of an integrated system aimed at reducing the risk and improving resilience and overall safety of people and cultural heritages in Albania.

Justification and novelty. Taking into account the current situation in Albania, it is necessary to come up with recommendations for a new strategy of urban planning, which will provide construction guidelines in historic districts with high seismic risk. Therefore, on the basis of an appropriate comprehensive research, it is necessary to perform activities for mitigation of seismic risks, to simulate scenarios of possible seismic events, and to prepare plans to prevent disasters.
A good knowledge of seismic risk at the regional level has been gained through national and international research projects. With the present proposal, we aim at using a complementary approach to the study of seismic risk in Albania, through the assessment of local seismic response evaluated at the scale of cultural heritage cities. Studies conducted at the regional level, in fact, are very important to define the basic seismic hazard, but do not provide any useful operational tool to evaluate the local seismic response and, therefore, to design appropriate interventions for risk mitigation in case of destructive seismic events.
Experience and results gained with this project will be very useful for improving seismic safety and implementing new urban plans in other cities and cultural heritage sites of Albania.
The participating partners will make available their expertise to the success of the project. The Albanian research team consists of specialists of a high qualification; they have very rich experience and knowledge in seismic microzonation and risk assessment studies. On the other hand, the experience gained over the years by CNR IGAG is a very useful starting point to pursue the aimed goals of the project. In fact, the Italian team has played a key role in the last decade in performing advanced research on the proposed topic and implementing the national regulation on seismic risk assessment, in urban and archaeological area.

Obiettivi della ricerca

Seismic risk is a crucial issue for Albania, both for ensuring its development and prosperity and for guaranteeing the energy supply for Europe. Taking into account the tragic lessons that have been given by periodic earthquake disasters, the seismic risk assessment and reduction should be considered as one of the priorities in this region.
In this regard, this project aims to make a quantitative assessment of the seismic risk for cities of Berat, Gjirokastra, and Duress. The final goal of the project is to propose new methods and criteria for defining an overall approach aimed at assessing and mitigating seismic risk in Albania, with particular reference to cultural heritage cities.
The relevant specific objectives of this proposal are:
1) improve the regional seismic hazard maps, by implementing state-of-the art probabilistic seismic hazard assessment techniques and outputs of the latest projects;
2) perform the local seismic hazard assessment of Berat, Gjirokastra, and Duress, by means of quantitative seismic microzonation techniques; preliminary microzonation studies of Berat and Gjirokastra are already available;
3) evaluate the seismic vulnerability of selected cultural heritage buildings of the selected cities;
5) train young Albanian scientists in earthquake-risk related topics by group meetings, workshops, and training seminars;
6) propose new guidelines for seismic risk assessment and mitigation of cultural heritage cities to be used by national end-users.

Ultimo aggiornamento: 03/12/2024