Seismic vulnerability assessment of churches at regional scale after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake

The extension of damage on churches observed after strong earthquakes stresses the need to define suitable speedy methods for the assessment of the main sources of structural fragility for these constructions. This paper presents a methodology for seismic vulnerability assessment of churches based on a damage reconnaissance activity carried out after the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake on a population of 64 churches. Firstly, the post-earthquake evaluation of damage is described aiming at identifying recurrent damage mechanisms. It has been observed that the occurred damage scenario, shown through damage probability matrixes, can be represented by a binomial distribution, which depends only on mean damage level. Then, a literature predictive model is applied for outlining fragility curves, which represent a useful tool for prediction of likely damage scenarios. Finally, some ongoing applications of the proposed analysis methodology to churches of different territorial areas are described.