L'Aquila earthquake: emergency actions for the preservation of Cultural Heritage buildings

The architectural heritage was seriously hit by the earthquake that occurred on April 6th 2009 in the Abruzzo region, especially considering the effects on a city with the size and with historical and strategic importance as a capital of a region, L’Aquila. The activities to protect that heritage have been conducted on two parallel levels: damage surveys and design and implementation of temporary safety measures. The overall organization has been centralized in the structure “Protection of Cultural Heritage” at Di.Coma.C. (Command and Control Quarter), managed by the Civil Protection Department. This allowed the cooperation among different involved subjects (Ministry of Cultural Heritage officers, experts on structural engineering from Universities and Fire Brigade teams), with their own specific knowledge. Keystone of the operating process was the standardization of the damage survey and of its immediate and correct interpretation, through dedicated survey forms for churches and palaces, developed by the G.La.Be.C. (Working group for the protection of Cultural Heritage from natural risks). Finally, the experience in the field of temporary safety measures was extremely interesting: ideas for engineering the process were developed, in cooperation with the work of the fire brigade men, that are highly experienced technicians in the “emergency” field.