L'Aquila 6th April 2009 earthquake: emergency and post- emergency activities on cultural heritage buildings

The earthquake that struck the Abruzzo region on 6th April 2009 at 3:32 a.m., had its epicentre in the capital of the region, L’Aquila, and seriously affected a wide area around the city, where many historic towns and villages are found. Due to the strategic importance of L’Aquila, a strong and organized civil protection action was necessary to face the emergency. In addition, the structural damage on historic buildings and centres was enormous. Therefore, it was necessary to carry out specific actions aimed at the safeguard of this heritage. These can be shortly listed as: set up of the organizational and decisional structure, damage surveys, temporary interventions to provide the minimum safety conditions, set up of a monitoring plan for some important monuments, set up of a methodology to intervene on complex and connected buildings in the historic centres, definition of adequate materials and techniques to intervene on the damaged buildings.