Hosing Construction and Seismic Risk in the Basilica Region OUSING

In Italy, prior to the earthquake of November 23, 1980 only 652 municipalities (from 34 provinces) and others in the state of Calabria (totalling about 1000 towns) were officially included in the seismic zonation map, in spite of the historical evidence of past ruinous events that devastated wide zones of the Peninsula. It was only the earthquakes of Friuli in 1976 and Campania-Basilicata in 1980 that finally forced the public and politicians to focus attention on the seismic risk. Seismic risk prevention and protection has been neglected in Italy for a long time. These earthquakes rekindled the discussion of earthquake hazards, including the data gathering and prediction of the natural phenomenon in a timely manner so as to manage our cities more efficiently when an earthquake strikes. At present, the number of municipalities in seismic zones in Italy is about 4000. The principal problem concerns the building stock built without seismic design considerations in the years between World War II and 1981. Consequently it is essential to develop and improve the strengthening techniques to characterize the seismic risk in these areas. In Italy remarkable efforts were made in recent years in the scientific search for the prevention of seismic risk, with notable contribution offered by the interpretation of the data from the monitoring network. Advanced local nets, are now being developed. Thus valuable tools of evaluation are now available and were used on the occasion of the recent earthquakes that struck Umbria (in 1997) and the southern Basilicata (in 1998). This paper will discuss how local seismic risk is defined (particularly in the Basilicata Region) and provide some significant examples of housing construction and retrofit for typical buildings in the area. The discussion will focus on reinforced concrete frame construction predating seismic codes and will include architectural, structural features and deficiencies and seismic strengthening techniques