Site Characterization by In-Situ and Laboratory Tests for the Microzonation of Noto

The safeguard and restoration of historical monuments represent a particularly important theme of the scientific community. This paper describes and compares the geotechnical results of a comprehensive project for the evaluation of site effects in the municipal area of Noto, located in the east coast of Sicily. For this pupose a multidisciplinary task force is working in order to assess the elastic response spectra taking into account both topographic and stratigraphic amplifications. The main objective is to provide a tool for land use planning and the retrofitting of the existing structures. The paper mainly focuses on the geological and geotechnical investigations concening the city of Noto with a territory of about 6 square Km. In particular this study analyse the variation of the shear modulus (G) and damping ratio (D) with strain level and depth. Finally normalised laws are proposed to define a set of input parameters for seismic analysis, from experimental results.