Assessing Macroseismic Data Reliability through Rough Set Theory: Application on Vulture Area (Basilicata, Southern Italy)

This paper deals with the analysis of the reliability of information concerning damages caused to buildings by earthquakes. This research was started after analyzing a huge amount of written sources drawn up after 1930 Irpinia (southern Italy) earthquake. The analysis led to delineate damage 'scenarios', useful in trying to mitigate seismic risk for most affected towns. Once analyzed the effects induced by the quake, it was suitable to assess the reliability of the retrieved information. A data-set has been built concerning administrative-technical aspects of 1930 earthquake and referring to the most important towns of the area. Data have been analyzed through Rough Set Approach, a non-parametric statistic methodology.