Italy's Abruzzo Region earthquake: building damage assessment activities management

The seismic swarm that became active on 16 January, causing hundreds of shocks, the most serious of which, with a magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale, took place on 6 April, struck an highly populated area in the Italy's Abruzzo Region. Consequently, it has affected a relevant population and damaged an high number of buildings, both public and private. L'Aquila city, the center most affected by the earthquake, is a medium dimension region capital, composed by an historic center and about 66 villages; these characteristics made more difficult the building damage assessment activities management. Coordination activities for private building damage assessment have been carried out by the technical function of National Civil Protection Department, by technicians of the Italian National Research Council, of the ReLUIS consortium and of L'Aquila municipality. In this paper, problems and solutions adopted concerning territory analysis, damage assessment planning and management, technical result data organization and quality check, geographical information system used, are thoroughly discussed.