The role of historical-archaeological sources integrated into the GIS environment with geological and geophysical data in the mitigation of geological risks in some urban areas

Sergio Madonna¹, Stefania Nisio², Francesco Gentili¹, Federico Vessella¹, Giuseppe Scardozzi³, Giuseppe Romagnoli¹, Maria Di Nezza⁴, Michele De Filippo⁵, Matteo Pelorosso⁶ & Giuseppe Pagano^6
1Università degli Studi della Tuscia - Via San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 VITEBO (VT).
²ISPRA Servizio Geologico d'Italia.
³CNR Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale.
⁴Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via di Vigna Murata, 605, 00143 Roma, Italia.
⁵IGAG-CNR Roma, Italia.
⁶Studio Geologico STEGA Viterbo.
Corresponding author e-mail: sermad@unitus.it

Numerous geological risks characterise urban areas, one of the most undervalued of which is the sinkhole risk connected to underground cavities. In the Lazio Region, the subsoil of many beautiful art cities like Rieti and Viterbo is rich in underground cavities, mainly anthropogenic because of their thousand-year history and the geological substrate’s peculiar characteristics. These cavities have very different ages and types, the oldest dates back to the Etruscan and Archaic times. However, their excavation continued uninterrupted during the Roman and Medieval times until the Second World War, when many were readapted as bomb shelters. An interdisciplinary approach that combines geological and geotechnical aspects integrated by geophysics with historical and archaeological data in a GIS project can allow an efficient census of these cavities, defining not only their morphology and their functions but also hypothesising their continuation in unexplored or collapsed traits. Such a census is indispensable to estimate and, therefore, mitigate the sinkhole’s risk and better define risk, including the seismic response of a subsoil articulated and altered by many levels of underground cavities.

historical cartography, GIS, sinkhole, anthropic cavities, geophysics.