The importance of seismic microzonation studies on land governance: results from a fact-finding survey

Paola Imprescia¹, Monia Coltella¹ & Sergio Castenetto^1,2
1Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR.
²Dipartimento della Protezione Civile Nazionale (retired).
Corresponding author e-mail: paola.imprescia@igag.cnr.it

Since 2010, the first national Seismic Risk Prevention Plan (SRPP) has been launched in Italy. Current decrees governing actions provide financial contributions to the Regions with medium to high seismic risk for the implementation of seismic microzonation (SM) studies. The CNR-IGAG (National Research Centre-Institute of Environmental Geology and Geo-engineering) working group, which supports the Civil Protection Department in SRPP activities, has created a fact-finding survey with the aim to analyze the whole SM studies process to identify the main issues causing the delays occurred with respect to the planning in SRPP decrees. The questionnaire results rank the administrative problems and the difficulties linked to the implementation of the studies as main issues. The documents prepared by Technical Commission for the realisation of SM studies are generally considered exhaustive from the Regions. The survey pointed out a good appreciation of the SM studies by the 17 Regions involved in the SRPP both in terms of confidence of the studies and improvement of the territorial knowledge, confirming the importance of the SM as tool for the seismic risk mitigation.

seismic microzonation, seismic risk, land governance, fact- finding survey.