Italy especially vulnerable to quake damage

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-08 07:48

The earthquake that devastated this medieval town would likely have caused only limited damage in Japan and other affluent countries in quake-prone regions, but a variety of factors conspire to make Italy particularly vulnerable, experts said.

While L'Aquila sits about 1 km from the epicenter of Monday's quake in the Apennine region of Abruzzo, geologists and civil engineers attributed most of the blame for damage on inadequate buildings.

"The collapses that occurred in Abruzzo involved houses that weren't built to withstand a quake that wasn't particularly violent," said Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology. Italian authorities put the quake's preliminary magnitude at 5.8, while the US Geological Survey recorded it as 6.3.

Giorgio Croci, a Rome-based engineer and expert on ancient monuments like the Colosseum in the Italian capital, singled out building methods as a key factor in L'Aquila's damage.

Ancient Romans used high-quality mortar and stone to put up monuments and buildings that have lasted some 2,000 years, and Renaissance construction often boasted high-quality quarried stone and proper proportions, he said.

Builders in the impoverished medieval era, however, often skimped on the quality of materials and generally erected less massive buildings, he said. As a result, medieval structures are more likely to sustain substantial damage in a quake.

"If you live in an ancient building, you have to employ a policy of prevention," Croci said.

"You can improve such buildings," such as by adding chains to connect walls horizontally and limit their bouncing in a quake, he said. "Chains don't cost that much." Another technique is to use iron hooks to bind wooden beams to walls, he said.

Nearly half of Italy's territory is considered "dangerous" in terms of seismic activity, according to a 2008 report by Boschi and other Italian geologists and civil protection experts. But only 14 percent of buildings in that vulnerable swath meet seismic-safety standards, the report said.

In addition to the old structures, modern buildings in Italy - nondescript apartment houses and public buildings - often don't meet current standards in seismic safety.

Public works contracts, especially in Italy's south, are vulnerable to infiltration by organized crime, prosecutors say. Builders often don't use the best materials, being pressured by mobsters to rely on suppliers close to organized crime.

(China Daily 04/08/2009 page11)