Emilia Earthquake of May 20, 2012 in Northern Italy: Rebuilding a Community Resilient to Multiple Hazards

Keywords: Resilience, field reconnaissance, liquefaction, shed structures, infrastructure damage, smart phones, emergency response.

Abstract: A series of important seismic events occurred in Italy in the Po Valley, beginning on Sunday morning, May 20, 2012. This report describes the types and causes of damage resulting from the earthquake and the associated social and economic impact. Funded by the National Science Foundation, a multidisciplinary team of investigators from the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER), headquartered at the University at Buffalo, together with a team from the Politecnico di Torino in Italy, conducted post-disaster field reconnaissance to examine the impact of the earthquake on physical engineered systems and the response and recovery efforts that followed.  By collecting information, the Politecnico di Torino together with MCEER is seeking to develop engineering design strategies and organizational strategies that will make the Emilia region more resilient against future earthquakes and any extreme event in general.  The report presents the findings from the field reconnaissance mission and contributes to the development of a better understanding of how to cost-effectively enhance the resilience of a community against future extreme events (Bruneau et al., 2003; Cimellaro et al., 2009)