The research activities focus on understanding seismic vulnerability and developing strategies and techniques for improving existing constructions and building components. Special attention is given to Cultural Heritage buildings and monuments.

The activities are based on the combination of on-site tests, including non- and minor-destructive techniques and dynamic identification of structures, and Structural Health Monitoring. The results are used to calibrate numerical models for the analysis of structural behavior, the assessment of seismic vulnerability, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing seismic resilience.

At a wider scale, the research focuses on the seismic risk assessment of building stocks or at a territorial scale, for prioritization purposes and to define mitigation strategies, and includes also other natural hazards. In this field, we actively contributed to the first “National Risk Assessment” delivered by the Department of Civil Protection in 2018, and we are working on the subsequent three-year updates.

The research group has many collaborations with the DPC, as well as ReLUIS, the Ministry of Culture, and many other public administrations and private companies. The adopted interdisciplinary approach is based on active collaborations with departments and research centers in Italy and all over the world.

Professors coordinating and developing projects related to this research pathway: Giorgio Cassiani, Filippo Catani, Francesca Da Porto, Simone Bizzi, Jacopo Boaga, Mario Floris, Leonardo Piccinini, Paolo Scotton