Abstract

The seismic events that hit central Italy in 2016, causing extensive damage to cultural heritage and the loss of entire villages, showed the extreme fragility of the Marche territorial system with strong repercussions on the economic and social development. In the historic villages, the high inherent seismic vulnerability of the building makes it difficult to apply regulations oriented to the protection and preservation of historical and cultural values: strategies for the recovery of the buildings seem very complex. The historical building is generally characterized by a high building density, a scarcity of urban voids and an articulated accessibility system. In recent years the Marche region has developed, due to the intensification of earthquakes, a particular susceptibility to seismic risk. The historic centres have shown a scarce capability to adaptation and difficulties in hypothesizing new scenarios after the damage. In this context, we want to define an analytical method of the systemic vulnerability in the historical centres; this vulnerability is considered as a result of the complex interaction of individual structural units, aggregates and urban spaces. The aim is to compare this vulnerability with the effects that the earthquake really had on the buildings: the knowledge of the real behaviour in the historic centres will guide the research towards the definition of actions aimed at the mitigation of the seismic risk through the reduction of intrinsic vulnerabilities in the building and the implementation of the capability to face the earthquake, in order to develop a “new resilience”. The district of Camerino is taken as a case study; it’s a territorial hub of services and activities as well as being one of the largest inhabited centres affected by the 2016-2017 earthquake.