Seismic vulnerability comparative assesment of some samples of curches affected by last Italian earthquakes

In this paper, seismic vulnerability and risk assessment of two churches samples, located in Teramo and Ischia island in the Naples gulf, both affected by the most recent earthquakes occurred in Italy, are presented. An overview of some simplified methods particularly suitable for seismic evaluations at a territorial scale of ancient churches is presented. In particular, the damage index provided by the post-earthquake usability form adopted by the Italian Civil Protection Department, the vulnerability and risk analysis method implemented in a recent work and defined LV0, and the LV1 method contemplated in the Italian Guidelines for Cultural Heritage have been calculated for the examined samples of churches. These methods have an increasing precision level and they may be applied as well in sequence at a different scale for screening and identifying the present priorities and, consequently, for designing the required interventions. The obtained results have been compared to each other in order to evaluate, starting from the most precise Italian Guidelines method, if the other simplified analysis techniques are more or less effective in predicting the large scale seismic behaviour of churches. Finally, the comparison among the achieved indexes allows for the evaluation of the health state of inspected churches, so to both plan additional in-depth evaluations and program a priority scale in performing future retrofitting interventions.