Seismic rehabilitation of residential buildings: An action plan for the urban centres in Val d’agri, Italy

The paper deals with a highly seismic area located in the SW of the Basilicata region (southern Italy), along the valley of the Agri River. This area has a strategic role for Italy because about 70% of the Italian oil extraction derives from local deposits. Large quantities of oil have been extracted since the 1990s, making available large resources deriving from royalties. These sums of money could be used for an extensive strengthening program able to reduce the impact of future earthquakes. To this end, an action plan for the seismic risk mitigation of the residential building stock of 18 villages located in the Agri Valley is outlined, and specifically applied to the village of Viggiano. Starting from the available building-by-building inventory of the typological characteristics collected during previous research activities, the seismic vulnerability of the whole building stock is studied and the expected losses deriving from an earthquake scenario are determined. Some directions for an action plan, essentially based on the reduction of seismic vulnerability of buildings, are proposed in terms of needed costs and implementation timetables.