The first Urban Seismic Observatory in Italy is operational in Catania. Over 20 seismic stations have been installed to monitor the "state of health" of the city's structures and infrastructures in the event of an earthquake, also allowing an almost immediate estimate of the intensity of the event. To understand the functioning of OSU-CT, and its multiple applications, we interviewed Domenico Patanè, Research Director of INGV and project manager.
Domenico, by whom was the Network that makes up the Urban Seismic Observatory of Catania developed and with what objective?
The recent earthquakes that hit densely populated urban centers such as that of Irpinia in 1980, Umbria-Marche in 1997, L'Aquila in 2009, Emilia in 2012 and a large area of central Italy in 2016-2017 , have shown that unawareness of the seismic performance of the buildings in which one lives or works and of the infrastructures of the territory has led to the collapse of communities which, in some cases, has also produced the destruction of entire towns.
A change of pace is needed, and networks like the OSU can make a valuable contribution. Knowing the "state of health" of a structure in an area highly exposed to seismic risk, in fact, makes it possible to evaluate and adopt resilience policies well before a critical event occurs, thus allowing not only to reduce and/or optimize investments but, above all, to reduce the consequences associated with the event. Similarly, in a post-earthquake scenario, monitoring systems and networks will make it possible to obtain useful information to quickly estimate (almost in real time) the level of damage to buildings and infrastructures (bridges, viaducts, etc.), thus accelerating the machine emergency management and reducing intervention and recovery times.
Finally, are other installations of seismic stations planned?
Yes, another 20 stations will be placed in the first months of 2022 and will optimize the current coverage of the historic centre, extending beyond the municipal belt of Catania. In fact, other pilot sites will be inserted in analogy to what has already been done for the inhabited center of the port of the island of Vulcano and the historic center of Ragusa, developing the OSU network in the areas with the greatest seismic, but also volcanic, risk in Sicily.