Analysis of damage mechanisms of fortified heritage and proactive information tools to prevent seismic risk

The recent Italian seismic events have highlighted the high seismic vulnerability of a very common and distinctive architectural type: fortified architectures. This research project, in partnership with Regional Agency for the Reconstruction –2012 Earthquake, focuses on the analysis of 21 castles damaged by 2012 Emilia earthquake.This article shows a first analysis of the large amount of data, produced after the seismic events of May 20th and 29th 2012, about the fortified architectures. The data are reorganized according to two levels: building level and territorial level. The first part of the article is focused on the analysis of typical damage mechanisms of fortresses, including the critical aspects of the application of the inventory sheet (form B-Palace) to the castle typology. The second part illustrates a GIS database, designed with a predictive approach. Indeed, this geodatabase is not only a passive storage system, but, uploading the shakemaps, it can become a tool for seismic risk prediction and damage prevention.