Valutazione integrata del rischio sismico urbano mediante caratterizzazione dinamica suolo–struttura: il caso studio della città di Potenza

In recent years, the growing attention toward the safety of the built environment and the resilience of Italian cities has highlighted the need for tools capable of realistically describing the seismic behaviour of buildings. Recent earthquake sequences in Italy have shown how structural vulnerability, combined with the geological complexity of the territory, can amplify seismic effects and produce widespread damage even at considerable distances from the epicentre. In this context, seismic risk assessment cannot be approached by separating subsurface processes from structural response: urban seismic behaviour arises from soil–structure interaction and is jointly controlled by geological conditions and the dynamic properties of buildings. This thesis addresses this scientific and operational framework by developing an integrated understanding of how the subsurface and the building stock of the city of Potenza respond to seismic excitation. The work is carried out within the research activities of CNR‑IMAA and the Department of Engineering of the University of Basilicata, and is part of broader collaborations with national institutions involved in seismic hazard and vulnerability studies (CNR‑IGAG, OGS, INGV, DPC), funded under the ITINERIS project. The availability of an extensive experimental dataset—including ambient vibration measurements, accelerometric recordings, and geological–technical information—enabled a multidisciplinary approach combining field observations, numerical modelling, and statistical analysis. The overall objective is to contribute to an integrated methodological framework for urban seismic risk assessment, linking the dynamic properties of the subsurface with those of buildings and providing a coherent representation of the seismic response of the built environment. Potenza was selected as a case study due to its geological complexity, heterogeneous building stock, rich experimental data availability, and previous site‑specific investigations (Strollo et al., 2012; Chiauzzi et al., 2012), which make it a natural laboratory for studying site effects and soil–structure interaction. The personal contribution consists of conducting geophysical and experimental measurements on both foundation soils and buildings, processing the data through appropriate analysis techniques, and performing subsequent numerical modelling of soil and structural response based on the acquired experimental evidence. These activities made it possible to evaluate the seismic capacity of buildings in relation to the expected site‑specific demand, integrating experimental and numerical information within a unified interpretative framework. The work thus acts as a bridge between field observations and numerical modelling, with the aim of providing tools useful not only to the scientific community but also to practitioners and institutions for implementing more effective seismic risk‑mitigation strategies in urban planning, resource allocation, and emergency management.