POST EARTHQUAKE FIELD INVESTIGATION OF THE M6.2 AQUILA, ITALY EARTHQUAKE OF APRIL 6, 2009

The UK Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team (EEFIT) has decided to mount a reconnaissance mission to the Abruzzo region of Italy following the earthquake of magnitude 6.2 MW, which occurred on the 6th April 2009. A team of nine people, (structural and geotechnical earthquake engineering, geology, seismology, casualty, and GIS experts), are planning to leave for L'Aquila, Italy on the 17th April 2009 and spend six days in the disaster zone. This grant application seeks financial support to help meet the travel costs and field expenses of the participating academic team members and to aid EEFIT support entry of collected field data (photographs and observations) into an improved version of the Virtual Disaster Viewer system developed following the EPSRC funded China Earthquake mission last year (Grant Ref: EP/G030111/1). This platform will allow members of the global earthquake engineering community, especially to review and provide their assessment of damage by comparing before and after satellite images of the affected areas and to remotely and in real-time upload their own field data as it is collected for rapid dissemination. The objectives of the mission will be to investigate and assess the causes of structural damage, infrastructure damage and geotechnical failures in the epicentral region and report back to the UK Engineering and lay community. The investigation will also include aspects of casualty and social vulnerability assessment. Dissemination through the improved Virtual Disaster Viewer system will increase the effectiveness of earthquake reporting, promoting awareness of earthquake risk. It will also be a shared repository for observations made by several international teams of experts, in particular those of the Joint Research Centre in Italy. Hence, this initiative will continue to strengthen existing, and foster new relationships between researchers and engineers in EEFIT and the worldwide earthquake engineering community.