Post-Quake Analysis: Central Italy

Last Monday, April 6th, a 6.3 Magnitude earthquake struck central Italy. Centered near L'Aquila, Italy, the seismic event was not particularly strong nor intense, but it has caused a large amount of damage.

Here is the USGS Quakemap for the event. Check out my related posts (label = seismic) if you need help reading it.

A week later, it appears that there will be about 300 casualties due to the earthquake and the aftershocks. Central Italy is famous for its Medieval, Renaissance, and Roman structures, so there is a huge stock of buildings that are susceptible to seismic events. Unfortunately, it turns out that some of the worst performing structures have been built in modern times under the jurisdiction of codes requiring seismic resistance.

The post-quake analysis seems to indicate poor construction quality and lax oversight from building inspectors set this seismic time-bomb in motion. The general public of central Italy has been told (just like the rest of us) for several decades that modern structures are different, they will be safer when disaster strikes. However, something in the system broke down and the reality of the situation did not meet the promises.

This could happen anywhere in the world. Political corruption, designer negligence, or ignorance of builders are commonplace. Each one alone is a huge problem, so faced with three issues beyond their control individuals often feel that they can do nothing to help.

I don't think we can ever remove risk from our structures entirely, but the three problems discussed above can be addressed by the general public. It all comes down to accountability. We must hold our politicians accountable in the following ways:

1. Only elect politicians who have proven themselves capable of understanding technical and scientific issues. Do not vote for someone who has an anti-scientific or anti-intellectual agenda. Someone who makes up their mind before they understand the issue will not be able to solve any problems.
   
2. Enforce transparency and freedom of information rights. This will prevent graft and corruption in the securing of construction contracts and inspection of projects.
3. Do not allow politicians to pardon or protect engineers, architects, builders, or contractors after a major disaster, beyond what is allowed by the laws currently in place. Statements like "we need to look to the future, not the past" or other broad statements absolving those responsible of criminal misconduct will only perpetuate the problem.
   

Italy is beginning the process of holding people accountable. People there are angry and looking for answers. A NY Times article discusses an Italian official who claimed that such a light seismic event would not have caused any deaths in California. Another story by BBC discusses the strange case of the San Salvatore hospital, built in 2000, which suffered a partial collapse during the earthquake. This is unthinkable in a place like California, or most of the countries where earthquakes are a way of life. And finally, a BBC story about beginning the process of investigation.

I'm not saying we should be on a witchhunt whenever a building collapses, but when hundreds of people die due to an expected event then we need to investigate why this is happening. If there is no clear way to attribute accountability then we need to figure out a better system. Engineers and architects are signing off on their designs, I am sure those will be reviewed. Someone needs to be signing off on the finished building, someone who will be damn sure the designs are followed through.