L'Aquila (Italy)
Location: L'Aquila, Italy
Lead Partner: Univerita Delgi Studi di Firenze (University of Florence)
Other partners: University of L'Aquila, Marche Politechnic - Ancona
Disaster in Focus:
On 6 April 2009 at 03:30 a.m. an earthquake of magnitude 6.3 occurred in the vicinity of the central Italian city of L'Aquila. Damage occurred to intensity IX on the MCS scale. There were 308 deaths and 1500 people were injured, 202 of them seriously. About 100,000 buildings were damaged and 67,500 people were left homeless.
Demography:
L'Aquila (population 72,800) is the leading city of Abruzzo, a region divided into four provinces. L'Aquila province has a population of 309,000 inhabitants, in an area of 5034 sq. km, which gives an average density of 59 inhabitants per sq. km. Only about 6,900 residents are foreigners. On average 10.3% of the population of L'Aquila Province are over the age of 75 years, but the proportion rises to a quarter or a third in some of the small towns. Only one of the 108 municipalities in the province other than L'Aquila has a population of more than 25,000 inhabitants (Sulmona, 100 km to the SE). Population growth has been modest but sustained in the larger municipalities, reaching a maximum of 0.7% per annum in L'Aquila city, but municipalities with fewer than 3,200 inhabitants have tended to suffer demographic decline.
Geography:
Abruzzo has three coastal provinces--Teramo, Pescara and Chieti--but L'Aquila province is entirely located inland in the Apennine mountains, separated from the coast by the Gran Sasso d'Italia (2,900 m a.s.l.), the highest mountain in the cordillera. The province is characterised by steep mountain slopes, deep valleys and intermountain basins. The area affected by the 2009 earthquake is part of the Aterno river valley and includes the lower slopes of mountains, the L'Aquila basin and the floodplain of the river. In winter, l'Aquila is the coldest provincial capital of Italy. L'Aquila city is located at 720 m above sea level on a fluvial-colluvial piedmont terrace. It has an annual temperature range that extends from -18 to 36 degrees Celsius. The area affected by the earthquake measures approximately 11 km N-S and 24 km E-W.
The local area was settled by Sabine and Vestine tribes in early history and conquered by the Romans in the third century BC. Despite the area's long history of settlement, the city of L'Aquila was founded only in the mid-thirteenth century. It suffered its first serious earthquake damage in two seismic events that occurred during the first half of the fourteenth century. The earthquake of 1703 had a magnitude of 6.7 and killed 10,000 people. The Abruzzo earthquake of 1915 did not significantly damage L'Aquila but it killed 32,000 people, including 10,700 (94% of the population) in the epicentral town of Avezzano, 50 km south of L'Aquila.
Economy:
Its relative remoteness means that L'Aquila is not an economically buoyant place, and the majority of the employment opportunities in the region are in the coastal provinces. L'Aquila has very little manufacturing and relies upon service industries for the majority of its employment, especially those connected with its role as the regional administrative capital. The largest employer is the University of L'Aquila. Hence unemployment is 12.2% in the province but youth unemployment is 40.0 percent. The corresponding figures for L'Aquila city are 10.1 and 37.8%.
Health and Education:
In Italy, health services are organised on a regional basis and the regional authorities manage six local health districts (ASLs). Six cities of Abruzzo have major hospital facilities, but San Salvatore, the large regional hospital in L'Aquila, was put entirely out of action by the 2009 earthquake and had to be substituted by two field hospitals. In the aftermath of the tremors, Medivac, the airborne evacuation of injured patients, took place on a regional and interregional basis.
In a study carried out in 2007 a sample of 927 residents of Abruzzo Region were asked how they perceived their state of health. Two thirds of them responded in positive terms, although the proportion fell to less than half among old people. Mortality among the aged increased and remained high after the earthquake.
In the L'Aquila area barely 40% of the adult population has had more schooling than the legal minimum, which is currently set at age 16 years. However, L'Aquila University has more than 23,000 students and is a focus of higher education for a wide area of central Italy.
Religion, Language and Ethnicity:
The vast majority of the population of Abruzzo Region are Catholics, although significant Protestant and Muslim minorities exist. Italian is the main language spoken, with regional dialectical variations. As foreigners account for less than 3% of the local population, and in-migration from other regions of Italy is a significant factor only among students (i.e. temporary residents), the area is ethnically very homogeneous, being of combined Marsican, Sabine and Roman origin.
Disaster Experience:
The 6 April 2009 disaster came as part of an earthquake swarm that lasted for at least eight months. The local public administration and emergency management system failed to cope and was rapidly augmented with national resources. The 57 municipalities that suffered major damage were administered in seven groups through a cascading operations system directed from an operations centre at Coppito, on the periphery of L'Aquila city.
The earthquake aftermath was the first time in the history of modern Italy that a major city had been completely evacuated, and it remained so for more than a year. Of the 67,000 people made homeless by the disaster, more than 20,000 were temporarily accommodated in 5,700 tents situated in 164 camps. Others were lodged in hotels on the Adriatic Sea coast. After only six months, new semi-permanent housing with anti-seismic base isolation became available for 22,000 of the homeless. Before the harsh Abruzzese winter set in others were accommodated in temporary prefabricated homes. In the first year a total of 1.06 billion euros were spent on the construction of 5,736 of temporary and semi-permanent homes.
The centres of several towns were devastated by the earthquake, notably in L'Aquila, Paganica, Tempera, San Gregorio and Villa Sant'Angelo. In the valley-floor settlement of Onna, , which had 300 residents, 40 people died and 60% of buildings collapsed. In L'Aquila 11 of 12 churches suffered major damage and most of the city's historic buildings were left in a very poor state. In the short to medium term little money was available for reconstruction and efforts were concentrated on installing elaborate buttressing systems.
References:
Chioccarelli, E., F. De Luca and I. Iervolino 2009. Preliminary Study of L'Aquila Earthquake Ground Motion Records V5.20. [online] http://www.reluis.it.
Miyamoto 2009. L'Aquila, Italy, M6.3 earthquake, April 6, 2009. Earthquake Field Investigation Report. Global Risk Miyamoto, Lafayette, California, 31 pp. [online] http://www.grmcat.com/images/Italy-EQ-Report.pdf
Papanikolaou, I.D., E.L. Lekkas, G.P. Roberts, B. McGuire, I.G. Fountoulis, I. Parcharidis and M. Foumelis 2009. The 2009 L'Aquila Earthquake: Findings and Implications. Event Science Report no. 02. Aon Benfield Hazard Research Centre, University College London, London, UK, 31 pp. [online] http://www.abuhrc.org/Publications/ESR2.pdf
Rossetto, T., N. Peiris, J. Alarcon, E. So, S. Sargeant, V. Sword-Daniels, C. Libberton, E. Verrucci, D. Del Re and M. Free 2009. The L'Aquila, Italy, Earthquake of 6 April 2009: A Preliminary Field Report by EEFIT. UK Earthquake Engineering Field Investigation Team, London, 53 pp. [online] http://www.istructe.org/eefit/files/EEFIT web report on Aquila Italy Earthquake.pdf
Stucchi, M., C. Meletti, G. Manfredi, M. Dolce (eds) 2009. L'Aquila, April 6th 2009, 3:32am. Progettazione Sismica 03: 1-256.