224 research outputs found
Urban Resilience: A Civil Engineering Perspective
No full textThe concept of resilience is used in multiple scientific contexts, being understood according to several different perspectives. Essentially, resilience identifies the capability to recover, absorb shocks, and restore equilibrium after a perturbation. Recently, resilience is triggering increasing interest in engineering contexts, referring to communities and urban networked systems, as the capability to recover from natural disasters. The approach to the engineering resilience dates back to the early 1980s, when Timmerman defined resilience as "the ability of human communities to withstand external shocks or perturbations to their infrastructure and to recover from such perturbations". In this paper, a literature review of the existing methodologies to quantify urban resilience is presented according to a civil engineering perspective. Different approaches, for diverse applications, are examined and discussed. A particular focus is done on the studies from Cavallaro et al. and Bozza et al., approaching disaster resilience of urban environments to natural hazards according to the complex networks theory
Why AC/DC matters
No full textFormer "Rolling Stone" journalist, rock critic, and "New York Times"-bestselling author Bozza pens a fan's tribute to one of the bestselling--and underrated--rock acts of all time: AC/DC
A methodological framework assessing disaster resilience of city ecosystems to enhance resource use efficiency
No full textResilience represents a key issue for modern societies. Resilience is related to sustainability as safeguarding environmental assets can reduce risk and provide resources to facilitate recovery. The methodology quantifies the disaster resilience of city ecosystems by measuring urban efficiency in the event of shocks, according to an anthropocentric perspective. Cities are modelled as hybrid social–physical networks (HSPNs), accounting for interrelations between the physical and social components. Seismic scenarios are run on diverse urban shapes and on the real case study of the city of Sarno. Results on synthetic HSPNs show consistency with the real case study, therefore the validity of the model is highlighted. Urban shapes or forms prove to have a significant impact on urban efficiency in terms of service delivery, and on urban disaster resilience. The methodology proposed in this paper could be a useful tool for urban planners, particularly in cities with high exposure to natural disasters
A Study of Bozza\u27s Eighteen Etudes In The Form of Improvisation For Horn and New Preparatory Etudes on the Works of Bozza
No full textThis document serves as an analysis of Eugene Bozza\u27s Dix-Huit Études en Forme d\u27Improvisation pour Cor (1961), translated to Eighteen Etudes in the Form of Improvisation for Horn for the purposes of this document. I found and documented all motifs within the eighteen etudes, and categorized connections between them and Bozza\u27s compositional ouerve as displayed in Dr. Lois Kuyper-Rushing\u27s A Thematic Index of the Works of Bozza. My research takes inspiration from Dr. Kuyper-Rushing\u27s work as well as Dr. Hsing-Fang Liu\u27s research involving Bozza\u27s use of “Adoptive Transcription”, or taking old melodies from previous works and using them in new works. Involved with this document is a recording of all eighteen etudes, recorded and performed by the author at the Barth House, a local Episcopalian center in Memphis, Tennessee. A discussion of each of the 18 etudes, their connections, and the process I had taken in practicing and recording them makes up the middle section of the document. Finally, using the knowledge gained from the connections made and the recordings provided, this document will conclude with three new preparatory etudes for the horn composed by the author in the spirit of making the performance of Bozza\u27s body of work easier for future horn students. In their current state, most of Bozza\u27s Eighteen Etudes in the Form of Improvisation are simply too difficult to be played well by intermediate students
Developing an integrated framework to quantify resilience of urban systems against disasters
No full textUrban resilience against disasters represents a key issue for contemporary society. The increasing complexity of cities along with more severe threats induced by climate change is pressing modern societies to search for new paths to prevention, preparedness and rapid recovery. As a result, resilience is triggering an increasing interest within many scientific contexts to explore the capabilities of communities to withstand extreme events. The present study proposes a framework aimed at quantifying disaster resilience of urban systems while ensuring an adequate level of sustainability, all according to a social and human-centric perspective. Urban networks are modelled as hybrid social–physical networks (HSPNs) by merging both physical and social components, and engineering measures are performed on HSPNs, as a measure of urban efficiency, within a multi-scale approach. Thence, social indicators are identified in order to characterise quality of life in the aftermath of a catastrophic event. Both efficiency and quality of life indicators are evaluated using a time–discrete approach before and after an extreme event occurs and during the recovery phase in order to measure inhabitant happiness and environmental sustainability. This approach allows handling different kinds of information simultaneously, being potentially implemented both in peacetime and during the recovery process. The former can be effective for urban coping capacity assessment in order to reduce risks as a mitigation instrument. The latter can be used in the post-event to identify the best recovery paths needing to be followed for adaptation. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
National-level prediction of expected seismic loss based on historical catalogue
No full textThe frequency and severity of natural catastrophes have increased significantly over the last few years, with countries around the world having to face huge economic and human losses. Italy in particular is very seismic-prone, being located in the precise area of convergence between the African and Eurasian lithospheric plates. In addition, most Italian cities are densely populated and have many old and historical buildings, making the country even more exposed and vulnerable in terms of potential losses. Recently, new regulations gave householders the chance to buy insurance against earthquakes. Unfortunately, the widespread risk perception in Italy is very low among the population. In addition, insurance premiums can be extremely high given the low-probability-high-risk of cash flow and insolvency problems potentially incurred by an insurance company if there is a high magnitude earthquake. The aim of the methodology proposed in this paper is to give insurers an engineering instrument with which to quantify expected losses in the case of an earthquake. This will enable insurance companies to model innovative and more affordable financial products by optimizing the quantification of premiums. Seismic events with a magnitude greater than 4 from 217 a.C. to 2012 have been selected from the historical catalogue of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and statistical simulations of earthquake scenarios are performed for each of them. In particular, the peak ground acceleration is simulated, based on the ground motion prediction equation of Bindi et al. (Bull Earthq Eng 7(3):591–608, 2009). Actual exposure is assumed for the Italian building stock, which is modelled according to the database of the National Institute of Statistics. Finally, in order to compute the total losses for the entire national building stock, the annual expected losses are quantified according to the procedure demonstrated in Asprone et al. (Struct Saf 44:70–79, 2013)
Alternative Resilience Indices for City Ecosystems Subjected to Natural Hazards
No full textPrompt and efficient responses against natural hazards are needed to build cities capable of withstanding disasters, namely resilient cities. This study aims at presenting and testing synthetic resilience indices over a real urban center threatened by multiple hazards, for which a global overview of city performance is requested. An integrated framework is proposed for quantitative resilience assessment by way of time-independent synthetic indices. The approach proposed is in accordance to the complex network theory and uses a global indicator of the system connectivity to assess the city functioning also in case of network disruption. Resilience is evaluated as a proxy for systemic urban damage by modeling a city ecosystem as a hybrid social–physical network. Seismic and landslide scenario analyses are performed for the city of Sarno, Italy. A probability-based approach is used to compute urban vulnerability. Subsequently, to highlight changes in results according to the type of disaster, a recovery strategy is simulated to assess efficiency and damage states in each recovery stage, and urban resilience
Leuca. Testi di René Van Compernolle, Rosanna Corchia, Giuliano Cremonesi, Francesco d'Andria, Anna De Mitri, Lidia Forti, Liliana Giardino, Michel Gras, Cosimo Pagliara, Agnès Rouveret, Aldo Siciliano, Claudio Sorrentino. Rilievi di Roberto Bozza, Giuseppe Quarta, Franco Siciliano
No full textVan Wonterghem Frank. Leuca. Testi di René Van Compernolle, Rosanna Corchia, Giuliano Cremonesi, Francesco d'Andria, Anna De Mitri, Lidia Forti, Liliana Giardino, Michel Gras, Cosimo Pagliara, Agnès Rouveret, Aldo Siciliano, Claudio Sorrentino. Rilievi di Roberto Bozza, Giuseppe Quarta, Franco Siciliano. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 49, 1980. pp. 611-613
Leuca. Testi di René Van Compernolle, Rosanna Corchia, Giuliano Cremonesi, Francesco d'Andria, Anna De Mitri, Lidia Forti, Liliana Giardino, Michel Gras, Cosimo Pagliara, Agnès Rouveret, Aldo Siciliano, Claudio Sorrentino. Rilievi di Roberto Bozza, Giuseppe Quarta, Franco Siciliano
No full textVan Wonterghem Frank. Leuca. Testi di René Van Compernolle, Rosanna Corchia, Giuliano Cremonesi, Francesco d'Andria, Anna De Mitri, Lidia Forti, Liliana Giardino, Michel Gras, Cosimo Pagliara, Agnès Rouveret, Aldo Siciliano, Claudio Sorrentino. Rilievi di Roberto Bozza, Giuseppe Quarta, Franco Siciliano. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 49, 1980. pp. 611-613
How can insurers get prepared to catastrophes? Assessing earthquake expected losses from historical catalogue
No full textCountries around the world have had to face huge economic losses due to natural disasters over the past decade. This, of course represents a source of great concern for Na-tional Governments and even more so for the insurance industry. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, insurance and reinsurance markets are prone to severe insolvencies and destabiliza-tion. Therefore, the finance industry is looking for more reliable loss estimation procedures and insurance models, as effective means for resilience improvement.
The present paper proposes an engineering-based methodology as a support for innovative insurance models. The study aims at defining a scientific instrument supporting insurers and reinsurers in forecasting expected losses and in mitigating the potential lack of financial ca-pacity. This allows for catastrophe-linked modeling to be performed according to a risk-based framework. The proposed methodology is applied to the Italian residential building stock subjected to seismic risk. Expected losses are evaluated following the procedure out-lined in Asprone et al. (2013)[1] for earthquake scenarios from the catalogue of historical earthquakes, of the National Institute of Volcanology and Geology (INGV) [2] and assuming present-day exposure characteristics. Hence the procedure can be implemented anywhere else a detailed catalogue collecting information about earthquakes from the past is available, as for Italy.
Statistical simulations of ground motion intensity (peak ground acceleration, PGA) using multivariate normal distributions are performed for each earthquake. The simulated PGA values are calculated based on the ground motion prediction equation of Sabetta and Pugli-ese (1996)[3], whose coefficient are re-estimated by Bindi et al. (2009)[4], for each Italian Municipality.
A set of different fragility curves from the literature has been selected and averaged for each building type, also accounting for seismic and non-seismic design. In the next step, the annual expected losses for insurers are evaluated and the results are aggregated in order to calculate total losses for the entire National building stock. Linear regression analysis is performed for predicting the expected loss as a function of earthquake magnitude. The result-ing loss model can be used for efficient and rapid loss estimation for a given earthquake scenario
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