High technology to prevent the worst damage caused by earthquakes. And monitor, through a constantly updated platform, 138 municipalities at risk, in order to prevent seismic events but also to control any reconstruction phases. The platform on which everything revolves and which brings together geospatial technology, a super computer and an app is called ReStart (ie Territorial Resilience of the Central Apennines Earthquake Reconstruction), with the subtitle “we don’t risk anymore”, and it affects an area of 8 thousand kilometers square between Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo and Lazio, ten provinces in which 575 thousand inhabitants reside. This was set up by the Central Apennine District Basin Authority with a project financed by the Agency for territorial cohesion through European funds and in which the 4 regions concerned, the national civil protection department and the structure of the commissioner for reconstruction and the Ministry of Ecological Transition. In the field a program of interventions that falls entirely within the hydrographic district of the central Apennines which also includes some areas of Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Molise for a total extension of over 42 thousand square kilometers.
“The technological platform is a fundamental tool to defend ourselves from major natural hazards – explains Erasmo D’Angelis, secretary general of the Authority -, we can finally reason to go beyond the emergency phase, reconstruct and focus on the issue of prevention also thanks to ‘use of modern technologies’.
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The data is collected, analyzed and inserted by the group that is working on the project through the use of “geospatial technologies, sensors, modeling and field inspections”. A real wealth of information that can be consulted both by technicians and professionals involved in reconstruction works and by citizens who want to know better the territory in which they reside. To move between information, maps and reports, just access the platform, which can be reached at www.restartgis.it. Inside interactive digital maps and databases “aimed at prevention and more sustainable territorial planning” is clarified in the project.
From the PC or smartphone, “it will be possible to consult the first thematic WebGis services with maps of seismic microzonation, of the morphology of the territory, of areas at hydrogeological risk, and also of settlements, protected areas, archaeological and cultural assets”. Among the information contained also those relating to the reconstruction in the post-earthquake periods. And therefore, just to give an example, those useful to understand if a damaged building can be made safe or if the area in which it is located is at risk and it is therefore advisable to find another solution. The project moves on three parallel tracks ranging from “technical support for post-earthquake reconstruction in conditions of hydrogeological safety from previous phenomena and induced earthquakes”, that is when there are landslides and floods, to the reprogramming of water resources, up to arrive at what is defined as the “pilot model of governance and constant and continuous updating of the cognitive framework of risk phenomena”, ie urban planning and territorial governance model.
“We have decided to invest the maximum of knowledge and technology – D’Angelis argues – and today, thanks to this new tool, those who have to rebuild know where to do it and know which territory to let go, because for example it is at risk of landslides. or floods ». As for timing: for now there is the first “webgis” piece, by mid-2022 the implementation of “actions and technologies for hydrogeological and anti-seismic prevention and planning” is expected. A model of “resilience”, which, D’Angelis concludes, “although born specifically for the crater of Central Italy, has characteristics and purposes that make it exportable to any area (which is not only Italian) hit by natural disasters”.