Prediction of Slope Movement Effects on Churches for the Development of a Fragility Curve Approach

Protecting cultural heritage from soil interaction related threats is a current and social issue to which scientific research must offer a contribution, considering also the fragility of the exposed territory. Among the related problems, the aim of this research is to develop fragility curves for churches located in landslide areas, in order to establish a reliable forecasting method applicable to intervention management. The choice of selecting churches as exposed structures makes the theme more challenging for their structural and geometric complexities. To generate the curves, exposed elements and damage severity levels have to be identified, through the definition of an intensity parameter of the landslide effects. The intensity parameter is represented by the global slope safety factor, in order to provide a simple tool to use in engineering practice. Vertical and horizontal slope movements, obtained by numerical analyses, can be related to the relevant safety factors as well as to possible permitted damage levels. The paper reports the proposed methodology applied to a case study, in order to validate the hypothesis of the choice of the safety factor as an appropriate index of intensity.