DEFINITION OF MULTI-HAZARD VULNERABILITY INDICATORS FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE BUILDINGS

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction recognizes the importance of cultural heritage for society and emphasize the need to assess their vulnerability from multiple hazards. Developing adequate multi-hazard vulnerability assessment processes is fundamental to this end. Still, given the large number of cultural heritage assets that can be exposed to different hazards in a region, the development of simplified multi-hazard approaches that can provide an initial risk screening of multiple assets to identify the need for more detailed analyses plays a central role for prioritization. In this context, we propose an index-based multi-hazard vulnerability assessment methodology for churches, able to consider vulnerability from earthquakes, floods, and fire. The proposed multi-hazard index has been obtained by combining a series of indicators, defined by performing a literature review. The indicators were selected due to their relevance for the vulnerability classification of the assets but also their ability to be easily scored from remotely sensed data or fast in situ screening. The presented research describes in detail each indicator and provides insights on how they should be scored and integrated to obtain the overall multi-hazard vulnerability index for churches. The vulnerability indicators constitute the primary component of a five-step, multi-hazard vulnerability assessment methodology that can be flexibly applied as a prioritization method to rapidly screen multiple assets and identify the most vulnerable churches that may require a more detailed assessment. The methodology is tested on a series of case study applications in Portugal and Italy.