Tsunami impact on coastal regions accounting for mitigation strategies

Abstract

An increasing number of coastal communities across Italy and the entire globe are exposed to tsunami hazard, also due to climate change. Tsunamis can be triggered by several events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruption and submarine landslides. Previous research conducted on tsunami risk assessment highlighted the absence of specific frameworks able to assess the economic and social loss and to quantify the potential effect of large-scale tsunami mitigation strategies on Italian coastal regions. The present paper summarizes the main objectives of the PRIN (Projects of great national interest) MITICO - MItigation of Tsunami Impact on COastal Regions project, that aims to develop a framework to perform a reliable tsunami risk and loss assessment for Italian coastal communities also accounting for the presence of large-scale mitigation strategies. A state-of-the-art on the effect of mitigation strategies on tsunami loads on structures, the vulnerability of buildings to tsunami and the direct loss analysis will be outlined thought the paper, and advancements will be presented based on the ongoing project research activities.