Classically, the discipline dealing with earthquakes is called ‘earthquake engineering’ and considered to be a branch of structural engineering. Thus, in case of projects dealing with strategies for earthquake risk mitigation, approaches from architecture, urbanism and geosciences other than seismology are often ignored. The contribution of architecture and urbanism to natural hazards mitigation is however important as:
retrofitting interventions are performed many times on heritage buildings, or, more generally, on buildings with cultural value,
today interventions are needed not only at building scale, but at city scale.
For implementing risk reduction strategies, urban planning plays a key role, interventions can only take place with the support of the affected people, their acceptance being influenced by the quality of landmarks (after Lynch 1960, ‘The Image of the city’) built by architectural objects which are bearers of memory.
This work approaches the impact of earthquakes, with a broader view on multihazard on urban areas. It is different from other similar works because it gives a particular importance to urban planning and architecture issues, such as integrated conservation. The majority of papers included in the book assert the impact of hazards on historical sites in case of earthquakes which shook the world and focusing on the need of rebuilding. Other papers emphasize pioneering approaches such as the Abbruzzo 2009 earthquake approach on which more research is still needed, the usage of social housing for reconstruction need and the outreach of urban planning issues towards public education and civil protection fields.