RISK COMMUNICATION AND AWARENESS OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT THREATENED BY DISASTERS WITH DIGITAL MODELS

Natural and anthropic hazards are widely affecting the Built Environment causing damages and risks to the actual population and losses of architectural and environmental heritage to future generations. In particular, the potential value of historic city centres is threatened, both because of the intrinsic vulnerability of buildings and open spaces (squares, streets, and so on) and their high occupancy by inhabitants, tourists, students, workers, and other user profiles. Resilience of the Built Environment and human preparedness are two issues that have been addressing by really recent research and technical activities. Apropos, the objectives are to forecast and assess risks as well as to provide mitigative measures, including training programs for expert and non-expert people. In Risk management, communication is a fundamental step to reduce negative consequences of disasters. This is due to twofold purposes: 1) notifying those characteristics of the Built Environment that influence the mitigative/pejorative effects of hazard occurrence and 2) specifying safe behaviours to enhance users’ knowledge and awareness, in order to be prepared to hazard occurrences. However, the latest scientific studies highlighted how the use of Digital Models, structured in info-graphic and parametric data, can support both the specific risk assessment and the fostering of risk communication, involving technical and common urban users. Digital Models for the risk assessment of Built Environment are part of current studies in the BE S2ECURe project. Here, the identification of a double level of training (technical and pervasive) supported by Digital Models aims at supporting risk analysis and user awareness. In detail, the Technical Model results from interdisciplinary analysis based on multi-risk (Sudden and Slow Onset Disasters) data collection in order to study potential risks in the Built Environment; on the other hand, the Pervasive Model collects results of technical assessment and proposes structured information for user preparedness to risk. In this setting, the paper introduces the methodological framework for the creation of Technical and Pervasive Models underlying the respective goals within risk management and the first outcomes of its application to two selected case studies.