The 2009 L’Aquila earthquake: a wasted opportunity to improve the seismic risk management from Italian strong earthquakes

This contribution is devoted to highlight some drawbacks in current practices for predicting seismic hazard in Italy where strong seismic events are commonly characterized by near-field conditions and high spotlight PGA measurements. The highlighted critical points are: (1) the use of Cornell’s method for defining the reference national hazard and (2) the need of multidisciplinary approaches to seismic characterization of surface geology. Some best practices from worldwide as well as past Italian experiences are reported to suggest future strategies for managing the seismic hazard at national scale. Accordingly, some results from VEL (Local Seismic Effect Evaluation) project, developed in Tuscan Region since 1998, will be briefly illustrated.