Assessing the effect of interventions for the seismic improvement of churches

When dealing with the conservation of the monumental heritage, seismic resistance upgrade can be based on improvement interventions, not necessarily leading to the safety levels required for new construction. In this case the vulnerability level must be assessed before and after the adoption of the improvement interventions through suitable analysis tools. In Italy, recently issued Guidelines for the seismic improvement interventions on masonry monuments and heritage buildings have introduced a procedure in this sense. In the paper this procedure is presented with reference to the case of churches and the stability of results is discussed in relation to the levels of personal judgement implied in the procedure.