GIANO

The GIANO project goals are: 1) to define a robust protocol for the quantitative assessment of the risk deriving from the geo-hazards afflicting the Italian cultural heritage; 2) most important, to identify the least invasive and best suited geotechnical mitigation techniques to tackle these geo-hazards, for various typologies of monumental constructions.

Owing to the multi-disciplinary nature of the subject, a holistic approach will be adopted, appointing an advisory committee (End Users Group, EUG) made of experts of complementary, relevant skills. Frequently, damages in heritage assets have a geotechnical origin. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is perhaps the best, paradigmatic example in this regard, since it is founded on a highly compressible and spatially heterogeneous soil deposit responsible of an uneven distribution of ground settlements. Other relevant geohazards affecting Italian cultural heritage are: slope instability, expanding soils, subsidence, piping, leaching, sinkholes, ground vibrations, and of course earthquakes.

The GIANO project will be carried out in 3 subsequent Actions.

In Action 1, for some archetypes of historical constructions selected in advance as representative of the variety of Italian cultural heritage, an in-depth geo-risk assessment will be carried out using the specific know-how of the involved RUs. This will allow to build up a virtual laboratory for the simulation of typical failure mechanisms, out of which fragility models will be defined, using convenient calculation tools like the macro-elements.

In Action 2, the best suited mitigation technologies will be studied, quantifying their effect on geo-risks mitigation. For two specific combinations of historical construction and geo-hazard of the list analysed in Action 1, an in-depth pilot study will be carried out, performing non-invasive geotechnical investigations and centrifuge tests on reduced-scale models with and without mitigation actions. Advanced numerical analyses of the Ground-Monument System (GMS) will be carried out to investigate numerically the most suitable, non-invasive hazard mitigation technology.

Action 3 is a major pillar of the project as it aims to turn the project outcomes into a set of technical recommendations and guidelines that will to be used by public authorities, decision makers and conservation specialists to identify and effectively mitigate the geo-hazards afflicting many heritage assets.