We will have a unique platform in which to calculate and study as streets, houses and bridges react to calamities such as earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. By simulating an extreme event, the risks to which the territory is exposed are understood: it will help us design better and spend less. A huge job, financed with the PNRR and which university, CNR, Civil Protection, Ingv, Aeneas and state authorities participate. The works have been going on for two years: Spoke 5 has been working on the platform, which is proposed as a real national control cabin for the mapping of natural and environmental risks.
The single platform to simulate environmental risks
Thanks to the calculation power put in place by the ICSC, the national HPC research center (High Performance Computing), big data and quantum computing, hundreds of scientists are working for an “Italian digital platform for the mitigation of disasters”. The deterioration of the environment, the increase in natural disasters and the relationship between these phenomena and climate change are among the scientific and social issues of greater and growing relevance globally. The new technologies that can be used on extensive geographical areas and the ability to collect and process big data, can contribute to dealing with the critical issues and challenges related to these research areas.
The Spoke 5 brings together a group of strongly multidisclinare researchers, which ranges from basic research in the areas of mathematics and physics, to specializations in the field of advanced computation, up to the areas of research in the sectors of the Earth and civil and geo-environmental sciences. Finally, Spoke 5 intends to translate the results of the research conducted into clear economic impact indicators to develop and propose solutions for monitoring the environment that have a positive relapse on the entire civil society.
The platform was previewed at the CNR headquarters in Rome which also participated in Toray.it. The progress of the last two years were presented in front of researchers, journalists and representatives of institutions and industrial realities such as the Civil Protection, the special office for the reconstruction of L’Aquila, the commissioner structure for the 2016 earthquake, the basin of the central and southern Apennines, various regional agencies of the South, as well as RFI, Eni and Terna.
How the platform works to adapt the territory to natural disasters
The platform will centralize research and data to build a map of the territory in which it can simulate natural disasters – earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides -, and adapt the design and define the reinforcement and redevelopment strategies of the existing building and infrastructure heritage. The mitigation of risks is fundamental for a territory such as the Italian one characterized by a high fragility and which has seen in recent years grow exponentially the expense for the damage produced by extreme natural events.
Everything will be accessible at various levels, from citizens to scientists to politicians. The platform will monitor and help to reduce the socio -economic impacts of the country’s natural and environmental risks. Spoke 5 has developed methodologies for monitoring artificial physical structures – such as buildings, roads, bridges, hydraulic and electrical networks – and natural environments – for example as rivers and lakes -, able to mitigate the risks connected to their deterioration and the actions of severe natural events.
“Anti -seismic superbonus for 7 million houses: it will avoid 500 deaths, 78 thousand displaced people and 2 billion damage every year”
The enormous computational skills of the National Center will be used to develop the so -called “digital twins”, or virtual models of the environments and infrastructures that are intended to study to predict their behavior, in reference to natural disasters or the evolution of environmental conditions.
“The realization of such a platform”, said Roberto Bellotti, leader of ICC’s Spoke 5, “represents an important milestone for our Spoke and all the Ecosystem ICCS. A result made possible thanks to the creation in 2022 of the National Center, which has managed to aggregate with Spoke 5 communities with multidisciplinary skills and to collaborate with each other on a common goal. Spoke will therefore be to involve political and institutional stakeholders in a participatory process that allows this platform to have a real impact on decision -making processes, but above all on citizens’ lives.
In the city sleeping on the volcano at risk of collapse one in ten house