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COST ACTION C26

COSTC26-2010

The COSTC26 Conference staff is very pleased to announce that a special Conference, namely “Urban Habitat Constructions under Catastrophic Events” is under preparation.
The Conference will be held in Naples (Italy), which is a significant example of a largely densely populated area, characterized by a long and important cultural and artistic history, it being also a productive and industrial pole, where the risk of a multi-hazard catastrophic scenario is of concern, due to both possible volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
The Conference is the final event of an international research project (COST C26 Action, Chairman F.M. Mazzolani, 2006 – 2010) on the same subject, with the participation of 23 european Countries. The main objective of the project, which will have its official and widespread affirmation with this final Conference, has been to share and then increase the knowledge on the behaviour of constructions located in urban habitat and subjected to both natural and/or man-made catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, fire, wind storms, heavy snow loading, gas explosions, accidental impact from vehicles out of control and occasionally due to bomb blasts during terrorist attacks. In this view, focus has been brought to suitable tools for predicting the ultimate response of such constructions under extreme conditions, occurring when both loading and structural resistance are combined in such a way to reduce the safety level below acceptable values. In addition, an important aspect of the activity has been devoted to assess provisions for protection and damage prevention as well as for repairing buildings, which are hit by the above situations.
In this current time, where sadly catastrophic natural events are contemporary striking many Countries all over the world, crippling entire communities, all the efforts should be made toward protection and prevention for saving human lives, avoiding economic disruption and preserving valuable built heritage.
We are confident that the COST C26 Conference represents a suitable forum for bringing together experts of different Countries and with different experiences, which will provide a remarkable contribution in this field.