It is quite usual that advances in science do not find practical application in
everyday life. This is only partly true for the problem of seismic risk reduction, because the
progresses in seismic hazard assessment generally enter soon into the seismic codes, i.e., guidelines
for new building design. More problematic is the case of the existing buildings, where a more
complex evaluation of the seismic risk should drive intervention priorities [see more discussion in
Grimaz et al. (2010, 2011d) and Slejko et al. (2012)].
ASSESS was a 3-year project financed by the Civil Protection of the Friuli Venezia Giulia
Region (NE Italy) in order to study the seismic risk for some relevant buildings, identified at this
stage in the school buildings and to develop tools useful for a definition of retrofitting priorities for
seismic risk reduction.
