Model updating to forecast the dynamic behavior of the Ghirlandina tower in Modena, Italy

Historical masonry towers survive at an alarming angle of inclination and may be in danger of leaning instability due to the lack of stiffness of the supporting soil. Therefore, careful investigation is required to estimate the seismic vulnerability as well as its long-term behavior. These problems require a multidisciplinary approach to properly model the behavior of the structure and its interaction with the supporting soil. This article is intended to contribute to these aspects, by showing how identification analyses can highlight the role of soil–structure interaction, and focuses on the model-updating techniques to forecast its behavior under seismic events.