Seismic hazard and land management policies in Italy: The role of seismic investigation

Italy is a highly populated country with an important cultural heritage and characterized by high seismicity. It is therefore of paramount importance to define clear and feasible policies for land management and to adopt consistent procedures for seismic risk assessment. In this context seismic surveys aimed at providing S-wave velocity models are applied at different degree of detail and complexity. We provide a description of the regulatory framework for seismic microzonation and an overview of the use of seismic measurements, with particular regard to surface wave analysis, for different level of microzoning with some examples of recent applications in Italy.