Integrating geomatics and structural investigation in post-earthquake monitoring of ancient monumental Buildings

The old city center of L’Aquila is rich in historical buildings of considerable merit. On April 6th 2009 a devastating earthquake caused signicant structural damages, aecting especially historical and monumental masonry buildings. The results of a study carried out on a monumental building, former headquarters of the University of L’Aquila (The Camponeschi building, XVI century) are presented in this paper. The building is situated in the heart of the old city center andwas seriouslydamaged by the earthquake. Preliminary visual damage analysis carried out immediately after the quake, clearly evidenced the building’s complexity, raising the need for direct and indirect investigation on the structure. Several non-destructive test methods were then performed in situ to better characterize the masonry typology and the damage distribution, as well. Subsequently, a number of representative control points were identied on the building’s facades to represent, by their motion over time, the evolution of the structural displacements and deformations. In particular, a surveying network consisting of 27 dierent points was established. A robotic total station mounted on top of a concrete pillar was used for periodically monitoring the surveying control network. Stability of the pillar was checked through a GNSS static survey repeated before any set of measurements. The present study evidences the interesting possibilities of combining geomatics with structural investigation during post-earthquake monitoring of ancient monumental