The Italian Apennines between earthquakes, high naturalness and urban growth

This paper sets out the results of a study conducted in the inland areas in central Italy on certain phenomena that, for decades, have evolved separately: urban and socio-economic growth, environmental and cultural conservation and the curbing of seismic risk. The study was carried out by analysing the urban conversion of land in the Italian Apennines over the past 50 years, focusing on areas of varying seismic hazard. Our analysis highlights that territorial planning has failed to tackle this risk in an integrated manner, implementing entirely uncoordinated actions that have produced poor results. Thus, our main goal is to study urban development and its effects on the Apennine system and devise possible strategies to mitigate the seismic risk in this area of significant worth, but made extremely vulnerable by policies and solutions that have never been “nature-based”.