Seismic and solar performance of historical city. Urban form-based multicriteria analysis
The understanding of the global performance of a historical city is a complex balance
of several specific issues and requires a multi-disciplinary approach to face with actual urban
phenomena and challenges, such as the seismic risk and energy efficiency, that are strongly
influenced by urban form. This paper focuses on the potential of urban metrics and typological
indicators for describing the seismic vulnerability and the solar radiation availability of distinct
urban textures, and the correlation between the two aspects. Comparative analysis at fabric scale
was conducted on the historical centre of Rieti (Latium, Italy), to underline the main seismic and
solar indicators. In the last decade, we witnessed the spreading of urban scale assessment and
analysis tools, but seldom using an integrated approach to face the complexity of the historical
city. Relying on morpho-typological indicators, the proposed method characterizes the fabrics in
terms of seismic vulnerability and solar availability through a multicriteria analysis. The analysis
reveals substantial differences between fabrics using three groups of indicators: Plan, Space and
Analysis-oriented. Each group describes different features of the urban fabrics that affect seismic
and solar performance and suggests improvement strategies. The purpose is to support
policymaker and designer in the urban renovation process.