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This paper presents an overview of the ROSSINI project, illustrating its general objectives and how it places itself within the overall field of seismic risk-aware navigation systems. In particular, it describes the use of a sensor array for the integrated risk-aware navigation in industrial plants at risk of NaTech accidents. The integration of structural and environmental risks estimated and measured in different ways is presented as part of an integrated risk identification and evaluation (RIE) module. This module will be used along with a series of logic to combine and map the possible risks spatially within an industrial plant’s layout. It is seen how this information can then be used to not only compute the safest path to safety for a worker located within such a plant but also how mobile communications can be used to aid and guide them in different scenarios. All of this stems from the use of a sensor array network in a relatively novel way within this particular context. The paper discusses the progress to date and presents the ongoing results of a pilot case study application of the system to an industrial plant facility in Italy.

This paper explores and validates the use of ground shaking scenarios generated via 3D physics-based numerical simulations (PBS) for seismic fragility studies. The 2009 L’Aquila seismic event is selected as case-study application, given the availability of a robust and exhaustive post-earthquake database, gathering observed seismic damages detected on several building typologies representative of the Italian built environment, and of a validated numerical model for PBS ground shaking scenarios. Empirical fragility curves are derived as a function of different seismic intensity measures, by taking advantage of an improved statistical technique, overcoming possible uncertainties in the resulting estimates entailed by data aggregation. PBS-based fragility functions are compared to the corresponding sets of curves relying on updated ShakeMaps. The predictive capability of the adopted simulation strategies is then verified in terms of seismic damage scenarios, by respectively coupling PBS- and ShakeMap-based fragility models with the corresponding ground shaking scenarios. Comparison of observed and predicted damage distributions highlights the suitability of PBS for region-specific seismic vulnerability and risk applications.

Industrial plants are quite susceptible to NaTech disasters during earthquakes caused by damage to structural and non-structural components and the potential release of toxic materials. To mitigate and manage this risk, the ROSSINI project was initiated and its results are described here for what concerns industrial plant worker safety and their risk-based navigation in emergency situations. The project includes a data acquisition system consisting of a data acquisition board and an array of different sensor technologies, which process the seismic event and other meteorological information before passing them as inputs towards the risk identification and evaluation (RIE) modules. Here, the risks associated with structural and non-structural damage and health risks associated with the release of harmful substances are estimated and combined to form a navigable risk map. This map is used within a purpose-built risk-based navigation application for the safe egress of workers from an industrial plant. To demonstrate the implementation of this system, two case-study industrial plant layouts consisting of buildings, non-structural components, liquid storage tanks, piping systems, and chemical storage vessels, were devised. This paper describes the project’s implementation in these contexts and illustrates the results via several example scenarios.