ABSTRACT
Several definitions of damage are currently used in the seismic field: economic, structural and visible are the most common. The visible damage is the most immediate and the most used in safety evaluation, damage survey and macroseismic survey. In this study different definitions are compared and some of the results obtained in several damage survey campaigns are reported. Finally the proposal of damage description adopted for the new form is presented. This study is a part of the activities of the WG formed by the National Group for Earthquake Prevention (GNDT) and National Seismic Survey (SSN), which has proposed the new safety evaluation form used by Civil Protection Department (DPC) in the 1997 Umbria — Marche earthquake (Martinelli A., 1998).
