50% of italian schools are in areas characterised by high seismic risk. and yet, we do not know if these schools are safe. following the events in san giuliano di puglia, 31st october 2002, when a tremor destroyed a school killing 27 kids and one teacher, italian governments has approved rules and fundings to check all public buildings, included schools. but ten years later, only 3000 schools out of 42000, less than 10%, have actually been checked. and, even worst, the risk index describing their ability to resist an earthquake is not disclosed, except than for two regions, lazio and abruzzo. these are some of the results of a long investigation undertaken by a team of data journalists at wired Italy, in the summer and autumn 2012. the work has been inspired by the earthquake in Emilia, in may 2012, when hundrds of schools have been closed and checked to make sure they would be safe for kids, teachers, workers who attend them daily.
#safeschools investigation has revealed that most information on seismic safety is kept from the citizens who are not allowed to judge if the schools attended by their kids is safe or not. in most cases, this is due mainly to porr data collection and organisation. central authorities as well as local ones seem to be unaware of the whole picture. and in most cases, even when data are actually available, they prefer not to share it with the public.
wiredIT team has developed a complete database comprising all italian public schools combined with other data and information contained in official documents, in .pdf format, stating the money spent for each public building verification. the database has been released in opendata format by wiredIT, together with an interactive map showing details, school by school, about their location, age, whether they have been verified or not, and if their risk index is public.
this video tells the making of the complete investigation, showing each step and the overall results achieved by the wiredIT team, also thanks to a very active group of supporters and contributors, social activists, technical professionals like seismologists and engineers, openstreetmappers and active citizens.
