The OGS–Northeastern Italy Seismic and Deformation Network: Current Status and Outlook

In this article, we describe the infrastructure developed and managed by the ItalianNational Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS for the seismologicaland geodetic monitoring of northeastern Italy. The infrastructure was constituted inresponse to the ML 6.4 Friuli destructive earthquake of 1976, with the main mandateof supporting civil protection emergency activities.The OGS monitoring infrastructure is presently composed of a seismometric and astrong-motion network, complemented by a number of Global Navigation SatelliteSystems stations, each delivering observational data in real time, which are collectedand processed by the headquarters of the Center for Seismological Research of OGS inUdine. The OGS networks operate in close cooperation with Italian and internationalnetworks from neighboring countries, within the framework of the agreements forreal-time data exchange, to obtain improved rapid earthquake location and magnitudeestimations. Information regarding seismic events is released to the public through adedicated web portal and, since 2013, through social media.Aside from the standard monitoring activities ( > 30;000 events have been recordedsince 1976), the OGS has progressively increased the number of services to the publicand to the Civil Protection of the Friuli Venezia Giulia and Veneto regions. The highavailability of good quality data has resulted in the enhancement of scientific products,including advanced seismological studies of the area, spanning broadly from seismicsource characterization to engineering seismology.In the future, the OGS networks are expected to further contribute to the developmentof seismological research and monitoring infrastructures of the Central European region.