The Difficult Balance among Scientific, Technical, and Political Issues in Seismic Hazard Assessment

Scientific and technical communities are in charge for providing political authorities, based on sound information and authoritative considerations, plausible seismic hazard estimates to be translated into prescriptions and guidelines to be adopted by citizens and stakeholders. However, this ideal flow presents several problems, hampering the development of such a simple and rational pathway. As a matter of fact, because seismic hazard assessment is just a part of a risk‐oriented procedure, the implementation of its outcomes should be mediated by further considerations dealing with the possible impact on the risk mitigation practice. As an example, this occurred in the U.S. seismic...