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Probabilistic seismic hazard maps, in terms of spectral acceleration and uniform hazard response spectra at given sites, considering local soil conditions, represent a much more complete estimate of the seismic hazard than the traditional maps in terms of peak ground acceleration or macroseismic intensity. This is particularly true when the requests of urban planners and engineers have to be met. The present analysis shows how some hazard parameters, such as the effective peak acceleration and the spectrum intensity, can well synthesise the overall information available from traditional probabilistic studies, but also suggests that soil condition is a first-order ingredient for effective seismic hazard mapping at national level. Three Italian towns, damaged by the 1997 Umbria–Marche earthquake sequence, are considered as example to demonstrate that: (1) soil condition dependent uniform hazard spectra well approximate actual spectra recorded during some events of the seismic sequence; (2) for these localities, the design spectrum of the present Italian seismic code does not seem adequate. These considerations have induced the Italian scientific community to propose an updating of the national seismic zonation on the basis of several hazard parameters, that are described in this paper.

A project has been implemented in recent years for assessing seismic hazard in the Italian territory on probabilistic bases, to be used as scientific background for the revision of the current seismic zonation. A consolidated approach was considered for the purpose; seismic hazard was estimated in terms of peak ground acceleration and macroseismic intensity. As the computer code employed allows the user to make specific choices on some input data, some rather unorthodox decisions were taken regarding earthquake catalogue completeness, seismicity rates, boundaries of the seismogenic zones, definition of the maximum magnitude, attenuation relation, etc. The overwhelming amount of geological and seismological data for Italy (just consider, for example, that the earthquake catalogue collects events which occurred over the last ten centuries) permits the operator to make different choices, more or less cautiously. It is quite interesting, then, to evaluate the influence of the specific choices on the final hazard results as a comparison to traditional possibilities. The tests performed clearly indicate the critical choices and quantify their contribution. In particular, we consider thorough comprehension of the space geometry of the earthquake source boundaries and the adequacy of the attenuation relation in modelling the radiation pattern very important.