Events and News

SICON 2024 Contaminated Sites Workshop - Experiences in remediation interventions

SiCon is an opportunity for discussion between operators in the sector and aims to provide participants with a broad overview of what has been achieved to date in the field of reclamation, in particular the technical-operational aspects. With this objective, case studies of remediation and safety of contaminated sites on an industrial scale will be illustrated. As part of the event, experts in the sector of land, groundwater, sediment and mining site reclamation will speak.

Copernicus4SNPA - Launch of the practical community for the use of Earth observation in SNPA institutional tasks

Rome, ISPRA headquarters, Conference room 30-31 January / 13-14 February / 5-6 March 2024
The first phase of the education and training path for the SNPA starts on January 30th as part of the "ISPRA-Agencies Collaboration for the promotion and support in the knowledge, diffusion and use of Copernicus methods and products", the European Earth Observation programme. Earth (OT), with the involvement of the Coordinator of the National User Forum, Prof. Andrea Taramelli of the IUSS of Pavia, of the National Coordinator of the Copernicus Academy, Prof. Bernardo De Bernardinis, and of the Copernicus Entrusted Entities delegated by the European Commission: Mercator Ocean International , the European Environment Agency, ECMWF, JRC, SatCen.

Design and monitoring systems for hydrogeological risk mitigation

The conference "Design and monitoring systems for the mitigation of hydrogeological risk" will be held on 26 January 2024 in Milan, organized by the Order of Engineers of the Province of Milan and the Order of Geologists of Lombardy with the patronage of the National Council of Geologists (CNG), the National Council of Engineers, ISPRA, National System for Environmental Protection, ANCI and the unconditional contribution of CAE innovation for a safer world

Roma Innovation Hub

Roma Innovation Hub is the Convention promoted by nine orders belonging to the Network of Technical Professions (Architects, Planners, Landscapers and Conservators, Chemists and Physicists, Doctors of Agronomists and Forestry Doctors, Geologists, Graduate Surveyors and Surveyors, Engineers, Agricultural Experts and Graduated Agricultural Experts , Industrial Experts and Graduate Industrial Experts and Food Technologists).

The theme of the 2024 event will be the 2030 Agenda, i.e. the strategic planning of the actions necessary to achieve the objectives set by the European Union in terms of digitalisation and decarbonisation of the country.

In particular, during the two days of work, four plenary sessions will be organized on six Goals of the 2030 Agenda: quality education (Goal 4), gender equality (Goal 5), clean and accessible energy (Goal 7), cities and sustainable communities (Goal 11), responsible consumption and production (Goal 12), fight against climate change (Goal 13).

SpringLab 2024 - Fist lesson on land consumption

The first lesson of the Springlab environmental training school - "Land consumption, territorial dynamics and ecosystem services: ISPRA 2023 report", will be held on January 18th and will focus on soil degradation and land vulnerability. The Responsible for the national environmental information system of ISPRA will speak.

Operational innovations for forest monitoring and through proximal and remote remote sensing applications

The objective of this workshop is to examine the possibilities of implementation and integration in the forestry sector of the most recent proximal and remote remote sensing applications, in order to contribute to making the management of forests and wood plantations more efficient, both from an economic and environmental. In this perspective, the meeting is proposed as an educational-informative moment and analysis of the state of the art in Italy and aims to highlight the main results transferable to stakeholders following the research and development actions conducted on this topic in Italy, also in the perspective of the requests and opportunities outlined by the forestry measures of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union.

IdroGEO of ISPRA receives the Good Practice Certificate at EPSA - European Public Sector Award 2023-2024

IdroGEO, the platform on hydrogeological instability in Italy obtained the Good Practice Certificate at the EPSA - European Public Sector Award 2023-2024, in the Innovation in public administrations category. 
EPSA is a European-wide awards program for public sector bodies, organized by the European Institute of Public Administration - EIPA.

Future Minerals Forum

The ISPRA Geological Service will participate in the geological services table as part of the Future Minerals Forum which will be held in Riyadh on January 9th afternoon. Critical and strategic subjects for the sustainable ecological and energy transition, the topics that ISPRA researchers will discuss during the event.

XVII Meeting of the ReMI Network

The meeting of the ReMi Network will take place on 15 December in Montecatini, at the headquarters of the mining museum.
Various events are planned including the visit to the site, at the end of the works, and the in-depth seminar "The mining and mineralogical heritage of Montecatini Val di Cecina: history, science and future prospects" scheduled for 16 December.

Soil week in Sicily dedicated to Bernardino Romano

The Soil Week in Sicily (5-12 December) this year is dedicated to Bernardino Romano, Full Professor of Territorial Planning and Urban Planning at the Department of Civil, Construction-Architecture and Environmental Engineering of the University of L'Aquila. In recent years Romano had explored and studied land consumption and urban dispersion.

Hydrogeological and Forestry Constraint 1923-2023: application, management, prevention: state of the art and future prospects

The Hydrogeological Constraint, established with the R.D.L. 30 December 1923 n. 3267 (also known as the Serpieri Law) and the subsequent implementing regulation R.D. 1126/1926, have as their main purpose that of preserving the woods and mountainous and hilly territories to prevent forms of land use that could lead to erosive phenomena and loss of stability

Environmental statistics for Cohesion policies 2014-2020

In the context of Cohesion policies, since May 2018 ISPRA has been the beneficiary of the "Environmental statistics for Cohesion policies 2014-2020" project aimed at expanding the set of territorial indicators on environmental matters, satisfying on the one hand the new international information requests and at the same time align the availability of data and indicators with the needs of implementer of national and local public policies.

From land to Earth

The soil between climate changes and new lifestyles
On the occasion of World Soil Day, the Italian Composting Consortium in collaboration with Re Soil Foundation is organizing the meeting "From land to Earth".

World Soil Day 2023

Soil and Water, source of life, is the theme chosen for the 2023 edition of World Soil Day
The Day aims to raise public awareness of the importance and relationship between soil and water in the creation of sustainable and resilient agri-food systems.

The survival of our planet depends on the precious bond between soil and water. Over 95% of our food comes from these two fundamental resources. Soil water, vital for plant uptake of nutrients, holds our ecosystems together. This symbiotic relationship is the foundation of our agricultural systems.

Land consumption, mainly linked to settlement and infrastructure dynamics, leads to the often irreversible loss of this fundamental, limited and non-renewable environmental resource. The latest ISPRA-SNPA data highlight a continuous growth in artificial surfaces in Italy which, in recent years, is intensifying. In fact, we are witnessing an important and worrying acceleration, with a 10% increase in land consumption in the last year (2022) compared to the previous twelve months. (Report "Consumo di suolo, dinamiche territoriali e servizi ecosistemici - Edition 2023).

The new chair of Impel is an ISPRA researcher

The General Assembly of the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (Impel), a European network that brings together 59 environmental authorities from 38 European countries, elected its new Chair, Marco Falconi, with a very large majority on 30 November. geologist from ISPRA, who already held the role of coordinator of the Expert Team on the topic of Water and Land in the association. Falconi takes over the Portuguese presidency from Ana Isabel Garcìa (Igamaot, General Inspectorate for the Sea, Agriculture, Environment and Territorial Planning) who the Italian delegation thanked for the balance and effectiveness highlighted in her mandate.

The italian soil and the climate crisis

The report "The Health of Italian soil in the time of the climate crisis" is the first attempt to bring together, in a single publication, the photograph of the impact of the main forms of degradation on Italian soils and highlight which are the most exposed territories, presenting at the same time the proposals developed by the experts

The soil monitoring network in Italy: estimating soil biodiversity and the potential increase in organic carbon

As part of the SOIL-HUB Project, CREA Agriculture and Environment and the Institute for Wood Plants and the Environment (IPLA) are organizing the conference "The soil monitoring network in Italy: estimating soil biodiversity and the potential increase in organic carbon".
The fundamental theme on which all the activities of the SOIL-HUB project focus concerns the sustainability of the production environment and the quality of the agri-food supply chains through the protection and conservation of the soil.

Land consumption and urban regeneration: a first assessment of the Regional Law 24/2017

The day will give the opportunity to deeper into various topics linked to the entry into force in 2018 of Regional Law 24/2017 "Regional regulations on the protection and use of the territory", including: an initial assessment of the transitional period, the state of the art of planning and of the urban planning tools being defined, as well as of the first results of the implementation of the selections for urban regeneration.

Irpinia earthquake: 43 years later

On November 23, 1980, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit a vast area of ​​Campania, Basilicata and marginally Puglia, causing 2,734 victims.
During the earthquake, the fault emerged on the surface for a length of approximately 40 km and dislocations of up to approximately one metre.
During the INQUA Summer School and as part of the GeoSciences IR project, ISPRA researchers and the Department of Earth, Environmental and Resource Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II visited the areas affected by the earthquake to carry out field studies.

Green Renewable

How to incentivize the development of new renewable energy plants on unused and contaminated areas
The conference promotes an investment best practice to encourage the development of new renewable energy plants on unused and contaminated areas.

Rustscapes. Consumed soils, abandoned places

In the vast "atlas" of abandoned places, RUSTSCAPES - or "rust landscapes" - are characterized as architectures and environments closely linked to water which, over time, due to various events, policies and practices, have generated a double deprivation. Built along river banks or coastal fringes, over the last few decades, on the one hand they have been abandoned - and therefore removed from access and use - and on the other they have led to an alteration and loss of environmental, landscape, cultural and collective.

Third and final edition of the first Copernicus Summer School for Cultural Heritage

The third and final edition of the first Copernicus Summer School for Cultural Heritage was held at the beginning of November,
organized by ISPRA, DLR (German Aerospace Center) and CUT (CYPRUS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY) within the Copernicus FPCUP programme.
ISPRA organized the Italian edition held in Rome from 13 to 16 June with 50 teachers and over 200 participants, and then collaborated in the organization of the Munich and Cyprus editions as teachers.

GeoSciences IR @ 6° World Landslide Forum

The side event of "GeoSciences IR @ 6° World Landslide Forum" it will held next 17 November 14.30 pm.
The Project is financed by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan - PNRR Mission 4, "Education and Research" - Component 2, "From research to business" - Investment Line 3.1, "Fund for the creation of an integrated system of research and innovation".
The project will create a research infrastructure for the Italian Network of Geological Services to make available to regional geological services and beyond, the data, services and tools necessary for carrying out monitoring and control functions of the territory in the various fields of Earth sciences. Coordinated by ISPRA and in which 16 partners participate (13 Universities and 3 Research Institutions).

The Geosciences IR Research Infrastructure - Shared geology at the service of all

The side event "The Geosciences IR Research Infrastructure - Shared geology at the service of all" will be held on 17 November 2023, as part of the Earth Technology Expo event.
The PNRR GeoSciences IR project aims to create a research infrastructure designed to meet the needs of the Regional Geological Services, i.e. the technical structures responsible for geology at a regional level. >Exactly 16 partners coordinated by ISPRA will participate in the project

Innovation and sustainability in the CARG Geological Cartography Project

The event "Innovation and sustainability in the CARG Geological Cartography Project" will be held on 16 November 2023.
The event aims to present the new technologies and innovative aspects of the Geological Mapping Project at 1:50,000 scale - CARG Project and its implications in terms of environmental sustainability. The CARG Project, through collaboration between public institutions and the world of research, applies digital systems and modern techniques for the acquisition, analysis and management of geological and geothematic data, generating new knowledge useful for the management, protection and enhancement of the environment. Collaboration with the business world also guarantees access to strategic information, processed and integrated thanks to the use of 3D modeling techniques, fundamental for the study of the subsoil, resources and geological hazards.

Agrivoltaics, an opportunity for development of the rural world

The ambitious European energy and environmental objectives and the new CAP, which entrusts the agricultural system with the role of combating climate change and protecting the environment and the landscape in a structured system of 9 goals including that of increasing competitiveness, invites us to reflect on the opportunities of new agrivoltaic solutions.
The evolution of high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies, automated solar tracking systems and recent regulatory developments make it possible to integrate crops and livestock with photovoltaic systems to create new "dual systems".

ISPRA at Earth Technology Expo 2023

Promoted by EWA - Earth and Water Agenda Foundation, Civil Protection, ISPRA/SNPA, National Fire Brigade and ANBI, Earth Technology Expo will see 200 scientists, representatives of institutions, specialized technicians, researchers, experts, engaged in 100 for four days meetings on problems and strategies to mitigate climate risks by increasing knowledge and awareness of looming dangers, and to activate defenses and self-defenses against increasingly extreme weather and climate events

Technology for All

Technology for All is the innovation forum, now in its eighth edition, dedicated to multidisciplinary paths of technologies for the environment, cultural heritage and the Smart City, scheduled in Rome from 14 to 16 November 2023.

6th World Landslide Forum

The 6th World Forum on Landslides will be held in Florence from 14 to 17 November 2023. The event is jointly organized by the UNESCO Chair on the Prevention and Sustainable Management of Hydrogeological Risks of the University of Florence, by the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) within the Global Promotion Committee of International Program on Landslides (IPL-GPC ), with the support of 5 United Nations organizations (UNESCO, FAO, WMO, UNDRR, UNU) and 4 federations of global scientific associations (ISC, WFEO, IUGS, IUGG).
The Landslide Science for Sustainable Development Forum constitutes a common platform to foster cooperation between scientists, professionals and policy makers dealing with landslides, with the aim of defining priority actions for risk reduction on a global scale.
The main aspects related to the study of landslides will be covered: monitoring and early warning, modeling, risk and hazard assessment, mitigation techniques, relationships with climate change.

Climate change and coastal erosion: in Italy 54 coastal municipalities have high erosion rates

ISPRA publishes the current state of the national coastline at municipal level with updated data

https://sinacloud.isprambiente.it/portal/apps/sites/#/coste

Among the 644 Italian coastal municipalities, those with high erosion rates have been identified by ISPRA; there are 54 who to date have seen their stretch of coast retreat by more than 50% of the entire stretch of competence; there are 22 municipalities with an overshoot of between 50% and 60% of the coast; there are 16 between 60% and 70%, 8 between 70% and 80% and 7 between 80% and 90%. Rotondella in Basilicata appears to be the only municipality characterized by widespread erosion over the entire coastal stretch. If the number of municipalities appears limited, compared to a total number of 644 coastal municipalities, it should be considered that the percentages reported concern the entire coast of each municipality, also occupied by stretches that are not beaches and which therefore cannot undergo erosion , such as the stretches of rocky coast, the river mouths and all the anthropic works. Furthermore, the percentages do not show a "natural" trend of coastal dynamics, but downstream of all the coastal defense works and nourishment carried out.

Press release (ita)