Italian Institute For Environmental Protection And Research Research Articles

Insights on the Extreme Storm Surge Event of the 22 November 2022 in the Venice Lagoon

The Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) manages the national sea state real time monitoring system for Italy, which consists of the National Sea Level Network (RMN), the North Adriatic and Venice Lagoon Sea Level Network (RMLV), the National Wave Networks (RON), and a marine weather forecasting system. These systems are particularly deployed to monitor and predict storm surges that affect the northern part of the Adriatic Sea and the Venice Lagoon, usually causing damages and morphological impacts over the highly anthropized coastal areas. On 22 November 2022, an extreme storm surge event occurred in the northern Adriatic Sea, producing severe damages on its coastline. Venice and the surrounding urban settlements have been protected from flooding thanks to the operation of the Mo.S.E. (Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico) system, a set of artificial barriers built to isolate the lagoon from the sea in case of extreme high tides. Coastal flooding prevention measures, such as storm-surge barriers, are indeed being widely adopted globally because of the accelerating rise in sea levels. An analysis of this extreme event is presented here to highlight the functionality and the usefulness of the ISPRA sea state monitoring system. In particular, the analysis of the as-if scenario reproducing the natural tide propagation within the lagoon, neglecting the operation of the Mo.S.E. system, can only be pursued by using hydrodynamic models forced using extensive observed data. Results highlight that the “not-regulated” sea level would have exceeded 200 cm above the reference datum at Chioggia, a threshold never recorded in the Venice Lagoon since sea level monitoring systems have been operational.

Integrated chemical status of the Italian marine waters sensu Descriptor 8 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) required Member States to define the concept of Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine waters in quantitative terms and to achieve it through the assessment of 11 descriptors by 2020. ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), on behalf of the Ministry of the Environment, carried out the Initial Assessment (2012) and the evaluation of the first cycle of the MSFD (2012–2018) to understand the achievement of GES Descriptor 8 (“Contaminant concentrations are at levels that do not give rise to pollution effects”) and, now, in this second cycle of the MSFD (2018–2024), is conducting monitoring of D8C1 criterion elements (“Contaminant concentrations”). In this paper, the approach, integrating data on chemical contaminants (metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and organochlorine compounds) in different matrices (water, sediment and biota), adopted by Italy since 2012 to study GES for the MSFD-D8C1 criterion in national marine water is described. This approach, based on the use of a dimensionless, zero-centered index, allows one to assess all regulatory contaminants as a whole. The improvements in the monitoring strategy and the GES evaluation between the Initial Assessment, the first cycle, and the beginning of the second cycle of the MSFD for the Adriatic Sea subregion are presented.

The Nationwide Water Budget Estimation in the light of the New Permeability Map of Italy

The hydrological budget is one of the fundamental tools for the sustainable management of water resources. In the last decades, the knowledge of the distribution of freshwater resources in space and time is becoming of great concern due to the growing pressure related to increasing population, water pollution, and climate change. Furthermore, in the scope of hydrological balance, the estimation of aquifer assumes particular concern in Italy. In fact, more than 80% of water withdrawal for domestic and drinkable use is derived from groundwater. In this context, the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) has developed a mathematical model for estimating the hydrological budget components at a national and macro-regional scale called BIGBANG. The aquifer recharge is estimated as a percentage of the monthly soil water surplus by the potential infiltration coefficient defined as a function of the permeability of the hydrogeological complexes beneath the soil layer. In this paper, a comparison highlighting the differences between the estimations of the long-term annual average of two of the main hydrological budget components, aquifer recharge and surface runoff, at national and sub-national levels, is carried out. The estimations are based on the new and more detailed Permeability Map of Italy produced by ISPRA and on the old map of the hydrogeological complexes currently used at national level used so far in the BIGBANG budget model.

Association Between Short-term Exposure to Environmental Air Pollution and Psoriasis Flare

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease with a relapsing-remitting course. Selected environmental factors such as infections, stressful life events, or drugs may trigger disease flares. Whether air pollution could trigger psoriasis flares is still unknown. To investigate whether short-term exposure to environmental air pollution is associated with psoriasis flares. This observational study with both case-crossover and cross-sectional design retrospectively analyzed longitudinal data from September 2013 to January 2020 from patients with chronic plaque psoriasis consecutively attending the outpatient dermatologic clinic of the University Hospital of Verona. For the case-crossover analysis, patients were included who had at least 1 disease flare, defined as Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) increase of 5 or greater between 2 consecutive assessments in a time frame of 3 to 4 months. For the cross-sectional analysis, patients were included who received any systemic treatment for 6 or more months, with grade 2 or higher consecutive PASI assessment. We compared the mean and cumulative (area under the curve) concentrations of several air pollutants (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, other nitrogen oxides, benzene, coarse particulate matter [PM; 2.5-10.0 μm in diameter, PM10] and fine PM [<2.5 μm in diameter, PM2.5]) in the 60 days preceding the psoriasis flare and the control visits. A total of 957 patients with plaque psoriasis with 4398 follow-up visits were included in the study. Patients had a mean (SD) age of 61 (15) years and 602 (62.9%) were men. More than 15 000 measurements of air pollutant concentration from the official, open-source bulletin of the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) were retrieved. Among the overall cohort, 369 (38.6%) patients with psoriasis flare were included in the case-crossover study. We found that concentrations of all pollutants were significantly higher in the 60 days before psoriasis flare (median PASI at the flare 12; IQR, 9-18) compared with the control visit (median PASI 1; IQR, 1-3, P < .001). In the cross-sectional analysis, exposure to mean PM10 over 20 μg/m3 and mean PM2.5 over 15 μg/m3 in the 60 days before assessment were associated with a higher risk of PASI 5 or greater point worsening (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.55; 95% CI, 1.21-1.99; and aOR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.0-1.57, respectively). Sensitivity analyses that stratified for trimester of evaluation, with various lag of exposure and adjusting for type of treatment, yielded similar results. The findings of this case-crossover and cross-sectional study suggest that air pollution may be a trigger factor for psoriasis flare.

Land Consumption Monitoring with SAR Data and Multispectral Indices

Land consumption is the increase in artificial land cover, which is a major issue for environmental sustainability. In Italy, the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) and National System for Environmental Protection (SNPA) have the institutional duty to monitor land consumption yearly, through the photointerpretation of high-resolution images. This study intends to develop a methodology in order to produce maps of land consumption, by the use of the semi-automatic classification of multitemporal images, to reduce the effort of photointerpretation in detecting real changes. The developed methodology uses vegetation indices calculated over time series of images and decision rules. Three variants of the methodology were applied to detect the changes that occurred in Italy between the years 2018 and 2019, and the results were validated using ISPRA official data. The results show that the produced maps include large commission errors, but thanks to the developed methodology, the area to be photointerpreted was reduced to 7300 km2 (2.4% of Italian surface). The third variant of the methodology provided the highest detection of changes: 70.4% of the changes larger than 100 m2 (the pixel size) and over 84.0% of changes above 500 m2. Omissions are mainly related to single pixel changes, while larger changes are detected by at least one pixel in most of the cases. In conclusion, the developed methodology can improve the detection of land consumption, focusing photointerpretation work over selected areas detected automatically.

Assessment of the groundwater quantitative status in the Aosta Plain (North-West Italy): applicability of the national guidelines defined by ISPRA

The EU Water Framework Directive requires Member States to assess the quantitative and qualitative status of groundwater bodies and to achieve a good status by 2027. The present study was developed in order to assess the groundwater quantitative status in the Aosta Plain (NW Italy), following the methodology proposed through a guideline defined by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), with the aim of supporting local authorities in their periodic assessment of water bodies status. In the study area, during the period 2000-2017, groundwater levels were measured in 213 wells and piezometers. Performing the four tests required by the abovementioned guideline, the quantitative status was assessed on the basis of multi-year groundwater level variations, water balance and the interconnections of groundwater with surface water bodies and groundwaterdependent ecosystems. A good status was assessed for the study area, although some critical aspects emerged from the application of the guideline methodology: the data collected by the monitoring network are not sufficiently robust in terms of sample size, spatial distribution, temporal interval and frequency to fulfill the requirements of the guideline methodology. Therefore, some recommendations to improve the data quality and better address the future assessment of groundwater quantitative status were given.

Evaluating upward trends in groundwater nitrate concentrations: an example in an alluvial plain of the Campania region (Southern Italy)

To achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive’s, the identification and reversal of significant upward trends in pollutant concentrations in groundwater is crucial. A statistically significant increase in a pollutant, groups of pollutants or pollution indicators in groundwater bodies, means an upward trend in concentration values, calculated using a recognized statistical method, at least 90% significant. Following this aim, we focused on a groundwater body of southern Italy, with high concentration of nitrate and, therefore, defined “at risk”, on the basis of its bad quality status. In this area, we calculated the trends of the time series of nitrate concentrations in groundwater. We described the adopted procedure for trend analysis, following the guidelines proposed by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). We used the Mann–Kendall method for calculating the statistical significance of the upward trend of time series and, successively, the Sen method for estimating the value of the trend (angular coefficient). We applied these methods also to forecast nitrate concentrations in groundwater in 2021 and in 2027. We found differences in the sampling stations in terms of groundwater quality and trends, as a result of different environmental factors. Peculiarly, the location of the wells presenting upward trends seems to be in areas with high population density and intensive agriculture.

Il Progetto Mappa Italia: proposta di una Metodologia GIS per la definizione di un "Indice di Rischio" Idrogeologico a scala nazionale

“Mappa Italia” is a WebGIS service, issued by ANIA Servizi (Associazione Nazionale fra le Imprese Assicuratrici), conceived to support the business activity of insurance companies. It returns a “Risk Index” for the entire Italian territory by analyzing national institutional geo-hazard maps and the physical exposure of the assets located in each terrain unit used in this study. The analysis has been performed by processing data from census tracts, land use map and flood and landslide hazard maps. Census tracts provides data about population, buildings (residential, commercial and industrial) and firms (number of companies and employees). Data about land use (urban and rural areas), have been extracted from the Corine LandCover. Data about flood and landslide hazard have been obtained from institutional maps published by ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research). The assets have been classified into four classes (D1, D2, D3, D4) considering their type and amount in each terrain unit using a k-means clustering technique.Then, four different risk matrixes were applied to get a Risk Index one for each asset class (D1, D2, D3, D4), by plotting the classified asset classes against the probability of occurrence of a given flood/landslide event. Then, a total Risk Index was derived for each terrain unit, by summing up the Risk Index of each asset class.Insurance companies may access results by a WebApp and a Web Service by authentication Service providing login and password.This work has to be considered a starting point targeted to assess and make available information on exposure, hazard and of the vulnerable elements.

Dispersant approval procedures in France and Italy: A comparative ecotoxicity study

A research project has been performed to the request of the RAMOGE Executive Secretariat to identify differences between dispersant approval procedures in France and Italy and propose ways to harmonize them.A collaborative study has been conducted by CEDRE (Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution) and ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) to: a) compare current approval procedures in Italy and France with identification of differences and commonalities; b) carry out toxicity tests using both procedures on two selected dispersants; c) propose a common approach between Italy and France.The results showed that, because of the differences in ecotoxicological tests and in the evaluation criteria used, the outcomes on the same products could be different in Italy and in France. Both tested dispersants met the French requirements for approval (LC50 ≥ 10 times reference toxicant), while only one dispersant met the Italian approval criterion (EC50 > 10mg/L). A possible way of harmonizing the approval procedures could be to increase the number of test organisms in the French procedure, which currently only uses one crustacean species. Furthermore, a common criterion for toxicity assessment should be discussed and agreed.

Promoting Sustainability through EMS Application: A Survey Examining the Critical Factors about EMAS Registration in Italian Organizations

One of the tools set by the European Community (EC) to reduce the environmental impact of firms is EMAS Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009), setting up an Environmental Management System (EMS), which aims for a continuous improvement of environmental performances. Italy has the highest number of certified organization among all European Member States, accounting for over one thousand registrations. The paper presents the result of a survey conducted through a questionnaire about EMAS implementation and targeted to all Italian registered organizations. Of nearly 1000 organizations, over 500 answers were collected. The main goal is to understand how organizations experience the scheme, focusing on main drivers for its adoption, main difficulties encountered, and perceived benefits. In particular, survey results contribute to define a reflection on the difficulties regarding EMAS diffusion among European companies. Aspects identified as critical can lead to a contraction of registration requests, especially those formulated by SMEs, which constitute the majority of Italian companies. Moreover, perceived difficulties might affect the firms’ willingness to renew EMAS registration. Data provided by the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA) recently highlighted the increasing rate of firms who decide to withdraw from registration. This study offers interesting inputs related to main critical issues in EMAS implementation, which can be the baseline for future research on companies that abandon the certification scheme, in order to provide suggestions for the improvement of its effectiveness both for national and communitarian institutions.

Why Companies Do Not Renew Their EMAS Registration? An Exploratory Research

The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is the official Environmental Management System (EMS) issued by the European Union (EU). Italy is the country where EMAS is most widespread, accounting for over 1000 registered organizations. Since entry into the force of the Regulation in 1997, the number of registrations has constantly grown until 2008, when the figures started to drop. The phenomena are due to both the decrease of the annual registration rate and the lack of renewals. According to the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), in recent years, an increasing number of organizations decided to withdraw from EMAS registration. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the reasons of this negative trend. The first step consisted of a literature review concerning the main barriers, difficulties, and costs incurred by EMAS-registered organizations. Subsequently, this information was integrated with data about the evolution of EMAS registrations and the results of a previous survey, which involved the entire population of registered firms. The present exploratory research highlighted economic and operational domains concerning the cancellation trends that deserve a deeper investigation, which will be conducted through a questionnaire addressed to Italian firms that did not renew the registration in the last lustrum. The intended output will allow us to identify stakeholders’ priority intervention areas in order to suggest an operative strategy to reduce EMAS cancellation rates, addressed to Member States (MS) Competent Bodies.

Environmental Geology Applied to Geoconservation in the Interaction Between Geosites and Linear Infrastructures in South-Eastern Italy

Southern Italy includes a large variety of geological environments represented by sedimentary, metamorphic, and volcanic rocks. The understanding of the complex geological history leading to the present-day setting of Southern Italy has been achieved through a great number of geological studies carried out on key localities which show geological features of high scientific interest. Often, these key outcrops or geosites fall into highly sensitive and vulnerable areas, especially where linear infrastructures occur, and represented in most cases by railways, roads, and bridges. The main aim of this paper is to analyze the interaction between some significant geosites and linear infrastructures. Therefore, the study takes into account the guidelines provided by ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) and the experience arising from a series of activities and projects carried out by the SIGEA (Italian Society of Environmental Geology). As a first step, we have linked the principles and applications of “environmental geology” with the concept of “geoconservation.” Two case studies have been selected and described. The first case concerns the interaction between the Lagonegro Calabro-Lucana railway bridge (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy) and a deep-seated gravitational slope deformation (DSGSD) affecting the bridge. Thus, the landslide activity is recorded by the progressive deformation of the bridge. The second case is represented by the interaction between the Torre di Lesco cave (Apulia Region, Southern Italy) and Road no. 96 (Altamura-Bari) where the construction for the widening the road led to the discovery of an impressive, hitherto unknown, karstic cave.

Natural background levels for some ions in groundwater of the Campania region (southern Italy)

The aim of the study was the determination of the natural background levels (NBLs) for the ions Na+, Cl−, SO42−, As3+, F−, Fe2+, and Mn2+, in some groundwater bodies of the Campania region (southern Italy). The “Protocol to evaluate the natural background concentrations” proposed in 2009 by ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) has been applied to the chemical data set of groundwater of the examined groundwater bodies. These analyses have also been examined following the guidelines of the BRIDGE project (Background cRiteria for the IDentification of Groundwater thrEshold). These approaches to evaluate the Threshold Values (TVs) and the NBLs, based on probability distribution functions, have been applied in many countries by various authors during the last 5 years. Changes applied to ISPRA Protocol in this study concern mainly the preselection criteria, in particular threshold values of specific ions, deriving from the aquifers geochemical features. The preselection criteria of the ISPRA Protocol have been merged with those of the BRIDGE Project in order to define a procedure suitable for the definition of the NBLs in the examined aquifers. The NBL of fluoride for the “Phlegrean Fields” and the “eastern Plain of Naples” groundwater bodies shows values deeply exceeding the reference value (REF) of 1,500 μg/L, ranging between 3,600 and 15,000 μg/L. The cause of this very high fluoride content is in the natural features of the aquifers constituted by volcanic and pyroclastic rocks. The volcanic origin of the aquifers is also the reason for the high arsenic content in “Phlegrean Fields” groundwater. Here the NBL calculated was about 47 μg/L against the drinking water standard value of 10 μg/L. The widespread high content of manganese and iron for the groundwater body of the “eastern Plain of Naples” is due to the reducing conditions related to the extensive marshlands present in the past. The very high NBL of all the examined ions for the groundwater body of “Ischia Island” depends on the existence of a geothermal system.

Environmental Indicators for Italian Soils (SIAS Project): Development of a New Approach from Regional to Harmonised National Data

Erosion and loss of organic matter of soils are two of the threats identified by the European Communication &ldquo;Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection&rdquo; (2002/267), and by the Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection (COM 2006, 231). Regarding Italian context, a new approach that exploits soil data and expertise available at local level has been developed in a pilot project, named SIAS Project (Sviluppo Indicatori Ambientali sul Suolo) that involves ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) as project coordinator and financing body, Regional Agency for Environmental Prevention and Protection in Veneto (ARPAV), responsible of the technical coordination of the activities, Regional Soil Survey Services that contribute to the methodology definition and responsible for the data elaboration within their region of the data, JRC and CRA &ndash; ABP as technical support. The SIAS Project concerns the building of two soil environmental indicators, erosion and organic matter content, based on harmonisation of regional data and according with the INSPIRE directive. The main aim of the SIAS Project can be summarised in exploiting at most the existing information and local expertise for indicator assessment in a relatively short time, in order to obtain interregional harmonisation of the information about erosion and organic matter content at regional scale. For this purpose, it has been chosen to assess and represent output data by a reference grid (1 km x 1 km) with a common coordinate reference system, following the recommendations of the INSPIRE Directive. Furthermore an exchange format for storing data and metadata information has been set up jointly by the working group. So far a large part of the Northern and Central Italy has completed the project, while a part of Southern Region has only recently joined it. The results show that at the present moment there are some differences both in soil loss and in organic matter content assessment among regions, due to several factors such as different availability and resolution of input data, or different methods to assess erosion or parameters required to evaluate organic carbon indicator. At the present stage the scientific coordination group is dealing with collecting and merging these results to obtain a national harmonized pattern of the two indicators. In spite of these problems, the project could be the first step to reach an harmonisation of soil information in Italy periodically updated by regional soil surveys that are the producers and the owners of soil related information in the country.

GeoMergeP: Geographic Information Integration through Enriched Ontology Matching

The combination of the use of advanced Information and Communication Technology, especially the Internet, to enable new ways of working, with the enhanced provision of information and interactive services accessible over different channels, is the foundation of a new family of information systems. Particularly, this information explosion on the Web, which threatens our ability to manage information, has affected the geographic information systems. Interoperability is a key word here, since it means, an increasing level of cooperation between information sources on national, regional and local levels; and requires new methods to develop interoperable geographic systems. In this paper, an ontology-driven system (GeoMergeP) is described for the semantic integration of geographic information sources. Particularly, we focus on how ontology matching can be enriched through the use of standards for implementing a semi-automatic matching approach. Then, the requirements and steps of the system are illustrated on the ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research) case study. Our preliminary results show that ontology matching can be improved; helping interoperating systems increase reliability of exchanged and shared information.