Geological Survey of Italy Portal

The objective of LANDSUPPORT is the construction of a web-based smart geoSpatial Decision Support System (S-DSS), which shall provide a powerful set of tools devoted to (i) support sustainable agriculture/forestry, (ii) evaluate trade-off between land uses (including spatial planning) and (iii) contribute to implementation, impact and delivery of about 20 European land policies and also selected 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals including climate change resilience goals and the key SDG 15.3 “achieving a land degradation-neutral world”.

The overall objective of the Soil4Life project is to promote the sustainable and efficient use of soil and its resources in Italy and Europe, which will maximize the delivery of ecosystem services (including productive ones)without worsening (and, where necessary, improving) the soil matrix in terms of its chemical, physical and biological properties and ensuring the maintenance of its long-term services. Specifically, the project pursues the application of the Volunteer Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSMs) promoted by FAO, assuming the context of reference and response to the priority threats identified for the European and Mediterranean context.

The HIKE project aims to support research and assessments of induced hazards and impacts that are related to the exploitation of subsurface resources and capacities throughout Europe. This will be achieved through development, demonstration and implementation of harmonized subsurface data sets and methodologies, investigation of applied use cases, and facilitation of knowledge shared between geological surveys and stakeholders. The core element of the project is the WP2 that focuses on the development of a European fault database (FDB) covering a comprehensive set of static and dynamic geological and physical characteristics needed for the assessment of seismic hazards, ground movements, leakage and fluid migration, sealing capacities, fluid flow and other types of dynamic behaviour. This database will be developed, populated and tested in conjunction with several other GeoERA projects and external stakeholder involvement. WP-3 establishes novel hazard and impact research methods and investigates the added value of the established fault information in several case studies and geological settings across Europe. WP-4 concludes the research activities with future recommendations and the establishment of a share point for information, knowledge and preferred practices related to hazard and impact research. This share point is intended to provide a collaboration and knowledge exchange platform for future research by geological surveys and other stakeholders. WP-5 governs the embedding of the results into the GeoERA Information Platform.

The project aims at the knowledge and research of strategic raw materials in Europe, to provide a significant innovative contribution towards the discovery of potential primary deposits, the identification of new "target" areas/deposits and the identification of exploitable resources in secondary deposits.

The project EUROLITHOS is based on the knowledge of the geology, quality and history of the use of natural stone in Europe in order to stimulate both a more sustainable use of resources in EU for the benefit of SMEs and cultural heritage and an appropriate land management, through the identification and mapping of building materials.

The project MINTELL4EU aims to develop an IT platform that can contain data on the localization of primary and secondary raw materials, in relation to exploration, exploitation, production and trade activities, in terms of sustainable development.

The Geological Survey of Italy of ISPRA is involved in the WP3 “Hydrogeochemistry and health: Mapping groundwater characteristics for the management of aquifers naturally enriched in dissolved elements” of the GeoERA-HOVER project, aimed at defining the interactions involving the geological asset and the hydrogeological processes with natural quality and contamination risk of groundwater.

HotLime (Mapping and Assessment of Geothermal Plays in Deep Carbonate Rocks – Cross-domain Implications and Impacts) project aims to explore and evaluate the potential of carbonate basins for deep geothermal energy through a consistent mapping and evaluation of the 3D distribution and characteristics and a common assessment of deep geothermal reservoirs. The Consortium is constituted by 16 partners from 12 different European States.

The understanding of the hydrological system is a fundamental step for assessing climate change and defining optimal strategies for dealing with their impacts. The main objective of TACTIC is to improve and implement the use of groundwater data acquired by the European Geological Surveys, contributing to the development of consistent and transparent assessments of the impacts of climate change on ground and surface water, supporting an improvement in EU policies and providing decision support to stakeholders and decision makers. TACTIC intends to develop an infrastructure between the European Geological Surveys to identify and collect available data needed to understand the groundwater system, use tools and models to assess the impacts of climate change and the effect of adaptation strategies.

This Project is focused on monitoring geohazard-associated ground deformations, a key prevention action that will be specifically addressed to urban areas and critical infrastructures. The project will propose a procedure to produce maps to assess continuously the potential impact of geohazard activity.

This project is aiming at producing a land coverage and related changes map based on high resolution images provided by the Copernicus Data Ware House acquired in the areas of interest for EU, out of its territory (e.g. protected areas, and critical zones for biodiversity and soil erosion).

SMURBS aspires to increase urban resilience targeting challenges with respect to air quality, urban growth, natural/manmade disasters and relevant impacts and more entangled issues such as the migrant crisis and the health implications of such environmental pressures. A variety of EO expertise brought in by the wide consortium will address an equally expansive variety of cities with different problems by a horizontal refocusing of effort under the smart city banner, to produce new data, information, tools and services, tailored to the needs of the citizens and decision makers, enabling informed decision making.

The goal of the project is to support the activities of Copernicus focused on Land Cover for the period 2017-2021. In particular  the realization of CLC2018,  the verification of products related to the 2012 "local component" and the verification of HRL 2015 are planned.

MICA project is aimed at developing a platform where data, methodologies and tools dealing with primary mineral resources may be integrated and combined based on user demand. In particular ISPRA contributes to the development of mineral resources ontologies, i.e. to univocally   define technical terms in use by mineral sector.

giCASES project is aimed at developing innovative methodologies for the formation in the sector of geographic information (GIS) through the development of shared tools among universities and private companies. In particular, ISPRA is working on developing methods for collaborative learning.

PROTHEGO is a project aimed at analysing and evaluating geohazard affecting cultural heritage and in particular UNESCO sites, through the integration of in situ monitoring and interpherometric satellite data. ISPRA, through the Geological Survey, is coordinating the project and is in charge of the evaluation of geohazard at European scale and more detailed characterization of case studies in Italy.

EMODNET Geology project is finalised at building a digital infrastructure on marine geology in Europe resulting from the harmonization of data from National Geological Surveys. The current phase is dedicated to the implementation and maintenance of interoperable and free accessible services and to the integration of existing products at a more detailed scale. The Survey provides products related to all the WPs and as WP  leader it prepares guidelines, collects and harmonizes data provided by other partners.

PanAfGEO is a cooperation project among European and African Geological Surveys. Training is focused on numerous geological themes. The Survey is providing support for training on geological risks and on methods for dissemination on earth sciences.

EPOS aims at building an European Research infrastructure in the field of solid Earth geophysics. EPOS IP projects is dealing with the implementation phase of ten thematic services (TCS) of interest for solid earth. ISPRA, through the Geological Survey of Italy, is collaborating to the development of TCS “Geological information and modeling” together with other six partners including four National Geological Surveys.

GeoERA is an ERA-NET project with a partnership of 48 National and Regional Geological Surveys from 33 Member States. Partners will implement joint research activities on four themes (geoenergy, groundwater, mineral resources, and information platform). The final objective will be the establishment of an Euopean Geological Service resulting by a federation of individual National and Regional Geological Surveys under art. 185 of the European Union Treaty. Italy is represented by ISPRA and six Regional Geological Surveys.