GeoSciences: a research infrastructure for the Italian Geological Services Network

The GeoSciences IR project aims to create an Italian network for geosciences, a new research infrastructure for the Italian network of regional geological services (RISG), a coordination network between ISPRA, the Geological Survey of Italy and the ‘Regional Geological Services’ (RGS).

Part of the project will focus on new technologies, facilities, data and services for research communities to conduct research, promote innovation and achieve scientific excellence in the field of landslides and sinkholes, in order to support risk reduction policies and actions. The objective is achieved through the collaboration between 13 Operational Units between universities and research organisations.

The Sapienza research unit will focus on landslide monitoring. In particular, three main activities will be carried out

Supporting the organisation, preparation and delivery of training activities for local technicians in charge of landslide monitoring design, installation, data processing and interpretation;
Critical analysis of the national database of landslide monitoring systems to derive common practices and guide future choices and best practices for land management authorities;
Implementation of an innovative landslide monitoring infrastructure based on photomonitoring technology to be applied for periodic or continuous landslide monitoring. In particular, 15 autonomous photomonitoring stations will be installed both as supplementary systems to existing landslide monitoring networks and as exclusive monitoring systems for medium-priority landslides. A centralised HPC infrastructure for data processing will also be developed, equipped with software suitable for the automatic processing of Change Detection and Digital Image Correlation data, to enable the systematic monitoring of landslides. The results obtained will provide insight into the effectiveness of photomonitoring as a feasible low-cost solution to increase the number of landslides monitored nationwide and will enable more frequent updating of the national landslide inventory.