Information system on hydrological and geomorphological catastrophes in Italy (SICI): a tool for managing landslide and flood hazards

International audienceSince 1990, we have maintained a database of historical information on landslides and floods in Italy, known as the National Research Council's AVI (Damaged Urban Areas) archive. The database was originally designed to respond to a request of the Minister of Civil Protection, and was aimed at helping the regional assessment of landslide and flood risk in Italy. The database was compiled in 1991-1992 to cover the period 1917 to 1990, and then updated to cover systematically the period 1917 to 2000, and non-systematically the periods 1900 to 1916 and 2001 to 2002. The database currently contains information on more than 32000 landslide events occurred at more than 21000 sites, and on more than 29000 flood events occurred at more than 14000 sites. Independently from the AVI archive, we have obtained other databases containing information on damage caused by mass movements and inundations, daily discharge measurements and solid-transport measurements at selected gauging stations, bibliographical and reference information on landslides and inundations, and a catalogue of National legislation on hydrological and geological hazards and risk in Italy. The databases are part of an information system known as SICI (an Italian acronym for Sistema Informativo sulle Catastrofi Idrogeologiche, Information System on Hydrological and Geomorphological Catastrophes), which is currently the largest single repository of historical information on landslides and floods in Italy. After an outline of the history and evolution of the AVI Project archive, we present and discuss: (a) the structure of the SICI information system, including the hardware and software solutions adopted to maintain, manage, update, use and disseminate the information stored in the various databases, (b) the type and amount of information stored in each database, including an estimate of their completeness, and (c) examples of recent applications of the information system, including a web-based GIS system to show the location of sites historically affected by landslides and floods, and an estimate of geo-hydrological (i.e. landslide and flood) risk in Italy based on the available historical information

Results of Skylab investigation over Italy

The author has identified the following significant results. Multispectral high resolution photography of S190A was successfully applied to the detection of paleoriverbeds in flat lands. Results of SL-3 mission were compared to those of LANDSAT for two regional geological surveys (linear structures) on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. On Sicily, the seasonal conditions were unfavorable for Skylab while LANDSAT played a major role in discovering long, unknown lineaments of great interest for the geodynamics of the area. On Sardinia, owing to the vegetation type and to the geomorphic conditions, the Skylab imagery was successfully employed to describe the network of linears, both regional and local. Results can be used to study the relationship between linears, actual fracturing and the occurrence of mineral deposits

Particle detection through the quantum counter concept in YAG:Er3+^{3+}

We report about a novel scheme for particle detection based on the infrared quantum counter concept. Its operation consists of a two-step excitation process of a four level system, that can be realized in rare earth-doped crystals when a cw pump laser is tuned to the transition from the second to the fourth level. The incident particle raises the atoms of the active material into a low lying, metastable energy state, triggering the absorption of the pump laser to a higher level. Following a rapid non-radiative decay to a fluorescent level, an optical signal is observed with a conventional detectors. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of such a scheme, we have investigated the emission from the fluorescent level $^4$S$_{3/2}$ (540 nm band) in an Er$^{3+}$-doped YAG crystal pumped by a tunable titanium sapphire laser when it is irradiated with 60 keV electrons delivered by an electron gun. We have obtained a clear signature this excitation increases the $^{4}I_{13/2}$ metastable level population that can efficiently be exploited to generate a detectable optical signal

Weak insensitivity to initial conditions at the edge of chaos in the logistic map

We extend existing studies of weakly sensitive points within the framework of Tsallis non-extensive thermodynamics to include weakly insensitive points at the edge of chaos. Analyzing tangent points of the logistic map we have verified that the generalized entropy with suitable entropic index q correctly describes the approach to the attractor.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Contribution of Skylab multispectral imagery to the remote sensing studies of Mount Etna volcano

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Application of algal bioassays in the determination of eutrophic power of waste water (”Conclusions” only) [Translation from: 1g.Sanita pubbl. 31 257-267, 1975]

The best evidence for establishing the level of eutrophy of a water-body is its algal production which makes it possible to identify the type and the intensity of the eutrophication according to the kind and number of algal species present: when the number of algae exceeds half a million per litre then one speaks o an ”algal bloom”. The scope of the present research aims to verify if the alga Selenastrum capricornutum can be used as a test alga under our culture conditions and to determine the eutrophic level of the secondary effluent of a modern plant for the treatment of domestic discharge and to investigate the eventual ”limiting factors”. Finally this paper aims to study the effect on the secondary effluent of tertiary treatment carried out artificially in the laboratory

Laser induced fluorescence for axion dark matter detection: a feasibility study in YLiF4_4:Er3+^{3+}

We present a detection scheme to search for QCD axion dark matter, that is based on a direct interaction between axions and electrons explicitly predicted by DFSZ axion models. The local axion dark matter field shall drive transitions between Zeeman-split atomic levels separated by the axion rest mass energy $m_a c^2$. Axion-related excitations are then detected with an upconversion scheme involving a pump laser that converts the absorbed axion energy ($\sim$ hundreds of $\mu$eV) to visible or infrared photons, where single photon detection is an established technique. The proposed scheme involves rare-earth ions doped into solid-state crystalline materials, and the optical transitions take place between energy levels of $4f^N$ electron configuration. Beyond discussing theoretical aspects and requirements to achieve a cosmologically relevant sensitivity, especially in terms of spectroscopic material properties, we experimentally investigate backgrounds due to the pump laser at temperatures in the range $1.9-4.2$ K. Our results rule out excitation of the upper Zeeman component of the ground state by laser-related heating effects, and are of some help in optimizing activated material parameters to suppress the multiphonon-assisted Stokes fluorescence.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

The artificial retina for track reconstruction at the LHC crossing rate

We present the results of an R&D study for a specialized processor capable of precisely reconstructing events with hundreds of charged-particle tracks in pixel and silicon strip detectors at $40\,\rm MHz$, thus suitable for processing LHC events at the full crossing frequency. For this purpose we design and test a massively parallel pattern-recognition algorithm, inspired to the current understanding of the mechanisms adopted by the primary visual cortex of mammals in the early stages of visual-information processing. The detailed geometry and charged-particle's activity of a large tracking detector are simulated and used to assess the performance of the artificial retina algorithm. We find that high-quality tracking in large detectors is possible with sub-microsecond latencies when the algorithm is implemented in modern, high-speed, high-bandwidth FPGA devices.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, ICHEP14. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1409.089

Skylab multispectral photography of Italian volcanology, geology, rice fields, and Paleo river beds

There are no author-identified significant results in this report