Che significa “Geoetica”? Dentro le parole, il senso dell’attività del geologo

Geoethics is born with the intent to highlight the social role of Geosciences, to encourage a critical analysis on the use of natural resources, to promote the enhancement and protection of the Geosphere, the correct information on risks, hoping the involvement of the scientific community in the idea of a common and shared “geological” heritage. But what is the deep meaning of the word “geoethics”, its origins, its use? The word derives from the combination of “geology” and “ethics”. “Geology” is simply “the study of Earth”. The etymological analysis of the word “ethics” is more complicated: it seems that at its origin there is a root of dual meaning: on the one hand it contains the sense of belonging to a community, it defines the relationship between men; on the other hand it expresses the individual, the ego in relationship to itself. It follows that ethics concerns what is common, but also what is personal, what distinguishes the individual. Ethics is both “being part” and “belonging to oneself”. In addition, a Semitic base assigns to this word the original meaning of “experience”. Thus, ethics is defined as the research of criteria that enable the individual to properly manage their freedom with respect for others, in the attempt to find the meaning of human life, understood as individual life and in relation with the Planet Earth. It is subjective when it deals with the subject acting, objective, when the action is related to common values and institutions. Consequently, we can define geoethics on the one hand as the investigation and reflection on the behaviour of men towards the Geosphere, on the other hand as the analysis of the relationship between the geologist who acts and his own action, with clear implications of responsibility both in scientific research and in professional practice. Starting from the etymology of some words related to the world of Geosciences, it will be tried to grasp the meaning of the geologist’s activity

Proposals for developing Geoethics in Italy

In recent years among geoscientists there is a growing awareness that their scientific and technical choices in each sector of activity (public, professional, industrial, research or teaching) can have significant repercussions on the territory and on the citizens that inhabit it and therefore that it is opportune to accompany these choices with appropriate reflections. Starting from the necessity to reconsider the way of man's relationship to the planet Earth, the geoscientists are wondering about the role played in the social context in which they operate, about their responsibilities in taking decisions on the use of natural resources, on the exploitation and protection of the Geosphere, when they are required to give correct information on hazards, to support the emergency management or to make society aware about the value of own territory as a common heritage to share. Up to 2007 in Italy, many researchers and practitioners have dealt with these issues, but the debate never took place in a coordinated and organized way. In addition, the occasions where to develop these themes were dedicated in wider sense to philosophical, epistemological and social aspects related to the Geosciences. The need to develop a debate on Geoethics with better coordination has been confirmed by the success of the session entirely devoted to Geoethics, hosted for the first time in Italy within the VII Forum of Earth Sciences (Rimini, 2009). The significant number of intervened speakers and discussed topics showed the desire and the importance of going ahead in this cultural path in our country. In any case, it became evident the necessity to organize more effectively those who want to devote to these issues, improving their coordination, expanding the network of contacts and creating more opportunities for the debate. To this end, some ideas are proposed, that aim to create a common space of reflection on Geoethics issues, offering a convenient time for the research and the discussion, a place for organizing and setting the activities, which represents a starting point for the dissemination of these issues within the national and international scientific community and c ivil society

Ethics, scientific research and goals of public usefulness

In the research activity, often the necessary fulfillment of administrative and bureaucratic practices can lead to neglecting the transfer of scientific results to the community, with the effect of a loss in terms of cultural growth for society itself, which has indirectly financed the products of that research and at the end risks not to have advantage by using them. In a research project, it is necessary to find the right balance between the scientific-technical work and the financial and administrative management, and to assess time needed to develop the project in all its components, including the space for the dissemination and popularization of results respectively to professionals and citizens: the former could not be able to use achieved scientific advances for their application on the territory, the latter could remain passive people in decisions regarding the environment they inhabit, without the possibility for accessing to accurate information on natural hazards from which they must and can defend themselves. The authors will show how the different modalities of financing and managing of two research projects have influenced the achievement and the usability of the results, with diverse consequences in the social contexts where these results would find their suitable application. In addition, through the two experiences, they will highlights the importance of collaboration between research and professional world for pursuing goals of public usefulness

Applying the Values of Geoethics for Sustainable Speleotourism Development

AbstractEstablishing sustainable and responsible speleotourism development is a major challenge and involves complex activities. Adequate theoretical starting point is the application of geoethical values related to the conservation and protection of the caves to be used for touristic purposes. Positive and negative cases of human behaviors towards speleological geoheritage are discussed, in order to highlight what should be done in cave management to avoid malpractices and on what elements could be founded adequate strategies aimed at promoting sustainable speleotourism. This is important to tourism management organizations involved in the promotion of caves and in creating economic opportunities for local populations, while respecting cave ecosystems. Modern cave management must be focused on the protection of the cave ecosystems, finding ways to achieve at the same time an economic development of local communities. But this approach needs the adoption of a geoethical framework of values to be shared by all stakeholders involved so that successful cooperation can be achieved despite differences in interests and expectations. The aim of this paper is to raise the awareness about the need to apply the values of geoethics to speleotourism, stimulating new fields of discussion within the scientific and technical communities involved in studies and activities related to geotourism and geoheritage. The possibilities of developing new ways to manage caves, in order to promote a sustainable socio-economic development of local communities, have to be balanced with the protection of natural environments as much as possible. The proposed theoretical frameworks have the goal to increase the discussion on the best ways of connecting speleotourism to sustainable and responsible cave management, presenting two case studies, and pointing out potential solutions

The Cape Town Statement on Geoethics

Recently the interest by geoscientists in (geo)ethical aspects of geoscience knowledge, education, research, practice and communication has grown considerably. Today the topic of geoethics has gained a significant visibility within the scientific community. The IAPG – International Association for Promoting Geoethics (http://www.geoethics.org), founded in 2012, has worked to widen the discussion and create awareness about issues of ethics as applied to the geosciences. Thanks to continuous voluntary work, the respectful exchange, and fruitful sharing of ideas, the IAPG community has produced a conceptual substratum on which to base the future development of geoethics, by clarifying the meaning of the word “geoethics”, formalizing its definition, and better identifying a framework of reference values on which the geoscience community can base more effective codes of conduct and guidance. The members of the IAPG community have published various books and articles in peer-reviewed international journals, and organized numerous scientific sessions to bring geoethics to the most important geoscience conferences. Geoethical issues have been also included in the European project ENVRI-Plus, which is dedicated to the environmental and solid Earth research infrastructures. The tangible result of these efforts is that, now, many prestigious geoscience organizations recognize geoethics as a fundamental issue, worthy of attention. This result was confirmed by the high quality of content and the large participation of scientists in the six technical sessions and a panel session on geoethics organized by IAPG at the 35th IGC – International Geological Congress, held in 2016 in Cape Town (South Africa). Largely successful due to the cooperative work of different geoscience organizations (IUGS-TGGP – Task Group on Global Geoscience Professionalism; GSL - Geological Society of London; EFG - European Federation of Geologists; EGS - EuroGeoSurveys; AGI – American Geosciences Institute; AGU – American Geophysical Union, and AAWG – African Association of Women in Geosciences). The IAPG considers the 35th IGC as the scientific event that opened a new phase for furthering the concept of geoethics. In order to mark this milestone, the "Cape Town Statement on Geoethics" (CTSG) was tabled by the IAPG and reviewed in an international effort. It shall focus the attention of geoscientists on the development of shared values, policies, guidelines, strategies and tools, with the long-range goal of fostering the regular adoption of ethical values and practices within the geoscience community. The document summarizes the values, concepts, and contents developed by IAPG so far, providing a perspective for the future development of geoethical thinking. This paper addresses in detail the content of the “Cape Town Statement on Geoethics”, which is now supported officially by several geoscience organizations

Advances in Geoethics and Groundwater Management : Theory and Practice for a Sustainable Development

This book gathers the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 1st congress on Geoethics & Groundwater Management (GEOETH&GWM'20), held in Porto, Portugal, in an online format on 18-22 May 2020. Hosted in School of Engineering (ISEP), Polytechnic of Porto based on Porto city (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), the international conference focused on what has now been dubbed “hydrogeoethics”, a novel transdisciplinary, scientific field integrating all dimensions of geoethics in groundwater science and practice. Given its scope, the book is of interest to all researchers and practitioners in the geosciences, hydrology, water resources, hydrogeology, natural resources management, environment, engineering, law, sociology, education, philosophy, culture, among others. This joint congress is the result of a collaborative agreement between the IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists) and IAPG (International Association for Promoting Geoethics) and reflects the need for concerted actions to achieve sustainable development. The diversity, scale, significance and increasing magnitude of anthropogenic interactions with aquifers and groundwater, which often involve conflicting values or interests, call for analysis, discussions and decisions on the part of the agents involved, e.g. groundwater scientists, policymakers, managers, organisations, professionals and citizens. This approach calls for a responsible, sustainable and human approach to groundwater use and management. The groundwater community involved in the exploration and exploitation, use and management of this increasingly vital natural resource is becoming more and more aware that ethical issues pervade all our attitudes from concept to action and need to be addressed. Diverse values and cultures, science and education, law and policies, human and natural environments and the public and the economic sectors view groundwater and its value and/or role differently. The authors believe that in a globalised and interconnected world, common ground must be found in the interest of peace, human development and sustainability. The main topics covered here include: 1. Fundamentals of hydrogeoethics: cultures, principles and geoethical values on groundwater science and engineering 2. Lessons for a resilient and sustainable future with hydrogeoethics: case studies of geoethics in groundwater science-engineering, profession, and management 3. Scientific and humanistic components of hydrogeoethics in groundwater education and professional training 4. Socio-hydrogeology and ethical groundwater management 5. Geoethics of decision making under uncertainty and ethical issues in neglecting groundwater functioning 6. Groundwater: geological, legal, social, and ethical challenges of a unique natural resourceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Geoethics: the responsibility of geoscientists in making society more aware of natural hazards

The damage due to geological hazards, with frequent loss of human lives, is not entirely avoidable, but can be greatly reduced through the correct land use that respects the natural processes, through prevention and mitigation efforts, through an effective and correct information to the population. Often not responsible behaviors by politicians, as well as the need for heavy investments and the lack of information make difficult the solution of problems and slow the path to a proper management of the environment, the only way to provide a significant mitigation of damages of the geological disasters. In many countries (including Italy) the importance of the Geoscientists’s role is not yet sufficiently recognized, despite it is evident the necessity of a greater attention to geological problems by policy makers and public opinion, as well as a more adequate information about natural risks to the society. The commitment to ensure prevention and mitigation of geological hazards must be considered an ethical value and duty for those who possess the appropriate knowledge and skills. Within the above context, Geoscientists have a key role to play as experts in analyzing and managing the territory’s vulnerability: they must take responsibility to share and communicate their knowledge more effectively with all private and public stakeholders involved, paying attention to providing balanced information about risks and addressing inevitable uncertainties in natural hazard mapping, assessment, warning, and forecasting. But Geoscientists need to be more aware of their ethical responsibility, of their social duty to serve the society, care about and protect territory, and to facilitate the desirable shift from a culture of emergency to a culture of prevention. The search for balance between short-term economic issues and wider social impacts from natural hazards is an increasingly urgent need. Geoethics must be central to society’s responses to natural hazard threats

The SEE-GeoForm WebGIS: a tool for seismic data and hazard analysis

The SEE-GeoForm project (Site Effects Evaluation - Geological Form) is born to share and make easily accessible via Internet seismic hazard data for Italy at different scales and for different administrative units (regions, provinces, municipalities), from existing database or new dataset carried out in this project. Using a WebGIS (http://www.seegeoform.it) a tool to archive, display and elaborate information has been developed. In particular, the website allows the user to query the basic and local seismic hazard values for single municipalities or to calculate those for any single point only by clicking on the maps. In order to make the WebGIS more flexible, the system has been fully implemented using open source technologies, based on the guidelines expressed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC); in this way, it has been possible to develop some thematic modules for data elaborations and queries as integrated web services such as WMS, following all of the internationally-acknowledged best-practices in this field. The WebGIS has three frames: the data panel, the display area, the map layers directories. The data panel has several modules concerning respectively: basic and local hazard data for all Italian municipalities calculated by National Institute of Geophisics and Volcanology (INGV) or from other studies, such as horizontal peak ground acceleration values for different return periods (considering the exceedance probability in 50 years), and soil classes with the corresponding lithostratigraphic amplification factors according to the EuroCode8; a regular grid of 16.810 points, with a step equal to 0.05°, used by INGV for the seismic hazard elaborations (http://zonesismiche.mi.ingv.it/): values that are necessary to draw the site-dependent response spectra, according to the Italian seismic code, are linked to each point; the calculation on user demand of basic seismic hazard parameters for a site selected by clicking on geographical layers; composite seismogenic sources from DISS (Database of Individual Seismogenic Sources, vers. 3.1.1.: http://diss.rm.ingv.it/diss/), with their relative parameters (maximum moment magnitude, strike, dip, etc.). Finally, there are two modules regarding litoseismic classes and subsoil categories: the first one is linked to a map obtained by reclassifying the 46 litothypes of the Lithological Map of Italy at 100000-scale by Geological Survey of Italy (National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research - ISPRA) into 12 litoseismic classes, considered homogeneous regarding to their seismic behavior; while the second one permits to know the subsoil category, according with Italian seismic provisions (Norme Tecniche per le Costruzioni – NTC 2008), for a single point by clicking on the map. This has been possible by elaborating a subsoil categories map at 100000-scale derived from the litoseismic map at the same scale, by blending different litoseismic classes into 5 categories. Datasets have been built starting from 2007 within the ReLUIS Project (http://www.reluis.it) and are being improved within the 2009-2012 EUCENTRE project (http://www.eucentre.it), that partially financed the WebGIS development, as a result of the strong collaboration between researchers from INGV and ISPRA. The SEE-GeoForm web-tool aims to become the focal point to display in a simple way many databases containing information on seismic hazard of Italian territory, allowing user-friendly elaborations for researchers and professionals

Addressing the challenges of making data, products, and services accessible: an EPOS perspective

Novel measurement technologies, additional sensors and increasing data processing capacities offer new opportunities to answer some of the currently most pressing societal and environmental questions. They also contribute to the fact that the available data volume will continue to increase. At the same time, the requirements for those providing such data rise and the needs of users to access it. The EPOS Delivery Framework aims to support this endeavour in the solid Earth domain by providing access to data, products, and services supporting multidisciplinary analyses for a wide range of users. Based on this example, we look at the most pressing issues from when data, products, and services are made accessible, to access principles, ethical issues related to its collection and use as well as with respect to their promotion. Among many peculiarities, we shed light on a common component that affects all fields equally: change. Not only will the amount and type of data, products, and services change, but so will the societal expectations and providers capabilities

Images of ancient Calabrian-Sicilian earthquakes from a stereoscopic viewer of the early 20th century. The ethics behind a natural disaster photo-gallery

This research was inspired by an old stereoscopic viewer from the early 1900s, containing 42 glass slides depicting scenes from two Italian earthquakes that struck Southern Calabria and Eastern Sicily in the years 1894 and 1905, causing hundreds of deaths, but whose memory was blurred by the subsequent, great earthquake of the Messina Straits of December 28, 1908. The sequence of three-dimensional images shown by the viewer gave a deep and realistic visual impact to scenes of collapses, debris, and victims, arousing feelings of dismay. In this work, we describe the viewer apparatus; the places depicted in the stereoscopic plates, and the seismic phenomena that caused the disasters. But above all, we investigate the social and cultural aims that pushed to show the effects of local earthquakes through this kind of primitive multimedia mechanism. We exclude that the viewer, with its photographic equipment, was merely an instrument of entertainment. We rather assume that it carried out an educational task. The repetition of the sequence of tragic images of earthquakes through the stereoscopic viewer had the purpose of contributing to give awareness of the looming seismic risk and to accept rationally those recurring disasters