When it comes to human health and safety, the extractive industry represents one of the most hazardous activities. When accidents occur in mines, quarries or processing plants, consequences are usually very serious. A description of Italy’s state of the art is made herein, with a special focus on occupational injuries occurred during the 2012-2019 period of time as well as fatal injuries of the last...
The residual presence of critical components (e.g. Asbestos Containing Materials – ACMs) still represents one of the main criticalities for the Occupational Safety and Health – OS&H in many large public facilities. The very first step for an effective Risk Assessment and Management is obviously a clear definition of the different approaches, complying with the Italian general and special OS&H...
The building sector is considered strategic to reach new scenarios for a low-carbon society. Beside this awareness, in the current trend there is not a real change to achieve targets set in terms of emissions containment defined by international agreements. Through an econometric model based on Choice Experiments, the present study aims to understand the individuals’ perceptions towards energy retrofit...
Harmonic Pulse Testing was introduced in the early 1970’s as a special case of pulse testing. It is characterized by a periodic variation of production/injection rate. Subsequent developments proved that it could provide the same information as a conventional well test (permeability and skin, heterogeneity) in addition to those given by a pulse test (areal connectivity within the reservoir) if proper...
Aerogels are emerging as one of the most intriguing and promising groups of microporous materials, characterized by impressive properties such as low density, high surface area, high porosity and tunable surface chemistry. Fostering unique thermal and acoustic insulation features, for several decades they mainly received attention from the aerospace and building sectors. More recently, new great opportunities...
Territorial transformation projects are subject to specific evaluation procedures that address the question of whether the planned course of actions can achieve objectives in the presence of specific constraints. The uncertainty that characterizes the development process is of particular importance in investment decision-making, Indeed, the model’s input (for example, the costs of construction, the...
In mature oilfields, decommissioned oil and gas wells with depths reaching approximately 5000-6000 metres represent good candidate structures for geothermal heat exploitation, as they can provide useful access to subsurface geothermal energy resources. Comprehending the possibility to economically harness geothermal energy by means of coaxial WBHEs is bound to the main features of the physical model,...
This paper presents a quick and multiparametric method for shallow landslides susceptibility and hazard zoning, based on the principles of the Rock Engineering System (RES). The implementation of this methodology is achieved through the identification of the most sensitive triggering parameters and the study of their interrelationships. An interaction matrix is used to define a susceptibility index. The...
Extractive waste (EW) from abandoned mines can pose serious pressure to natural water systems. The harmful effects of EW such as deterioration of water sources by allowing leaching of potentially toxic elements (PTE) into groundwater make it necessary to carry out careful, scientific and comprehensive studies on this subject. The present research used risk analysis approach to study the effect of presence...
The residual presence of critical components (e.g. Asbestos Containing Materials – ACMs) still represents one of the main criticalities for the Occupational Safety and Health – OS&H in many large public facilities (Lee and Van Orden, 2007).
Since...
The management of health and safety at work is represented by the set of preventive and protective measures to minimize the exposure of workers to risks that may cause the onset of diseases or increase the number of accidents.
Data on occupational accidents...
Although the European panorama is experiencing a profound change in advance to the Industry 4.0, revolutionizing the world of work with technical, technological and information innovations, in Italy even today we have to deal with the “old” problem of work related injuries and fatalities. In particular, the accident indices of the last few years do not seem to differ much from those typical of the...
Accidents and fatalities at work have always had a huge social and economic impact. In recent years the phenomenon in Italy does not seem to regress, indeed, the official data of fatality at work report a significant increase; this notwithstanding the widespread legislative activity both at European and national level.
An...
When major accident scenarios are considered, the effects of major events which give rise to a serious, immediate or deferred danger to human health or the environment, inside or outside the production or storage area due to the presence in high quantities of one or more dangerous substances are being considered. Events of this type, except in exceptional cases, have always had important consequences...
Nowadays, occupational exposure to airborne dust is still one of the most concerning problems our society should face, since both airborne dust is a common pollutant in almost all the NACE sectors activities, and the occupational exposure quantification is critical. One of the possible causes can be identified in determining the real conditions of dust pollution in the workplaces, attributable to the...
The network monitoring system, which has been in operation on the Idro landslide, for several years, shows an average movement of 3 cm to 6 cm a year and defines a displacement area of approximately 270.000 m2. The volume estimation of the landslide is about 5 million cubic meters. The acceleration of the landslide movement is related to the raising of the water table which is linked to increased rainfall....
Zandobbio Marble is a crystalline dolomite produced in an open pit quarry near Bergamo, Nord Italy. This ornamental stone was already used during the Roman age. For many years the quarry was inactive, until 2006 when it was re-opened. Local law on quarries requires the elaboration of an exploitation plan: its objective, and in general the objective of the environmental assessment, is to identify areas...
The tunnel Piscopio I is a twin-tube tunnel, 750 m long, included in the works of the Maxilotto 2 DG21/04 of the new highway SS 106 Jonica (Calabria, Southern Italy). During the excavation of the Piscopio I tunnel, several lacks in the Geological Model of Reference emerged. Above all, the discovery of a complex landslide along the left hydrographic side of the Alessi River, which interfered with the tunnel...
The majority of rural areas in developing countries live in a state of chronic emergency, due for the most part to the lack of sanitary assistance and food. Covid-19 aggravates this situation, complicating the action of International Cooperation in these countries. To this extent, the case study of the Nosy Mitsio island (Madagascar) is presented. The partnership between H4O, Kukula and Politecnico di...
The paper provides an overview of the several scientific and technical issues and challenges to be addressed for underground storage of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas. The experience gained on underground energy systems and materials is complemented by new competences to adequately respond to the new needs raised by transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The experimental...
The aim of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting hydrogen as well as Carbon Capture and Storage Technologies (“CCS”) policies with refer to countries’ upstream capacity of hydrocarbon activities. By using a panel data of 79 countries in 20 years, the interactive model will take into consideration Oil Reserves in relationship with Fossil Fuel Consumption, Blue or Green hydrogen...
The storage of natural gas in underground geological formations (UGS) has been widely adopted to guarantee a real-time response to the market requests as well as to ensure National “strategic” reserves. In the recent past, the UGS and related technologies have been approached with increasing interest also in terms of CO2 sequestration and of large-scale storage of chemical energy, with the...
This article focuses on the evaluation of the oil and gas potential and the investigation of reservoir properties within the terrigenous horizons of the Middle and Lower Jurassic deposits located in the Kandym uplift of the Bukhara-Khiva region. The assessment methodology presented in this study is based on the analysis of geophysical well logging data curves. The authors conducted an analysis using real...
The Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Workplace Prevention Techniques (TPALL) of the University of Turin (UniTo) has also been training technical experts in occupational and environmental safety and health since 2003. Among the total 180 training credits, 24 credits are dedicated to specific engineering content, and deal with both plant design basics, and up-to-date Hazard Identification, Risk...
In this paper, we discuss how to describe the geomechanical behavior of geological formations used for underground fluid storage through the application of the Virtual Element Method (VEM) on conforming polyhedral meshes for the solution of stress-strain equilibrium equations. Under the assumption of small deformations, the solution algorithm for an Isotropic Linear Elastic (ILE) constitutive law coupled...