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 large use of nanomaterials in several industrial processes drove the attention toward the potential health issues associated to their diffusion in the environment. However, since nanomaterials are characterized by a polidisperse particle size distribution, the human health risk induced by a nanoparticle (NP) contamination cannot be assessed through the ASTM procedure commonly used for chemicals. Toxicity...

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...

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...

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 wide spreading of vertical greening systems brought to the development of new systems and technologies able to improve urban areas quality. Several benefits derive from the installation of these systems: energy savings for air conditioning during summer, thermal comfort improvement indoor and outdoor, urban heat island mitigation, biodiversity increase, protection of building façades with consequent...

The complex system of road infrastructures of a country plays a fundamental role both on the economy and on the development of the territory and on the management of accident scenarios that occur as a result of natural disasters. It is therefore essential to assess the vulnerability of the infrastructural network to natural and man-made risk factors in order to identify any critical issues and plan improvements...

The aim of this study is to investigate the possible correlation between the value of occupational risk from whole body vibrations and the main anthropometric characteristics of the subjects exposed to such vibrations. Directive 2002/44/EC, which defines the minimum requirements in order to guarantee the health and safety of workers exposed to such a risk, states that Risk Assessment may be conducted...

The adoption of reinforced embankments for rockfall and landslide protection purposes is an effective intervention for the reduction of risk and damages to civil facilities. These earth structures are manufactured with layers of compacted soil alternated with geosynthetics (e.g. geogrids and geotextiles) that are anchored to the outer quarterdeck frame or wrapped around it. This paper discusses the results...

The Engineering Geology area studies the physical geography and geomorphology of the “Environment system”. In particular, Engineering Geology deals with the defense of the soil, territory and civil protection, with attention to landslides, hydrogeology, the study of underground water circulation, the geological-technical survey, geological exploration of the subsoil and thematic cartography, geological...

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...

A quantitative assessment of the risk of rockfall on a local scale is a complex and challenging task since both the randomness of the natural event and the unpredictability of the behaviour of the elements at risk must be considered. From a technical standpoint, the impact of a block against a building is a phenomenon with a lot of variability, because the location of the impact point on the building...

The Petra Archaeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985, is characterized by a spectacular landscape but also by a great fragility fragile being prone to a diversity of natural risks (e.g. landslides, flash-floods, earthquakes) which can cause a potential danger to cultural heritage and visitors. The ‘Siq’, a natural canyon which constitutes the main entrance to the archaeological...

The National Repository of hydrogeological risk mitigation measures (ReNDiS) is the platform for monitoring measures funded by MiTE from 1999 onwards which aims to managing the evaluation of funding requests coming from Regions. The platform currently contains 6,402 measures for € 6.962 billion and 9,249 project proposals corresponding to € 29.141 billion. In the consistent case history of measures...

Rockfall net fence are a widely adopted rockfall risk mitigation measures, suitable for the great majority of the cases. Nevertheless, in particular complex morphologies, the trajectories of the possible detached blocks can be anomalous, with very high values of both the kinematic parameters of passing height and kinetic energy. In this case, a double line of net fence can be a convenient solution. In...