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...

One of the major concern for the gas sequestration/storage feasibility in natural underground formations is the assessment of the sealing efficiency of the low-permeable sequences overlying potential storage formations. The sealing efficiency is quantified via the threshold pressure and/or residual pressure difference parameters; the experimental laboratory procedures for their evaluation have been widely...

It is well known that climatic factors can influence the degradation of rocks in different geographic environments, thus affecting the durability of natural construction materials. Research has been carried out to assess the current state of natural degradation of an Oligocene-Miocene lithic greywacke occurring without appreciable lithological and mineralogical variations from, NW to SE in Tuscany (northern...

The fragmentation process of the falling blocks is a key aspect in the study and the simulation of rockfall phenomenon. The single blocs can generate fragments, deviating their trajectory, modifying their energy. The present research describes an application of a fractal fragmentation model on a real study case and identifies the main issues that can rise. A multi-objective procedure to define model parameters...

Mechanical behaviour of clastic formations at shallow – medium depths which bear hydrocarbon reservoirs could exhibit an important non-linear influence of the strain on the formation stiffness during depletion. Particularly in the early reservoir production stage, characterized by high uncertainty and little ground movement data for back-analysis, reliable determination of formation stiffness at...

The inflow into aquifers of transition metals leached from muck disposed in quarries is a process that requires a detailed analysis in the framework of the environmental impact studies of dump sites. It is important to thoroughly examine the risks of potential contamination of pre-existing groundwater wells and, more in general, to assess the risk of qualitative deterioration of nearby shallow aquifers....

The proposal of a simplified hybrid Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical model to investigate poroelastic and thermoelastic stresses induced due to water injection and the different parameters affecting their evolution is presented. The operating mode of the numerical model is starting with a set of implicit fractures, with different adjustable random orientations, then an elastic continuum medium is built, and shear...

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...

The paper presents the results of an experimental campaign carried out at the Sasso Poiano mine, close to Varese, northern Italy. The area is near a historic site, inhabited villages and a well-known lake, so that the use of explosive is subject to severe restrictions imposed by Italian standards. The exploitation is therefore carried out by blasting with low specific charge (PF=50 g/m3) in order to obtain...

The two-component backfilling system is the most frequently used method to fill the annular gap created during the shield machine advancement. This gap, due to the head overcut, the shield thickness and conicity and the tail brushes size should be filled continuously in order to avoid mainly surface displacement and linings movements. Nowadays this technology is the most chosen due to operative (both...

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...

Rockfall net fences are multicomponent protection devices for mitigating rockfall hazard. As passive measures, they are used to intercept and stop rock blocks propagation after their detachment from a cliff or a slope. During their design working life, net fences subjected to ageing phenomena, corrosion and impact loads, causing their efficiency loss or even their effectiveness. A multi-matricial procedure...

This article aims to provide a glance about the current and future applications of Big Data Analytics (BDA) within the Oil&Gas industry, which is searching for an improvement in data managing equal to the improvement in techniques and technologies required by current and future hydrocarbon production. The connection and compatibility of BDA with the hydrocarbon sector is analyzed, highlighting its...

The rapid development of the mechanized tunneling in current decades has raised serious concerns about the environmental impact of large quantities of the muck. EPB-TBMs require the use of foaming agents for optimizing the soil conditioning. These agents could contain some chemicals (e.g., sodium lauryl ether sulfate – SLES) that are not included in the current legislation at the Italian or EU level....

Geothermal Energy, being a clean and sustainable source of energy, is gaining importance worldwide due to various reasons. Geothermal power can be generated throughout the year on twenty four hour basis as it’s not much dependent on ambient temperature and weather conditions. Recently there is an increased interest in exploitation of low enthalpy geothermal resources for other applications such as geothermal space heating...

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 University of Cagliari (Italy) has carried out extensive research on the use and application consultant, La Loggia (TO), Italy of diamond wire in basalt quarries, with the objective of assessing the effectiveness of sawing. The focus of the research has been on time-measurements, in order to produce better data about sawing speed rather than what has already been highly documented by diamond wire...

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 interaction between tunnels and underground water is a complex topic and it is of great relevance taking into account the environment, the protection of drinkable water and the interference with tunnel construction method. Due to the great importance of the topic, in the following are presented and discussed the most relevant technologies for water management in tunnelling with a specific attention...

Stone weathering is strongly controlled by the intrinsic properties of the stone and by its use. Previous studies demonstrate that the response to natural or artificial ageing processes of the rocks seems to be strongly influenced by the pore structure of the stone. A better understanding of this phenomenon is provided by the study and characterization of porosity and of the pore structure at different...

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...

Avalanches are natural events that can have consequences such as silvicultural losses, infrastructural damages, fatalities. In this paper, the attention is given to glide avalanches starting by a glide crack, a tensile crack that propagates at the crown – the upper release limit – due to the internal stress variation. However, the presence of a glide crack does not always give rise to a glide avalanche....

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...

Rockfall protection embankments are compelling mitigation measures for those situations involving very high kinetic energy or large blocks and where the slope toe is almost flat. Several systems have been developed, and, among them, reinforced earth embankments allow considerable heights and inclination of the faces up to 70°. Nevertheless, a common procedure for including the dynamic condition, i.e....

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...

Rockfall net fences and drapery meshes constitute two of the most adopted protective structural works against rockfall hazard. During their life, they are subject to ageing, corrosion, and impact loads, with a consequent loss of efficiency or even effectiveness. Due to the variability of the environment and, more in general, to external conditions, a definition of a service life, although not unique but...

A proposal for the management of rockfall protection works on complex infrastructure networks such as that of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano through planned inspections. A conscious management requires an adequate planning of inspections and the determination of economically sustainable ‘thresholds’ of intervention. Since it is not possible to predict the frequency of detachments that...