Ongoing projects

International Ongoing Projects

AGITHAR (Cost Action EU):

Go to project AGITHAR's website | Visit project COST's website

Accelerating Global science In Tsunami HAzard and Risk analysis - is a network to improve, standardize, and promote tsunami research. It uses specific COST tools - workshops, networking, exchange of experts - in order to

Assess current approaches in tsunami hazard and risk analysis, and evaluate them quantitatively by means of common metrics and benchmarks;
Determine gaps in scientific knowledge, methodological approaches and tools in order to achieve robust tsunami hazard and risk analysis across a variety of tsunami sources, including earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, and meteorological events;
Derive and agree on best practices and standards for probabilistic tsunami hazard and risk analysis, through discussion by a large group of practitioners;
Identify issues and challenges to orient future research;
Disseminate the acquired knowledge among hazard and risk practitioners and end-users.

ARISTOTLE ENHSP:

Go to project ARISTOTLE ENHSP's website

ARISTOTLE-ENHSP (also known as ARISTOTLE2 being the continuation of the previous ARISTOTLE 2016-2018) is a project financed by the EC DG-ECHO that delivers world leading multi-hazard advice capability to the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC).
ARISTOTLE-ENHSP has been designed to offer a flexible and scalable system that can provide new hazard-related services to the ERCC and to create a pool of experts in the field of Meteorology and Geophysics of Europe that can support the ERCC with regard to situation assessments in crisis situations.

ChEESE (HPC Center of Excellence in Solid Earth):

Go to project ChEESE's website

The main objective of ChEESE is to establish a new Center of Excellence (CoE) in the domain of Solid Earth (SE) targeting the preparation of 10 Community flagship European codes for the upcoming pre-Exascale (2020) and Exascale (2022) supercomputers.

EWRICA (Early-Warning and Rapid ImpaCt Assessment with real-time GNSS in the Mediterranean) GFZ - Univ. Potsdam - Coop.Partners: INGV, NOA, IPMA, Univ. of Malta

Go to project EWRICA's website

We aim to develop fast kinematic and point source inversion and modeling tools combining GNSS-based near field data with traditional broadband ground velocity and accelerometer data. The joint inversion of near-field displacement and local velocity and acceleration is a key to improve fast estimates of seismic moments, depth and rupture directivity, all parameters that control ground shaking and secondary effects as tsunamis and landslides. We will provide measures to improve the prompt impact assessment after large earthquakes, as tsunami wave height maps, long period ground shaking maps, and maps indicating enhanced potential for landslide occurrence. Our prototype systems will be developed and tested in close cooperation with our partners, who run operational earthquake monitoring and tsunami warning as NEAMTWS TSP (North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas Tsunami Warning Service Provider) at their centres.

GTM (Global Tsunami Model Network):

Go to project GTM's website

The Global Tsunami Model (GTM) Network aims to assess and provide community-based standards, good practices and guidelines for Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard and Risk Analysis (PTHA and PTRA). The GTM overall vision and goals are to collaboratively achieve a thorough understanding of tsunami hazard and risk, together with the processes that drive them.

SIMIT (Interreg SICILY-MALTA) INGV

Go to project SIMIT's website ; Read the 2014-2020 programming

Italy-Malta’s Programme contributes to a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the territories, through the protection of the environment, the promotion of cultural heritage, and the improvement of the quality of life and health of citizens.

Through the publication of public notices, the Programme finances cooperation projects regarding the following areas:

Research and innovation to improve the quality of life and enjoyment of the cultural heritage
Creation and strengthening of SMEs and micro-enterprises in the fields of environmental protection and the quality of life and health of citizens
Mobility of workers within the cross-border area
Restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity protection
Mitigation of climate change effects and risk scenarios

The Managing Authority is the Regione Siciliana – Dipartimento regionale della Programmazione (Palermo) and it is responsible of the sound implementation and management of the Programme.

Go to project TSU-CAST's website

Tsunamis may strike a coastal population within a very short amount of time. To effectively forecast and warn for tsunamis in the near-field, extremely fast simulations are needed. Until recently, such urgent tsunami simulations were practically infeasible. Using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) opened a new avenue for performing Faster Than Real-Time (FTRT) tsunami simulations. More information on project's website

National ongoing projects

Italian Civil Protection Department projects

As part of the 2011-2020 Framework Agreement between the National Civil Protection Department (DPC) and INGV, which regulates INGV's activities for the monitoring and study of natural phenomena, the Tsunami Alert Centre was established.

The CAT activities are described in the biennial convention 2020-2021 between DPC and INGV (All. A) relating to the maintenance of the surveillance and tsunami alert service, while developments for the improvement of the service, new methods for the calculation of alert levels, hazard definition at national scale, information to the public on tsunamis and related risks are defined in the triennial convention 2019-2021, All. B2.

EPOS-ITALIA Joint Research Unit (EPOS-ERIC)

Go to progect EPOS-ITALIA's website | Go to project EPOS-ERIC's website

European Plate Observing System, è un’infrastruttura di ricerca pan-europea che sta sviluppando un piano di integrazione a lungo termine con l’obiettivo di fornire accesso virtuale a dati e prodotti scientifici e accesso fisico a laboratori e osservatori. EPOS nasce per promuovere l’accesso e facilitare l'utilizzo integrato di dati multidisciplinari di alta qualità prodotti dalle reti e dai sistemi di monitoraggio nazionali e transnazionali per le scienze della Terra solida. L’accesso aperto a dati multidisciplinari attraverso servizi innovativi è la prima condizione affinché la scienza possa progredire nella comprensione dei processi fisici e chimici che governano terremoti, eruzioni vulcaniche, maremoti e, in generale, tutti i processi deformativi superficiali, e quindi contribuire alla valutazione della pericolosità e alla mitigazione dei rischi naturali e antropogenici. Il fine ultimo di EPOS è fornire nuove opportunità per monitorare e quindi comprendere la dinamica e la complessità del sistema Terra.

PRIN (Italian Ministry of Research) | Università di Bologna, Università di Napoli - Federico II, Politecnico di Milano, Università di Brescia, INGV.

Assessment of Cascading Events triggered by the Interaction of Natural Hazards and Technological Scenarios involving the release of Hazardous Substances. PRIN is part of a triennial convention activated since September 2019 dealing in the evaluation of cascading events triggered by the interaction between natural hazards and technological scenarios involving the release of hazardous substances. Within tsunamis, the project is dedicated to the study of the cascade hazard generated by the impact of tsunamis (multi-hazard/multi-risk)

Concluded international projects

ARISTOTLE:

Go to project ARISTOTLE's website

ARISTOTLE will deliver world leading multi-hazard capability to the Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC). ARISTOTLE has been designed to offer a flexible and scalable system that can provide new hazard-related services to the ERCC and to create a pool of experts in the field of Meteorology and Geophysics of Europe that can support the ERCC with regard to situation assessments in crisis situations.

ASTARTE :

Go to project ASTARTE's website

The ultimate goal of ASTARTE is to reach a higher level of tsunami resilience in the NEAM (North East Atlantic & Mediterranean) region, to improve preparedness of coastal populations, and, ultimately, to save lives and assets.

The main objectives are:

Assessing long term recurrence of tsunamis
Improving the identification of tsunami generation mechanisms
Developing new cost-effective computational tools for hazard assessment
Ameliorate the understanding of tsunami interactions with coastal structures
Enhance tsunami detection capabilities, forecast and early warning skills in the NEAM region
Establishing new approaches to quantify vulnerability and risk and to identify the key components of tsunami resilience and their implementation in the NEAM region

MARsite :

Go to project MARsite's website

The recent devastating earthquakes and associated tsunamis in Japan, Indonesia, and Haiti, which killed more than half a million people, highlighted how mankind is still far away from a satisfactory level of seismic risk mitigation. Among the regions around the Mediterranean Sea for which earthquakes represent a major threat to their social and economic development, the area around the Marmara Sea, one of the most densely populated parts of Europe, is subjected to a high level of seismic hazard. For this region the MARSITE project is proposed with the aim of assessing the “state of the art” of seismic risk evaluation and management at European level. This will be the starting point to move a “step forward” towards new concepts of risk mitigation and management by long-term monitoring activities carried out both on land and at sea. The MARSITE project aims to coordinate research groups with different scientific skills (from seismology to engineering to gas geochemistry) in a comprehensive monitoring activity developed both in the Marmara Sea and in the surrounding urban and country areas. The project plans to coordinate initiatives to collect multidisciplinary data, to be shared, interpreted and merged in consistent theoretical and practical models suitable for the implementation of good practices to move the necessary information to the end users.

TRANSFER:

Go to project TRANSFER's website

The project main goal is to contribute to our understanding of tsunami processes in the Euro-Mediterranean region, to the tsunami hazard and risk assessment and to identifying the best strategies for reduction of tsunami risk. Focus will be posed on the gaps and needs for the implementation of an efficient tsunami early warning system (TEWS) in the Euro-Mediterranean area, which is a high-priority task in consideration that no tsunami early warning system is today in place in the Euro-Mediterranean countries.

TSUMAPS-NEAM:

Go to project TSUMAPS-NEAM's website : Go to interactive TSUMAPS-NEAM Tool

TSUMAPS-NEAM is a project funded by the European Commission under the auspices of the Directorate General of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG-ECHO) set forth in 2015 with a call for proposal for prevention and preparedness projects in the field of civil protection and marine pollution. It developed the first homogeneous region-wide long-term Probabilistic earthquake-induced Tsunami Hazard Assessment (PTHA) for the coastlines of the North East Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and connected seas (NEAM), to trigger a common tsunami-risk management strategy in the region. Its PTHA products are also meant to serve as a basis for future local and national PTHA efforts and be the first step to include tsunamis in multi-hazard risk assessments.

SAVEMEDCOASTS:

Go to SAVEMEDCOASTS's project website

SAVEMEDCOASTS focuses on the Prevention Priority program of the European Commission A4 – Civil Protection Policy and aims to respond to the need for people and assets prevention from natural disasters in Mediterranean coastal areas undergoing to increasing sea level rise and climate change impacts.

STREST:

Go to STREST's project website

Critical Infrastructures (CIs) provide essential goods and services for modern society; they are highly integrated and have growing mutual dependencies. Recent natural events have shown that cascading failures of CIs have the potential for multi-infrastructure collapse and widespread societal and economic consequences. Moving toward a safer and more resilient society requires improved and standardized tools for hazard and risk assessment of low probability-high consequence (LP-HC) events, and their systematic application to whole classes of CIs, targeting integrated risk mitigation strategies. Among the most important assessment tools are the stress tests, designed to test the vulnerability and resilience of individual CIs and infrastructure systems. Following the results of the stress tests recently performed by the EC for the European Nuclear Power Plants, it is urgent to carry out appropriate stress tests for all other classes of CIs.