The present study focuses on the transformations of a typical Mediterranean agroforestry landscape of southern Italy (high Agri Valley – Basilicata region) that occurred over 24 years. In this period, the valuable agricultural and natural areas that compose such a landscape were subjected to intensive industry-related activities linked to the exploitation of the largest European onshore oil reservoir. Landsat imagery acquired in 1985 and 2009 were used to detect changes in forest areas and major land use trajectories.

During the months of June and July 2013, over the Euro–Mediterranean area, the ADRIMED (Aerosol Direct Radiative Impact on the regional climate in the Mediterranean region) project was dedicated to characterize the ozone and aerosol concentrations in the troposphere. It is first shown that this period was not highly polluted compared to previous summers in this region, with a moderate ozone production, no significant vegetation fire events and several precipitation periods scavenging the aerosol.

Pope Francis has drawn attention for his progressive teachings on sexuality, contraception and abortion. Now he and the Catholic Church are tackling another contentious issue: climate change.

The atmospheric concentrations of 17 trace elements (Al, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, Ti and Zn) were measured by means of the "lichen-bag" technique in the Agri Valley (southern Italy). The lichen samples were collected from an unpolluted site located in Rifreddo forest (southern Italy), about 30 km away from the study area along the north direction. The bags were exposed to ambient air for 6 and 12 months. The exposed-to-control (EC) ratio values highlighted that the used lichen species were suitable for biomonitoring investigations.

We investigate the use of landslide failure forecast models by exploiting near-real-time monitoring data. Starting from the inverse velocity theory, we analyze landslide surface displacements on different temporal windows, and apply straightforward statistical methods to obtain confidence intervals on the estimated time of failure. Here we describe the main concepts of our method, and show an example of application to a real emergency scenario, the La Saxe rockslide, Aosta Valley region, northern Italy.