Civil Protection Department

Critical infrastructure

• System, resource, process or structure, even virtual, whose destruction, interruption or even partial or temporary unavailability significantly weakens the normal efficiency and function of a country, as well as security and the economic and social system, including central and local Public Administration bodies.

Geoelectrical surveys

• Method for surveying the subsoil based on measurement of variations in electric resistivity of the ground layers deep down. The resistivity of the ground, in other words the resistance that the ground opposes to the passage of an electric current, injected into the ground and measured at regular intervals on the surface along a linear path, depend on the water content: the less water present, the greater the resistivity. Because the water content is a function of the ground’s lithological characteristics, measuring resistivity makes it possible to reconstruct the formation of the soils deep underground.

Hydrocarbons

• A vast class of chemical composites made up of carbon and hydrogen, many of which, gases, liquids or solids, are the main elements of crude oil and natural gas, as well as of various natural substances (artificial resins, natural rubber, etc.). Due to their different structures they have different physical and chemical and can therefore be used in a large number of fields. Their fundamental characteristic is that they produce heat energy via rapid oxidation (in other words they burn). They also provide the raw material indispensable for the modern chemical industry, which for this reason is called petrol-chemical.

Hypocentre

• The volume of rock deep under the ground where the earthquake, originates and whence the seismic waves propagate in all directions.

Interface fire

• Fire that hits interlink areas between urbanized and natural areas.

Incinerators

• These are plants that dispose of waste via a high-temperature combustion process (incineration) that emit gas effluent, ashes and dust. In more modern plants, the heat developed during combustion of waste is recuperated and used to produce steam, then used for the production of electricity. Facilities with recovery technology are called energy-recovery incinerators, or more commonly WtE or Waste to Energy plants.

Nuclear Accident

• Unintentional event related to plant or other activities regarding radioactive substances. It may have different causes such as operating erros or equipment breakdown; consequences or potential consequences are not unimportant, both from a safety and radioprotection point of view. 

   

ReM surveyi - Refreaction Microtremor

• See noise analysis.

MASW - Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves

• MASW is a seismic exploration method that uses the generation of surface waves from an impulse source, called hammer, or from an aligned vibrating source with equidistant receivers, normally 24 with 1 metre wheel base, and progressively moved away.  The Masw test allows to determine a speed profile for the propagation of Rayleigh surface waves (Vr) in deep and to build the stratigraphy.

Ines - International Nuclear Event Scale

• Ines - International Nuclear Event Scale is a tool that helps to enable prompt communication of safety significance information in case of nuclear accidents. Nuclear and radiological events are classified in 7 levels: major accident, serious accident, accident with wider consequences, accident with local consequences, serious incident, incident, anomaly. 

Pollution

• This is a man-made or natural alteration of the environment, which causes disruption or permanent damage to the life of an area and which is not in balance with existing natural cycles.

Macroseismic intensity

• Using the Mercalli Cancani Sieberg scale, this measures the effects of the earthquake on man, on buildings in the area struck by the quake and on the environment. Unlike the Richter Scale, the precise value of the intensity can only be attributed after observation of the damage produced by the earthquake.

Ispra - Institute for Environmental Protection and Research

• Institute that replaces and carries out all functions of ex-APAT, Italian Environment Protection and Technical Services Agency, ex-INFS, National Institute for Wildlife and ex-ICRAM, Central Institute for Scientific and Technological Research applied to the Sea. The Institute acts under the vigilance and policy guidance of the Italian Ministry for the Environment and the Protection of Land and Sea. has been established by Law no. 113 of 6 June 2008.