EO4GEO and ISPRA, the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, invites you from December to a OOC on the use of Earth Observation data and services to assess the landslide risk affecting Cultural Heritage sites. 

The course will focus on the use of Copernicus EO data and services to assess the landslide risk affecting the volcanic tuff slope on which the Baia Roman Thermae are built on. The Persistent Scatterers processing allows to perform ground displacement analysis focused on the detection of historical and recent landslides, thus helping technicians and site managers to properly address mitigation actions for the best conservation of Cultural Heritage.

The Roman Thermae of Baia are located in Bacoli municipality (Naples), close by the Phlegrean Fields caldera, representing a unique example of volcanic-related bradyseism with unrest cycles characterized by intense ground uplift and sinking

The particular location of the site, along the steep internal slopes of the volcano, required the use over time of massive terracing works. Preliminary InSAR analysis were performed exploiting ERS (1992-2000) ENVISAT (2003-2010) and COSMO Sky-Med (2011-2013) datasets; the first dataset show ground lowering phenomena affecting areas close to Phlegrean Fields during the period 1993–2003. InSAR data processing will take into consideration COSMO Sky-Med datasets and the most recent SENTINEL-1 data, allowing to assess the instability phenomena evolution of the area in a recent time interval.