Facing Italy’s natural hazards
19 October 2016
New town planning models and more efficient machinery are necessary to meet hydraulic, seismic and hydro-geological hazards in Italy, visitors to a roadshow put on by trade fair Samoter heard.
At the roadshow’s first stop, in Bari, Apulia, it was said that 12.5% of the entire territory of the Apulia region suffered from critical hydrogeological issues, with Foggia and Taranto at the top of risk tables. Structural measures as well as monitoring and prevention were all said to be needed.
Ruggiero Mennea, regional councillor and chairman of the standing committee for civil defence, said, “The Apulia region in August approved the creation of a dedicated task force that seeks to become a replicable model throughout Italy.
“Be it a hydraulic, seismic or hydro-geological hazard, we must share resources,” Mennea added, “but we also need new town planning models and more efficient machinery.”
This point was shared by Tommaso Di Noia, professor of computerised engineering at Bari Polytechnic University, who said that the future of prevention could be separated from technological innovation involving machinery and software.
He said, “Electronics, for example, can help ensure better use of the work of excavators, in the same way as developing artificial intelligence with far-reaching neural networks capable of predictive analysis or diagnosis in real time when an emergency occurs.”
He added that this was not to mention opportunities linked with the aerospace world, with drones capable of aerial monitoring of the territory.
30th edition
Samoter – whose 30th edition show will be held at Veronafiere from 22 to 25 February, 2017 – said these increasingly intelligent machines, together with low-emission and high-efficiency systems, technological platforms for human-to-machine (H2M) and machine-to-machine (M2M) interaction, would be featured at next year’s show.
Luciano Rizzi, agriexpo and technology area manager at Veronafiere, said, “The event is the only landmarked show in Italy and is an ideal opportunity for taking stock of market developments for highly-specialised earthmoving machines such as those dedicated to the protection of natural resources.”
The road show has also been to Palermo, and further stops will be in Catanzaro on 18 November, and Genoa on 2 December.
