- Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti di Venezia (Italy)
- Università di Venezia, Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali (Italy). marani@unive.it.
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A NEW DATABASE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT AND HAZARDS PREVENTION IN THE VENICE AREA Benvenuto F. (2), Marani A. (1,2), Silvestri S. (2)
A new database has been developed (this is the fourth version) to file and make available the information (data, images, mathematical models, bibliography, etc.) in the Venice area. The database has been set up by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti (a long-established Academy of Science) in the main web site http://www.ivsla.unive.it/slv. A work project such as this constitutes a challenge on account of its wide spectrum of knowledge and it will be effective only if it is continuously updated. The data base fulfils many aims, in particular it can be used: to organise the information collected; to promote the standardisation of the measuring techniques; to improve information-retrieval; to verify the feasibility of new projects; to find synergism between available data; to assess environmental risks and to prevent environmental hazards; to check safety measures step by step and in real time; to preserve administrative transparency for technical choices, and for other purposes too. Naturally the database we have in mind can give rise to problems as well as advantages; for example, the difficulty of collecting knowledge; problems in checking data quality and transfer protocols, etc.. The Venice lagoon is a very complex environmental systems affected by a great variety of natural and human factors which characterise the area as an exceptional laboratory useful for a multidisciplinary approach to environmental studies. The database is an example of co-operation among different scientific institutions with the aim of identifying, describing the greatest quantity of information possible in order to study the causes and effects of natural hazards in the lagoon and in the surrounding areas.
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