Environmental pollution has become one of the most important issues. In the last decades, industrialization and urbanization have rapidly evolved, inducing a degradation of the quality of the environment. This is clearly a consequence of the release of different categories of pollutants in different compartments of the environment, as well as the production of large amount of waste materials. As for pollutants, different categories, both organic and inorganic, represent serious problems at global level since they can affect both flora and fauna, and human health.
The Green Deal intends to “green” the EU activities and re-orient policies and laws for the years to come, in areas such as environment. Europe’s seas, oceans, and environment are a source of natural and economic wealth for Europe. It is important to preserve and protect them to ensure that they continue sustaining us in the future.
It is therefore necessary to invest research efforts and resources to identify how to reduce the impacts generated by pollution. In this context, the improvement of detection and removal techniques, as well as, the identification of degradation methods of pollutants, with low environmental impact, represent a challenge of the current research. Any action aimed at improving the quality of the environment must take in consideration strategies focused at pollutants sensing and removal, as well as valorization of waste materials.

Natural geohazards, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, are major concern for society and their effects may profoundly affects human life and Earth’s environment. At the territory of Italy, earthquakes represent a significant burden for the people’s life security and generate a considerable financial loss due to infrastructure damage. The monitoring of the seismic activity of the faults of the Italian territory, with an efficient and affordable strain meter, would help safe human lives and reduce the financial burden by timely signaling and evacuation. Volcano eruptions also have a large impact on the society with significant casualties and destructions of infrastructures. More than 500 million people live within the potential exposure range of a volcano. In Europe there are 14 active volcanoes that are concentrated in the Southern Italy and in Iceland. It makes eruption monitoring a scientifically and societally primary issue. Furthermore, ground strains is strategic for damaging underground structures, such as subways, tunnels and pipelines, and, therefore, critical for their seismic design.

This Pillar Environment involves 150 researchers from 9 different partners and affiliated partners: UNICT, UNIME, UNIPA, CNR, UNIKORE, INGV, INFN, STM, MI. The consortium is a multidisciplinary team consisting of agronomists, biologists, chemists, engineers, geologists, and physicists that will carry on the action with competence.