The Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services (APAT) of Italy carries out scientific and technical activities in the national interest to protect the environment, water resources and the soil.
APAT is technically, scientifically and financially autonomous and is subject to the guidelines and oversight of the Ministry for Environment, Territory and Sea and to monitoring by the national Audit Office.
APAT is integrated within the network of the 21 Local Environmental Agencies, that is a federative system. This is a system that conjugates a direct knowledge of the territory and of the local environmental problems with the national policies for defending and protecting the environment. The Federal Council coordinates the national system of environmental controls.

For the activities in the frame of the project DesertNet 2 APAT is supported by the TeleGIS laboratory at the University of Cagliari, already member of the DesertNet partnership. Since 1982 the laboratory has been conducting research on the methods of analysis and interpretation of remotely sensed data, in combination with geographical information systems, for environmental applications.

In July 2004 TeleGIS has activated a system of direct reception of data from the MODIS sensor with spatial resolution in the visible of 250m. This data derived from the satellites Terra and Aqua consists of 36 spectral bands daily available, specific for the analysis of the atmosphere, variations in vegetation cover, temperature, aerosols transport and water analysis. The disciplines that might be interested, range from physical geography, oceanography, biology to meteorology.

The images cover the whole of the Mediterranean Basin. The ability of the antenna allows the reception even of signals emitted from low passes on the horizon and therefore extending the overall reception coverage from the Azores to Black Sea and from Norway to Mali. TeleGIS seeks to develop a network for the free distribution of these data.

Activities in the frame of the project DesertNet 2:

APAT is leading four lines of activity for the project DesertNet 2:
1) Monitoring of  partners  pilot actions
APAT monitoring is in continuity with the activities dealt for the first project DesertNet, in order to compare the results, to find out synergies, to help the effective exchange of experience and to identify innovative aspects in the use of indicators.
2) Good practices
APAT aims to realize a data base regarding the implemented good practices, for gathering, archiving and updating the information regarding projects, actions, studies and to classify them following the criteria of objectives (prevention, monitoring and mitigation of effects) and on the basis of priority sectors specified in Delibera CIPE 229/99, in order to favour the success of the results of the first project DesertNet and the development of the  Platform of Services.
3) Socio-economic aspects, indicators and valuation of environmental policies
This activity aims to develop a study on socio-economic indicators in general, and on soil use indicators in particular, through:
- the integration of bio-physical and socio-economic indicators, using GIS and statistical techniques;
- the analysis of ESAs through the evaluation of socio-economic and anthropic factors.
APAT works also for the implementation of methodologies and tools of analysis and socio-economic evaluation of territorial policies for reducing the effects of desertification phenomena.
4) Common Platform of Services
APAT contributes, in agreement with NRD-UniSS, to the development of new tools for the Platform of Services, in order to increase the availability of regional data bases, so that the users could develop an environmental cartography necessary for representing phenomena related to desertification.

APAT WORKING GROUP:

SCIENTIFIC RESPONSIBLE -:
Anna Luise - Tel: 06-5007.2553 - Fax: 06-5007.2657 – e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
(Member of Scientific Committee of  DESERTNET 2)

SUPPORT FOR THE COORDINATION OF THE PROJECT AND FOR ACTIVITY 3:
Francesca Rizzitiello - Tel: 06-5007.2554 - Fax: 06-5007.2657 - e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ACTIVITIES 2 AND 4:
Valter Sambucini – Tel: 06-5007.2074 – Fax 06-5007.2221 - e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it (Member of Scientific Committee of  DESERTNET 2), Coordination and supervision
Fabio Baiocco – Tel: 06-5007.2317 – Fax: 06-5007.2221 e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Nico Bonora – Tel: 06-5007.2465 – Fax: 06-5007.2221 e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ines Marinosci – Tel: 06-5007.2429 – Fax: 06.5007.2221 e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

ACTIVITIES 1, 2 AND 4:
Fiorenzo Fumanti - Tel: 06-5007.4176 - Fax: 06-5007.4368 e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Marco Di Leginio - Tel: 06-5007.4125 - Fax: 06-5007.4368 e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Andrea Di Fabbio - Tel: 06-5007.4136 - Fax: 06-5007.4368 e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

SUPPORT FOR ACCOUNTANT’S REPORT:
Francesca Bottinelli – Tel. 06-5007.2135 – Fax: 06-5007.2059 - e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

SUPPORT FOR THE COORDINATION OF EUROPEAN PROJECTS:
Liliana Tomarchio – Tel 06-5007.2873 – Fax: 06-5007.2059 - e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

TeleGis laboratory of the University of Cagliari
Contact:

Alberto Marini - Phone no. 070 6757701
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Page Web : http://telegis.unica.it/progetto/Antenna/index.cfm