Environmental and Engineering Geophysics

Period: First Semester

Course Unit Contents: The course has 3 parts:
Part 1: Introduction to exploration geophysics methods and instruments for natural risk. Geophysical methods for hydrological risk and soil characterization for environmental aims.
Part 2: Applied geophysics for the seismic risk.
Introduction to applied seismology, seismic hazard and seismic risk.
The seismic hazard in Italy and Europe. Global and local hazard maps. Response seismic scenarios. Coupled effects of seismic motion. Seismic response spectra.
Geophysical methods for the seismic soil classification and for the local seismic response analysis.
Part 3. Practical field work and exercise for the acquisition, the processing and the analysis of geophysical data for soil characterization.
The course will focus on applied aspects of the several techniques with examples from literature and from teacher experiences. The methods will be compared in terms of limits and goals, in order to drive the most suitable choice of investigation case by case.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods: Frontal lessons. Laboratory exercises and fields experiences.