An innovative socio-economic reading of the variations in seismic noise of anthropic origin in Italy during the weeks of lockdown has allowed for a more in-depth interpretation of the effectiveness of the restrictive measures
In some areas of Italy, strongly characterized by an industrialization attributable to sectors considered strategic for the country, the Italian Government has recognized the need, as part of the restrictive measures imposed starting from 11 March 2020, not to interrupt some of those activity.
Consequently, the researchers found that the seismic noise of anthropic origin, although attenuated, has not undergone the significant reduction found, however, throughout the national territory.
This is the result of the study “COVID-19 lockdown and its latency in Northern Italy: seismic evidence and socio-economic interpretation”, just published in the magazine 'Scientific Reports' di Nature.
The research, conducted by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Ferrara (DEM-UNIFE), involved a multidisciplinary and dematerialized work group and was completed by analyzing a period of time of six weeks: two prior to the period of lockdown - useful for defining a reference standard with which to compare the data - and four affected by the measures to limit travel and close production and commercial activities imposed by the Government.
"Analysing, for the indicated period, the signals from the stations of the INGV National Seismic Network located in the central-northern sector of the country", explains Davide Piccinini, INGV researcher and first author of the study, "we were able to observe, in some areas, a sudden decrease in the seismic noise of anthropic origin which, however, did not show a homogeneous distribution over the territory, highlighting macroscopic differences between the various stations examined".
By cross-referencing the data on seismic noise provided by seismic stations with those extracted from the databases of the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) relating to residential and industrial density in Italy, the authors were able to correlate the lack of noise reduction in some areas with the presence, in those same areas, of important productive activities classified by the Government as essential industrial realities for the country, which, therefore, did not interrupt their activity even during the weeks of lockdown.
“Thanks to the elaboration of 2D maps of seismic noise distribution”, adds Marco Olivieri, INGV researcher and co-author of the article, “We have highlighted spatial 'regularities' in the discrepancies of this distribution: in some areas of the Po Valley, for example, there were groups of seismic stations that showed the same 'anomaly', indicating a significant phenomenon. We therefore made use of the contribution of our fellow economists to be able to interpret this figure in a more exhaustive, in-depth and quantitative way".
The innovative and interesting aspect of the research concerned, in fact, the possibility of making up for the lack of dynamic data on the effective mobility of citizens with the necessary detail, with the result of comparing the evolution of seismic noise levels over time and the relationship between this and the industrial and residential density of the area.
This comparison highlighted a correlation between the presence of production districts whose activity has been indicated as economically non-deferrable and, in those same areas, the failure to drastically reduce the seismic noise produced by human activities.
“It was not easy to combine such different information bases and scientific fields”, affirm Giorgio Prodi and Federico Frattini, professors of the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Ferrara and co-authors of the article. “It is rather unusual to find studies carried out by the collaboration of seismologists and economists in the literature. This study is the result of an intense collaboration, which intended and was able to identify some trends of the effective implementation of the lockdown in the regions of Northern Italy".
This work was conceived, created and concluded during the lockdown phase which forced all the Public Administration to work in smart working, and it was precisely from this situation that it benefited the most, allowing seven people located in six different cities to work and communicate easily, also thanks to the IT and data access infrastructures made available by INGV and the University of Ferrara.
Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73102-3
#ingv #unife #covid19 #seismic noise
Covid-19, how industrial density has influenced the reduction of seismic noise in Italy
An innovative socio-economic reading of the variations in seismic noise of anthropogenic origin in Italy during the weeks of lockdown made it possible to interpret more thoroughly the effectiveness of the restrictive measures
In some areas of Italy, strongly characterized by industrialization attributable to sectors considered strategic for the country, the Italian Government has recognized the need, as part of the restrictive measures imposed starting from 11 March 2020, not to interrupt some of those activities.
Consequently, the researchers found that the seismic noise of anthropogenic origin, although attenuated, did not undergo the significant reduction found, however, throughout the national territory.
This is the result of the study “COVID-19 lockdown and its latency in Northern Italy: seismic evidence and socio-economic interpretation”, just published in Nature's journal 'Scientific Reports'.
The research, conducted by a team of researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Ferrara (DEM-UNIFE), involved a multidisciplinary and dematerialized working group and was completed by analyzing a period of six weeks: two before the lockdown period - useful for defining a reference standard with which to compare the data - and four affected by the measures to limit travel and shutdown of production and commercial activities imposed by the Government.
“Analysing, for the period indicated, the signals coming from the stations of the INGV National Seismic Network located in the central-northern sector of the country”, explains Davide Piccinini, INGV researcher and first author of the study, “we were able to observe, in some areas, a sudden decrease in seismic noise of anthropogenic origin which, however, did not show a homogeneous distribution on the territory, highlighting macroscopic differences between the various stations examined”.
By correlating data of the seismic noise reduction provided by the seismic stations with those extracted from the database of the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) relating to the population and industrial density in Italy, the authors were able to correlate the lack of noise reduction in some areas with the presence, in those same areas, of important production activities classified by the Government as essential industrial realities for the country, which, therefore, did not stop their activities even during the weeks of lockdown.
“Thanks to the development of 2D maps of the distribution of seismic noise”, adds Marco Olivieri, researcher at INGV and co-author of the article, “we have highlighted spatial 'regularities' in the discrepancies of this distribution: in some areas of the Pianura Padana, for example, there were groups of seismic stations that showed the same 'anomaly', indicating a significant phenomenon. We therefore made use of the contribution of our economist colleagues to be able to interpret this data in a more exhaustive, in-depth and quantitative way”.
The innovative and interesting aspect of the research concerned, in fact, the possibility of making up for the lack of dynamic data on the effective mobility of citizens, with the result of the comparison between the evolution of seismic noise levels over time and the relationship between this and the industrial and housing density in the area.
This comparison highlighted a correlation between the presence of production districts whose activity was indicated as economically non-deferrable and, in those same areas, the lack of drastic reduction of the seismic noise produced by human activities.
“It was not easy to combine information and such different scientific fields”, say Giorgio Prodi and Federico Frattini, professors of the Department of Economics and Management of the University of Ferrara and co-authors of the article. “It is quite unusual to find in literature studies carried out by the collaboration of seismologists and economists. This study is the result of an intense collaboration, which intended and was able to identify some trends in the actual realization of the lockdown in the regions of Northern Italy”.
This work was conceived, carried out and concluded during the lockdown phase that forced all the Public Administration to work in smartworking, and it was precisely from this situation that it benefited the most, allowing seven people located in six different cities to work and communicate easily also thanks to the IT and data access infrastructures made available by INGV and the University of Ferrara.
Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73102-3
#ingv #unife #covid19 #seismicnoise
Figure 1 - Example of the noise trend observed at three seismic stations during the 2 weeks preceding (REFws in the first panel above) and for the 4 weeks following (W1-4) the lockdown measure (solid black line). The blue curve describes the amplitude of the observed noise and shows the day/night swings, while the red horizontal bars indicate the average of the noise observed during the working week. Pink vertical bands indicate weekend periods. It should be noted that in the case of the ST.DOSS station, located near a ski resort, the reduction in noise after the lockdown is sudden. In the case of IV.FIR located in the historic center of the city of Florence, the noise reduction observed is progressive and stabilizes already starting from the second week following the lockdown. The panel below shows the noise at the IV.RAVA station located in a rural area on the outskirts of Modena, dotted with the presence of industrial poles in which the average noise observed remains practically constant throughout the observation period.
(Figure 1 - Example of the noise trend observed at three seismic stations during the previous two weeks (REFws in the first panel at the top) and for the four following weeks (W1-4) to the lockdown measurement (continuous black line). The blue curve describes the amplitude of the observed noise and shows the day/night oscillations, while the red horizontal bars indicate the average of the noise observed during the working week. The vertical pink bands indicate the weekend periods. It should be noted that in the case of the ST.DOSS station, located near a ski resort, the noise reduction after the lockdown is sudden. In the case of IV.FIR located in the historic center of the city of Florence, the noise reduction observed is progressive and stabilizes as early as the second week following the lockdown. The bottom panel shows the noise at the IV.RAVA station located in a rural area on the outskirts of Modena, dotted with the presence of industrial poles where the average of the observed noise remains practically constant throughout the observation period.
Figure 2 - Maps of the observed seismic noise variation, expressed in terms of percentage reduction compared to the weeks preceding the lockdown. The triangles represent the locations of the 78 sites used to perform this study. It can be seen that in large areas of northern Italy the noise reduction during the first two weeks was very low, as indicated by the softer shades of the color scale which codifies the percentage variation.
(Figure 2 - Maps of the observed seismic noise variation, expressed in terms of percentage reduction compared to the weeks prior to the lockdown. The triangles represent the location of the 78 sites used to carry out this study. It is noted that in large areas of northern Italy the reduction of noise during the first two weeks was very low as indicated by the more tenuous shades of the color scale that encodes the percentage variation.