The basilica of Santa Croce in Lecce is a baroque church internationally well known; the starting point for this research was the evidence that some structures of the façade are more damaged and present signs of subsidence. The possible causes of damages can be: i) buried structures or subsurface anomalies; ii) not suitable microclimatic conditions; iii) deposition of pollutants. In order to study the first cause of damage geophysical survey, using groundpenetrating radar (GPR) was performed. This allow to obtain information on buried structures or to locate and identify anomalies related to a restoration intervention carried out in the 80s.

The SAGAcE (Sistema Avanzato di MonitoraGgio AmbiEntale- ADVANCED ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM) project which has as its main objective the environmental monitoring of water, air and soil. To know the state of the environment with objective data, it is advisable to create detection systems located throughout the territory, which periodically acquire a series of specific parameters for the main environmental matrices (air, water and soil), or which allow, if necessary, a punctual detection, through specific missions, of the quantity of pollutants in large areas and with low costs. With these systems it is possible to define the safety conditions of the areas in question, controlling and preventing the pollution factors in order to comply with current regulations. The state of the environment has an important influence on the state of conservation of archaeological and monumental assets. In this work some of the results of the project are presented.

An in-depth analysis of some areas in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine city of Hierapolis of Phrygia has been carried out using high resolution geophysical methods integrated to the archaeological surveys in order to detect evidence of archaeological features buried under colluvial deposits and to acquire new data of some sectors of the urban area. In particular, three areas were investigated in the northern, central and southern sectors of the ancient city: i) the Northern Agora; ii) the Sanctuary of Apollo; iii) some insulae with houses in the central and southern sectors of the city. Geophysical data were collected in these areas of interest using different surveying methodologies, during different campaigns of activity of the Italian Archaeological Mission: Electrical Resistivity Tomography, Ground Penetrating Radar, Seismic Refraction Tomography, Magnetometry and GEM. All data collected were integrated in the digital archaeological map of Hierapolis, linked to a Geographic Information System (GIS), in order to contextualize the identified archaeological features in the ancient urban plan. In some cases, geophysical measurements were verified during subsequent archaeological excavations. In this paper some results related to the Temple of Apollo are presented.

Detection, and classification of cracks in buildings are vital to prevent damage and their sudden collapse. This is particularly important to preserve our cultural heritage and save human life. Nowadays, trained operators perform these operations. Consequently, the number of buildings under monitoring is too low and costs are high. Besides the fact that the accuracy and as a consequence the reliability of the inspection results depend on the human operator expertise. For this reason, literature has proposed the implementation of distributed monitoring systems that automatically detect and classify cracks. In this paper, a critical overview of the existent systems and research activities is presented by stressing the metrological challenges.

The monitoring of the concentration of harmful air pollutants is mandatory to prevent the deterioration of cultural heritage and, at the same time, safeguard the health of visitors and workers. The present study is focused on the determination of the concentration of specific air pollutants (nitrogen dioxide and aromatic hydrocarbons, precisely benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) in the Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine dei Miracoli (Saronno, Italy) by passive air sampling. The results of this monitoring suggest that indoor concentration of NO2 and benzene are always higher than outdoor ones. Further investigations should be performed to assess the effective concentrations to which, not only the works of art, but also people are exposed.