Massimiliano Lega

Massimiliano Lega
Parthenope University of Naples | Università Parthenope · Department of Engineering

About

70
Publications
24,131
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,128
Citations
Additional affiliations
March 2006 - present
Parthenope University of Naples
Position
  • Professor of Sanitary Environmental Engineering, Director of Environmental Forensic Engineering Laboratory

Publications

Publications (70)
Article
Full-text available
Detecting and managing coastal water pollution is crucial for preserving ecological functions and ecosystem services. However, it is challenging due to the complex nature of the coastal environment, large spatio-temporal scales, and high operational costs. To improve situational awareness, this study used a top-down approach, integrating multi-spec...
Article
Full-text available
Assessing the quality of a hospital wastewater treatment process and plant is essential, especially if the presence of chemical and biological toxic compounds is considered. There is less literature on hospital wastewater treatment in developing countries because of a lack of managerial awareness and stakeholder cooperation, accompanied by the limi...
Article
Full-text available
Lake Avernus is a volcanic lake located in southern Italy. Since ancient times, it has inspired numerous myths and legends due to the occurrence of singular phenomena, such as coloring events. Only recently has an explanation been found for them, i.e., the recurring color change over time is due to the alternation of cyanobacterial blooms that are...
Article
In the context of environmental monitoring studies, the complex dynamics of environmental systems, constrained by the distribution, intensity and interaction of multiple sources, limits the ability to detect pollution phenomena and to identify their sources. The deployment of multidisciplinary, multilevel and multi-factorial strategies supports the...
Article
Full-text available
Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous photosynthetic microorganisms considered as important contributors to the formation of Earth’s atmosphere and to the process of nitrogen fixation. However, they are also frequently associated with toxic blooms, named cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). This paper reports on an unusual out-of-season cyanoHAB...
Article
Fast detection of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins is achieved using a Fast Detection Strategy (FDS). Only 24 h are needed to unravel the presence of cyanobacteria and related cyanotoxins in water samples and in an organic matrix, such as bivalve extracts. FDS combines remote/proximal sensing techniques with analytical/ bioinformatics analyses. Sampli...
Article
Controversies on food delivery services environmental impacts have been sparked due to the growth of this economic sector. This study focuses on the environmental impacts generated by packaging waste related to urban food delivery services. In particular, the Python based web-crawling and sample survey methods are used for big data mining, and LCA-...
Article
Multiple recreational seawater pollution episodes affected the coasts of Campania region (Southern Italy) during the 2019 summer season (May through September). The region’s population detected evidence of this pollution by a change in the water colour (to green–brown). This pollution was only partially revealed by conventional monitoring and stand...
Article
Full-text available
The design of a sustainable future for cities is of paramount importance, considering both the need of a societal transition and the fact that nearly half of the world's population is living within growing urban areas. While this process is generally driven the development of technological and socioeconomic solutions, this work opted for a differen...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Reuse and recycling of materials constitute one of the bases of circular economy. In the case of municipal solid waste, the message is generally conveyed through information campaigns, that focus on correct choice related to materials separation. However, this option doesn’t promote a mind shift, which should consider to promote a vision of waste a...
Article
Full-text available
This paper aims at discussing the importance of environmental factors in the stability of communities at local scale. Two case studies, referred to two medieval monastic communities are chosen as historical examples, under low-carbon conditions, to show the effects of the interplay between a lack of Community Based Adaptation (CBA) and difficult or...
Article
Full-text available
Slums represent a sort of black box within the urban environment, generating multiple impacts, that are often acknowledged, but forgotten by urban planners and policy-makers when envisioning the future of cities, due to the dimension of social exclusion in which slum dwellers live. These criticalities pose a further threat to urban sustainability....
Article
Full-text available
The huge amount of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated in the world, as well as the adverse impacts on resources depletion, environmental contamination and human health are problems that need to be promptly, effectively and equitably addressed. Among the areas affected by management misconduct and illicit interests, the Campania region represents...
Article
Full-text available
Improper management of hospital waste leads to serious health and environmental issues, particularly in the case of developing countries, where, often, applied technologies are obsolete and there is a lack of compliance with respect to international best practices. The present study is designed to assess the environmental impacts of hospital waste...
Article
Suitable planning options for urban infrastructures should be urgently developed to reduce their environmental impact, while preserving their efficiency. In the case of urban ports, air quality still represents a major problem, which should be addressed through appropriate implementation of cleaner and sustainable solutions. Consequently, within sh...
Article
Full-text available
A multi-agent modeling method is applied here to model the coupled environmental impact and management response scenarios in relation to the impact of multiple wastewater discharges at river basin scale. Based on the Netlogo modeling platform, the cumulative impact of water pollution, which was represented here by COD values, is esteemed using Huai...
Article
The correlation between stressors and bioindicators can provide evidence of environmental status both as an indication and monitoring tool, and in the identification of the pollutant source. Cyanobacteria possess several hallmark traits of good bioindicators: physiological tolerances or ecological ranges of specific cyanobacterial species can diffe...
Article
Fast Detection Strategy for Cyanobacterial blooms and associated Cyanotoxins (FDSCC) is a multidisciplinary strategy that allows early detection, in 24 man-hours, of cyanobacteria and related cyanotoxins in water and bivalve samples. This approach combines the advantages of remote/proximal sensing with those of analytical/bioinformatics analyses, n...
Preprint
Full-text available
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have a great potential to support search tasks in unstructured environments. Small, lightweight, low speed and agile UAVs, such as multi-rotors platforms can incorporate many kinds of sensors that are suitable for detecting object of interests in cluttered outdoor areas. However, due to their limited endurance, moder...
Article
In any process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) a key role is played by the action of monitoring. Indeed, the acquisition of real field data provides the evidence of the environmental status and identifies hazards and sources of pollution. When environmental pollution is revealed, it is important to identify the source following the source-...
Article
Full-text available
Climate conditions play a crucial role in the survival of mountain communities, whose survival already critically depends on socioeconomic factors. In the case of montane areas that are prone to natural hazards, such as alpine slope failure and debris flows, climatic factors exert a major influence that should be considered when creating appropriat...
Article
Full-text available
A swarm of autonomous drones with self-coordination and environment adaptation can offer a robust, scalable and flexible manner to localize objects in an unexplored, dangerous or unstructured environment. We design a novel coordination algorithm combining three biologically inspired processes: stigmergy, flocking and evolution. Stigmergy, a form of...
Article
Full-text available
The quality of life, particularly in the urban environment, becomes degraded, due to a cumulative effect of multiple exposition to pollutants. A special case is represented by urban ports, due to the fact that multiple impacts are superimposed. Moreover, being the port connected to the surrounding urban context, the potential negative impacts are m...
Article
The Earth’s critical zone is vulnerable to atmospheric aerosol pollution due to aerosol impacts on cloud microphysics, precipitation characteristics, soil erosion, and the subsequent interactions of the soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer of water, energy and aerosols. This review explains the individual and inter-connected processes of aerosol loa...
Article
Pollution monitoring in the urban environment is an issue of paramount importance both for public health and for the environment, and in relation to the need of finding adequate solutions towards a more sustainable lifestyle. This is particularly true in the case of areas where specific activities or intense emissions occur. This is the case, for e...
Article
Full-text available
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have a great potential to support search tasks in unstructured environments. Small, lightweight, low speed and agile UAVs, such as multirotors platforms can incorporate many kinds of sensors that are suitable for detecting object of interests in cluttered outdoor areas. However, due to their limited endurance, modera...
Article
This paper describes an approach to detect and investigate the main characteristics of a solid waste landfill through the integration of geological, geographical and geophysical methods. In particular, a multi-temporal analysis of the landfill morphological evolution was carried out using aerial and satellite photos, since there were no geological...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The hierarchical use of remotely-sensed imagery from satellites, and then proximally-sensed imagery from helicopter sand drones, can provide a range of spatial and temporal coverage that supports water quality monitoring of complex pollution scenarios. Methods: The study used hierarchical satellite-, helicopter-, and drone-acquired ther...
Article
Full-text available
The challenges of in-situ monitoring of contaminated landscapes include the rapid assessment of large areas for potential pollutants and their potential health risk due to volatilization. This research tested in a laboratory setting if thermal infrared remote sensing can discriminate between areas with volatilizing chemicals. Five pollutants of met...
Article
Full-text available
This paper analyses the water quality characteristics of a remote and pristine basin, the Gallina small catchment, located in the Piemonte Region (NW Italy). In particular, the ion content of river water and precipitation are assessed for two distinct periods (October-December of years 1992 and 2011). These time frames are characterized by a change...
Article
Full-text available
Cyanobacterial blooms (CBs) are generally triggered by eutrophic conditions due to anthropogenic nutrient inputs to local waters (wastewater or contaminated waters). During the bloom, some species produce toxic secondary metabolites (cyanotoxins) that are dangerous for humans and animals. Here, a multidisciplinary strategy for an early detection an...
Article
Safety and security engineering involve several and complex multidisciplinary activities aimed to preserve people and the environment from hazards and risks. These concepts that were born as "umbrella" terms for the laws, rules; process design is generally applied only for workplaces or related to the employees; indeed, the scenario of related appl...
Article
Full-text available
Coastal regions contaminated by polluted river water leaving inland river basins can be difficult to monitor due to their size and remoteness, but it is important to quantify the impact of such pollution to manage for coastal sustainability. In this research, we demonstrate how river plumes can be monitored and analysed by a combination of remote s...
Article
Enforcement of environmental regulation is a persistent challenge and timely detection of the violations is key to holding the violators accountable. The use of remote sensing data is becoming an effective practice in the fight against environmental crimes. In this work, a novel and effective approach for the detection of potentially hazardous catt...
Article
Full-text available
The use of remote-sensing images is becoming common practice in the fight against environmental crimes. However, the challenge of exploiting the complementary infor- mation provided by radar and optical data, and by more conventional sources encoded in geographic information systems, is still open. In this work, we propose a new workflow for the de...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we propose a GIS-based methodology, using optical and SAR remote sensing data, together with more conventional sources, for the detection of small cattle breeding areas, potentially responsible of hazardous littering. This specific environmental problem is very relevant for the Caserta area, in southern Italy, where many small buffalo...
Data
In this work the authors propose a GIS-based methodology, using optical and SAR remote sensing data, together with more conventional sources, for the detection of small cattle breeding areas, potentially responsible of hazardous littering. This specific environmental problem is very relevant for the Caserta area, in southern Italy, where many small...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Environmental violation is an illegal act that harms the environment or endangers public health, offending federal, state or local laws. When environmental violation is excessive or the violator is a repeat offender, it evolves into environmental crime. Environmental crime is a relatively new concept and is ever changing. To guarantee the safety an...
Article
Full-text available
Being able to identify the environmental crimes and the guilty parties is central to police investigations, and new technologies enable the authorities to do this faster and more accurately than ever before. In recent years, our research team has introduced the use of a range of aerial platforms and an innovative application of thermography to dete...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Environmental violation is an illegal act that harms the environment or endangers public health, offending federal, state or local laws. When the environmental violation is excessive or the violator is a repeat offender, it evolves into environmental crime. Environmental crime is a relatively new concept and is ever changing. To guarantee the safet...
Conference Paper
In the region of Campania in south-west Italy there is growing evidence, including a World Health Organization (WHO) study of the region, that the accumulation of waste, illegal and legal, urban and industrial, has contaminated soil, water, and the air with a range of toxic pollutants including dioxins. An effective environmental monitoring system...
Article
Full-text available
IDES – Intelligent Data Extraction System – is the name of a new project, founded by Campania Regional Government (Italy) and developed by the CIRA – Italian Aerospace Research Centre that aims at implementing an advanced tool to support Government Bodies in the discovery and localization of environmental criticalities. In detail, this project will...
Article
Full-text available
The feasibility of the surface water contamination monitoring by IR thermography is based on three different key points: (a) the thermal sensors able to measure the thermal energy radiating from water and land surfaces with high sensitivity and accuracy; (b) the thermal gradient existing between land/water surfaces and within these; (c) the renderi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Starting from the first device (1880) used to detect vessels and avoid ships collisions in fog and for early detection of bombers direction of arrival (WW1 and WW2), acoustic antenna are now returning of big interest for noise source detection and localization. The latest application of such device, based on phased array of microphones and advanced...
Article
This study introduces new methods and applications for detecting, evaluating, and tracking signs of environmental contamination using a variety of advanced aerial platforms, a suite of advanced sensors, and new detection software. Aerial platform examples include: manned aircraft and helicopters, unmanned fixed wing aircraft (UAV), and unmanned rot...
Article
Full-text available
Every year in Italy, hundreds of illegal dumping activities are detected but it is believed that there could be up to 10 times more, where the majority go undetected and are never penalized. New administrative measures against illegal dumping need to be developed that involve patrolling for illegal dump sites and dumping activities, and developing...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Landfill sites are the simplest and most common ways to eliminate urban solid waste, although large amounts of pollutants are introduced into the environment, such us dust, gas, soluble and insoluble substances. Both the digital model of the landfill surface and the three-dimensional meshing of the domain, where the dispersion phenomena is analyzed...
Article
The feasibility of the surface water contamination monitoring by IR thermography is based on three different key points: (a) the thermal sensors able to measure the thermal energy radiating from water and land surfaces with high sensitivity and accuracy; (b) the thermal gradient existing between land/water surfaces and within these; (c) the renderi...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The Solid Waste Landfilling (SWL) holds a high risk of fire emergencies and represents hazards to people and to the environment mainly due to sub-products, odors and volatile and non-volatile compounds. In this paper we introduce a new integrated system based on a sensors array carried by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – Lighter Than Air (UAV-LTA; e.g...
Conference Paper
The paper presents some activities concerning results and new initiatives on the UAV theme in progress at the Department of Aeronautical Engineering (DPA) of University of Naples During last five years the authors’ research group gained experience in the realization of a small advanced composite unmanned aircraft named Federica. Moreover DPA is inv...
Conference Paper
This paper will introduce the activities in progress at the Department of Aeronautical Engineering of University of Naples FEDERICO II concerning the analysis of aspects of safety systems, in term of risk assessment criteria and overall safety objective for civil UAVs. There are several applications where the use of Civil UAVs are highly preferable...
Article
Full-text available
Being able to identify crime/guilty relationship is central to police investigation and new technologies enable authorities to do this faster and more accurately than ever before. In recent years, our research team has introduced the use of a range of aerial platforms and an innovative application of thermography to detect several illegal activitie...

Network

Cited By