Ruggiero Quarto

• University of Bari Aldo Moro

Precision Agriculture (PA) requires accurate spatial and temporal information of soil properties at a very fine scale. Traditional soil characterization methods are time consuming, laborious and invasive and do not allow long-term repeatability of measurements. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) appears to be a particularly suitable methodology for cha...

The paper describes a geostatistical approach for combining multi-source data with different support for field delineation into homogeneous soil zones. It takes into account change of support explicitly given the critical influence of spatial resolution on the statistical characteristics of estimates. Geophysical and hyperspectral data were used in...

Xylella fastidiosa subsp. pauca (Xfp) is one of the most dangerous plant pathogens in the world. Identified in 2013 in olive trees in south–eastern Italy, it is spreading to the Mediterranean countries. The bacterium is transmitted by insects that feed on sap, and causes rapid wilting in olive trees. The paper explores the use of Unmanned Aerial Ve...

Xylella fastidiosa is one of the most destructive plant pathogenic bacteria worldwide, affecting more than 500 plant species. In Apulia region (southeastern Italy), X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca (Xfp) is responsible for a severe disease, the olive quick decline syndrome (OQDS), spreading epidemically and with dramatic impact on the agriculture, the la...

The paper proposes a geostatistical framework to solve the issues of heterogeneous support for spatial estimation. Apparent soil electrical conductivity (ECa) was measured in a field cropped with San Marzano tomato using a multiple frequency electromagnetic profiler with six operating frequencies. Mixed support kriging (MSK) was used to estimate EC...

Application of Precision Agriculture requires an accurate assessment of fine-resolution spatial variation. At present, advances in proximal sensing and spatial data analysis are available to characterize soil systems and detect changes in physical or chemical properties useful to understand and manage the variation within fields in a site-specific...

To assess spatial variability at the very fine scale required by Precision Agriculture, different proximal and remote sensors have been used. They provide large amounts and different types of data which need to be combined. An integrated approach, using multivariate geostatistical data-fusion techniques and multi-source geophysical sensor data to d...

The paper proposes a geostatistical framework to solve the issues of heterogeneous support for spatial estimation. Apparent soil electrical conductivity (EC a ) was measured in a field cropped with San Marzano tomato using a multiple frequency electromagnetic profiler with 6 operating frequencies. Mixed support kriging was used to estimate EC a tak...

Petrosalic horizon (cemented by soluble salts) is identified as a root-restricting layer in the arid and semi-arid regions. The knowledge of the variability of cemented layers within the soil profiles provides valuable information to decision-makers for agricultural and/or engineering activities. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential o...

From the perspective of Precision Agriculture, the delineation of management zones in agricultural fields to optimise the use of soil and water resources and increase farmer's profitability requires knowledge of fine-scale variability. The objective of this paper is to delineate management zones in terms of yield performance verifying the suitabili...

Over the last few years high-resolution geophysical techniques, in particular ground-penetrating radar (GPR), have been used in agricultural applications for assessing soil water content variation in a non-invasive way. However, the wide use of GPR is greatly limited by the data processing complexity. In this paper, a quantitative analysis of GPR d...

Successful implementation of site-specific irrigation requires an understanding of within-field-variability of soil parameters. These parameters can be estimated by direct sampling or by indirect surveying using geophysical data. The geophysical outputs are quite sensitive to soil water content; therefore, they can be used as covariates in soil wat...

We present the first results of a geophysical survey carried out on the northeastern Sicily, in an area characterized by a complex structural setting and a significant seismic activity. In the area, 814 gravimetric stations were surveyed together with 27 deep electrical and MT soundings. The gravimetric data were corrected for the topographic effec...

RIASSUNTO Sull!infiltrazione di acqua in calcareniti insature. In Puglia e Basilicata (Sud Italia) affiorano estesi depositi calcarenitici, a grana variabile da fine a grossa, appartenenti alla formazione della Calcarenite di Gravina (Pliocene-Pleistocene inferiore), depositi che fanno parte dei sistemi idrogeologici superficiali Apulo e Lucano. Si...

In this paper, we present and discuss the results of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) study carried out in an area of southern Italy where a karst cave with prehistoric remains was found. The aim of the study involved the imaging of the subsurface stratigraphy, both inside and outside the cave, in order to assist archaeologists in an excavation pro...

We present the results of a geophysical survey carried out from the 1996 to 2000 on the north-eastern Sicily deep structures. The area is part of the Calabrian arc, a prominent arc-shaped structure of the Mediterranean orogenic belt. The modern structural setting of the region results from the collisional tectonics affecting the area since the Serr...

To test the effectiveness of the SP method and its limits when applied to cavity detection, a systematic field study was carried out surveying many different sites in southern Italy where mapped air-filled cavities existed. The test sites were resurveyed over short and long time spans to evaluate the consistency and reproducibility of the results....

A multimethodological geophysical survey was performed in the north-western part of the Gargano promontory to study the geological structural setting and the underground fluid flow characteristics. The area has a complex tectonics with some magmatic outcrops and shallow low-enthalpy waters. Electrical, seismic reflection, gravimetric and magnetic s...

A geophysical survey has been carried out in the Neolithic site of Parco San Nicola near Bari, Southern Italy. Till now archaeological excavation have evidenced a little settlement constituded of a few hut with a sunken base embedded in clayey deposits covering karst limestones. The aim of this survey was the reconstruction of the ancient physical...

Electrical and magnetotelluric surveys have been performed on the Apulian carbonate platform to study the deep coastal karst aquifer. The surveys extend to a depth of about 7 km, to give a complete hydrogeological understanding of the area. The problems of interpreting regional geophysical data in highly heterogeneous carbonate rocks are extensivel...

Systematic self-potential exploration of large areas proved to be effective in geothermal research. In this field, SP measurements directly depend on the fluid flow through thermoelectric and electrokinetic phenomena. Thus, due to its low prospecting costs, a preliminary geophysical survey with the SP method can be particularly useful in new areas...

The structural pattern of the basement of the Mt. Etna volcano is studied by combining results from new gravity and deep dipole geoelectric field data. At first, the Bouguer map was separated into regional and residual contour maps by a 50 km cut-off wavelength. Then, by the geoelectric interpretation, N-S and E-W resistivity cross-sections were el...

The quantitative analysis of 650 shallow Schlumberger geoelectric soundings, previously carried out for hydrogeological purposes, is performed in order to gain further insight into the structural setting of the Mt. Etna volcanic complex. Due to the reduced penetration depth and to the location of the centres of the available soundings, the investig...

In this paper we present the results of a self-potential survey carried out in a coastal area of southern Italy where an upward water flow from an aquifer was manifested by the presence of some springs.The observed anomalies, of electrokinetic origin, have been interpreted in terms of an underground water movement on the basis of a comparison with...

A method to evaluate the exploitation capacity of economically interesting rock bodies is presented. The method is based essentially on the use of multidisciplinary studies to point out the overall features of the rock bodies and particular geophysical prospecting methodologies to evaluate the shape and depth of the exploitable parts. -English summ...

Presents the results of a geological and geophysical survey carried out in a coastal area of Apulia, NW of Taranto, where an upward water flow (3500lt/s as a mean) is manifested by the presence of 20 exsurgences, as a whole called Tara spring. The results of the survey gave information on the geological features and indicated a great complexity in...

The present paper deals with the application of the dipole sounding method in the Travale geothermal area (Tuscany) and is a part of a wider research addressed to a systematic study of the exploring power of the method. It constitutes a first attempt for the realization of an efficacious prospecting technique in areas of geothermal interest. For th...

Riassunto L'ambiente carsico, sviluppato in tutta l'area mediterranea, presenta spesso sia interessi archeologici che speleologici. A causa della eterogeneità litologica connessa con questi ambienti, indagini con metodi geofisici presentano notevoli difficoltà, in particolare quando i targets sono profondi. In questo lavoro vengono presentati i ris...