Knowledge for Sustainable Planning: UnivAQ’s Contribution to the GeoSciencesIR Research Infrastructure

Concepts such as environmental sustainability, sustainability of territorial changes, and achievement of European objectives have been permeating the political agenda at various levels, from the larger level to local planning. As for the latter, many funds disbursed are often linked to achieving objectives that require up-to-date knowledge systems and useful monitoring platforms. Therefore, this requires elaborating comprehensive and exhaustive cognitive frameworks capable of simultaneously analyzing different issues and diagnosing how the identified trends manifest themselves and influence a given territory’s social, economic, and environmental development. The GeosciencesIR infrastructure is grafted onto this line of research, which aims to improve geological knowledge of the fragile national territory and to protect and improve soil resources. The proposed work aims to highlight Univaq Operative Unit’s contribution to achieving this last important goal. In particular, the article shows how this component of the infrastructure is implemented and what issues are addressed so that administrations, both at the regional and local levels, have a set of data and indicators that allow them to support the process of preparing plans and also any related environmental assessment procedures.