The Earth Critical Zone (ECZ) or Critical Zone includes the area between the top of the vegetation to the water table. In ECZ occur many complex interactions involving rock, soil, water, air and living organisms.
Therefore, the analysis of the ECZ requires an integrated, multidisciplinary and multiscale approach which – if properly targeted – promises to improve our ability to predict and plan the changes and to address several crucial society issues, such as food safety and human health, economic prosperity, environmental quality and sustainable development.

In particular, at CRISP we study several important physical, chemical and biological processes at various spatial and temporal scales, influencing the mass and energy exchanges necessary for the biomass production, the nutrients and contaminants biogeochemical cycles and for water storage.

CRISP focuses its studies on: i) soil spatial analysis and ii) modeling of processes that operate within the soil and at the interface with the vegetation, rock and groundwater.