The term “contaminated site” refers to all those areas in which, following previous or current human activities, it is detected an alteration of the qualitative characteristics of soil, subsoil and groundwater that pose a risk to human health.

The Italian legislation on remediation of contaminated sites, introduced by the Italian Decree D.M. 471/99, has been profoundly amended by the Legislative Decree no. 152/06 and subsequent amendments “Environmental Regulations” that in the Part IV, Chapter V tiled “Contaminated sites restoration”, regulates the remediation and environmental restoration of contaminated sites, and defines the procedures and criteria for operations aimed at the elimination of pollution sources and in any case to reduce concentrations of pollutants, in harmony with the principles and Community rules.

CRISP also conducts research in this area, particularly with regard to new methods (e.g. portable XRF and Gamma Ray spectrometry, geophysics, etc.) for the detection, characterization and mapping and remediation of polluted sites at the detailed scale.