CRISP produces research in the following domains:

(i) Characterization of soil, hydropedology, geomineralogy and micromorphology features of the Earth Critical Zone;

(ii) multi-scale characterization and functional analysis of the ECZ system;

(iii) application of geospatial inference models to the ECZ system;

(iv) development of environmental modeling of the ECZ (e.g. hydrological, crops growth, slope stability and pollutant dispersion models);

(v) implementation of web based Spatial Decision Support Systems (S-DSS);

(vi) creation of thematic maps for specific applications (e.g. Land Evaluation studies, groundwater vulnerability).

Within these research activities, CRISP developes and offers S-DSS systems for specific users and different purposes: i) thematic applications including soil, viticultural zoning, nitrate soil vulnerability, soil erosion; ii) evaluate the impact of different agro-environmental scenarios, both for crop yields and environment (e.g. leaching rate of nitrates or other pollutants), through the use of dynamic simulation modeling applications.

In developing decision support systems for landscape-environmental management, special attention is paid to the protection of soil and land toward degradation processes, such as erosion, loss of organic matter, soil consumption and compaction, loss of biodiversity, landslides, point and diffuse contamination, loss of soil ecosystem services and functions. In doing all above, CRISP aims to reconcile primary productivity and sustainable management of environmental resources.

Our spatial decision support systems are developed through the use of smart computing platforms (geospatial cyberinfrastructures) based on high-quality databases (raster and vector data), implemented with dynamic modeling applications and designed to help the users to make decisions concerning both the landscape and farm management scales. These systems are used through user-friendly interfaces, and the scales of application may vary according to the available databases, from the supranational (EU databases) to the catchment level (eg. Catchment area) up to the detail scale (farm).

CRISP mission aims both to overcome current technical and scientific fragmentation in which regolith, soil, plant and atmosphere are separate compartments, and fully implement the new paradigm of the Earth Critical Zone intended as the basis for the characterization, the study of processes, the functional analysis and the management of terrestrial ecosystems.