The Project “LAB_SAT”: A Laboratory for the Remote Monitoring of Environmental Safety in Built and Natural Assets

The effective management of civil infrastructure and natural assets represents a significant challenge for local public administrations, particularly due to the need for real-time monitoring strategies to mitigate hydrogeological and structural risks. To bridge the gap between advanced remote-sensing capabilities and municipal governance, this work presents the framework of the “LAB_SAT” Project (Agreement N. 2025-9-HB.0), a pilot initiative promoted by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under the “Innovation for Downstream Preparation for Public Administrations” (I4DP_PA) programme. The I4DP_PA programme was created with the aim of promoting the development of downstream services and applications and an active involvement of public administrations in their development and in the integration and use of satellite data within land management processes. The project is coordinated by the Municipality of Zagarolo as the lead Public Administration (PA), an Italian local authority in the Lazio Region, in partnership with the Italian Space Agency and in collaboration with two scientific partners, DICITA–Roma Tre University and the Fo.Cu.S.–Sapienza University. The main objective of the project is to establish a prototype of an operational laboratory dedicated to the assessment of environmental hazards and the monitoring of infrastructure, integrating multi-source data from satellite Earth Observation (EO), UAV platforms equipped with multispectral and LiDAR sensors, GNSS, and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS). To this end, the project adopts a multi-sensor approach aimed at developing advanced downstream services, including displacement monitoring through MT-InSAR, change-detection analyses based on multispectral indices. The project integrates EO data by leveraging satellite missions, including SAR observations from the COSMO-SkyMed constellation and multispectral and hyperspectral products from the Sentinel-2 and PRISMA missions. All EO datasets will be analysed within a synergistic framework alongside ground-based information and terrestrial surveys, including GNSS monitoring, drone-based photogrammetry, and Terrestrial Laser Scanning reflectance analyses. Through the application of data-fusion algorithms and dedicated up-scaling and down-scaling techniques, the system generates environmental georeferenced composite indicators derived from multiple sources, fully interoperable with GIS environments and useful for urban planning. To assess the stability of local infrastructure, identify risks affecting strategic assets (e.g. viaducts, historical buildings) and monitor potential impacts from natural hazards such as landslides or soil degradation, specific indicators are employed, each capturing distinct dimensions of infrastructure conditions. A further key component of the project is the development of a Web-GIS digital platform that builds upon the existing framework and reaches full operational capability as one of the project’s final outputs, alongside the creation of a prototype Digital Twin. The LAB_SAT project provides an integrated platform to support planning, civil protection, and mobility decision-making in small municipalities, aiming to serve as a replicable model across Italy. By demonstrating the operational use of satellite-derived information, it enhances the capacity of PA to adopt proactive, evidence-based digital tools and to integrate remote-sensing and non-destructive testing methodologies for the sustainable management of built and natural environments.

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the Project “LAB_SAT”, accepted and funded by the Italian Space Agency (Agreement N. 2025-9-HB.0) within the Innovation for Downstream Preparation - Public Administrations (I4DP_PA) program