Fiber-Optic Sensing for Geological, Geophysical and Environmental Applications University of Pisa

Overview

Fiber-optic sensing has rapidly emerged as a transformative technology for monitoring and understanding different geological, geophysical, and environmental processes. By exploiting existing telecommunication infrastructure or purpose-built cables, distributed fiber-optic sensing, such as Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS), and Distributed Strain Sensing (DSS), enable high-resolution measurements across large spatial and temporal scales. These approaches open new perspectives in environmental monitoring, natural hazard assessment, and geophysical exploration by providing datasets characterized by a spatial and temporal resolution that would be otherwise impossible to obtain with conventional instruments.

In recent years, fiber-optic sensing has been successfully applied across a wide range of geoscience and engineering disciplines. These applications include tracking seismicity with unprecedented spatial coverage, imaging subsurface structures, monitoring permafrost dynamics, detecting landslides, quantifying groundwater flow, and assessing the stability of civil infrastructures. Beyond natural environments, fiber-optic networks have also been used to monitor urban noise generated by vehicles and pedestrians, offering new perspectives on urban dynamics and anthropogenic activity.

Thanks to its versatility, scalability, and ability to exploit existing telecommunication cables, fiber-optic sensing is rapidly becoming a transformative research tool in the geosciences. Its relevance is particularly pronounced in the context of the ongoing energy transition, where there is a growing need for advanced monitoring technologies to ensure the safe and sustainable development of renewable energy systems, subsurface storage facilities, and carbon capture and sequestration projects. As such, fiber-optic sensing is not only opening new scientific frontiers but also providing critical insights to address some of the most pressing environmental and societal challenges of our time.

The Summer School will be activated with at least 8 students. The maximum number of participants is set to 25 students.

The Summer School will be held on campus, in Pisa, at Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, via Santa Maria, 53.

The program will be activated also in distance learning mode (TEAMS platform).