It was the “Strozzi” classroom of theUniversity of the Studies of Florence to host the student award ceremony Master’s degree course in Geoengineering entitled to Silvano Meroithe former director of the Civil Protection of the Aosta Valley passed away in March 2023.
The winner, selected through a public tender, for the 2023-2024 academic year was a young Kenyan geologist engineer, Binal Wanabibia.
Present in the Tuscan capital were, among others, the Head of the National Civil Protection Department Fabrizio Curcio and Elvezio Gallantspillar of the national civil protection system and dear friend of Silvano.
Together with them, the University Department directors, professors and managers of regional and municipal civil protections, representatives of the voluntary sector, colleagues and friends who with the family they remembered Meroi. The manager participated on behalf of the Civil Protection and Fire Brigade Department of the Aosta Valley Sara Maria Rattodeputy of the Head of Regional Civil Protection and head of the Functional and Planning Centre.
In addition to having been the director of the Civil Protection in Valle d’Aosta for years and having brought his experience and expertise throughout the national territory, Meroi was then director ofOffice Hydrogeological and Anthropic Risks of the Department of Civil Protection from 2012 to 2015. In those years he was also the institutional contact for the Center of Competence for Civil Protection of the University of Florence.
The prize has been established to celebrate his commitment not only in risk forecasting and prevention and emergency support activities, but also extended to scientific and technological innovation aspects.
According to what the professor recalled Nicholas Casaglihead of the Competence Center of the University of Florence, with Meroi the structure of the University of Florence has followed many emergency situations, including the shipwreck of the Costa Concordiathe great landslide phenomena that occurred in those years in Lombardy, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, Basilicata and Sicily, the tornado of San Martino Spino, the protection of the cultural heritage of Agrigento, Volterra and the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, but also the mysterious case of fires “spontaneous” of Caroniathe stability of temporary housing modules in the areas hit by the L’Aquila earthquake.
Experiences that led to identifying together innovative solutions for land monitoring and investigations and in the underwater environment, which have also been the subject of scientific publications and patents.
