This morning the first aerial reconnaissance has been carried out on the so-called Land of Fires.

Particularly, the aerial inspections involved the Phlegrean area and the Lower Province of Caserta.

ATR 42 MP aircrafts have been used; they are equipped with the most cutting-edge technology tools concerning environmental remote sensing, such as multispectral infrared sensors able to detect temperature anomalies.

The activities have been carried out under the agreement signed by the Corps of the Capitanerie di Porto and Regione Campania concerning the aerial remote sensing to fight environmental crimes.

Regional Minister of Environment Giovanni Romano stated: “Today the operational stage of environmental assessments and control of the lands affected by pollution resulting from illegal burning of wastes and dumping in the rivers has started. We had taken on that commitment with Local Authorities and now it is real”.

From the monitoring carried out today, we will be able to understand the exact areas where pollution is occurring in order to act promptly later and to give answers to citizens concerning environmental safety. As a matter of fact, the acquired data will be processed by the technical departments of the Coastguard to allow us to act on the detected sites immediately after with the operational units of the ARPAC for the preliminary inspections and to obtain details aimed at eliminating the pollution sources and for the land reclamation. The remote monitoring plays a key role to ensure the detection of environmental crimes and their repression, since the acquired data will be made available for the concerned authorities by the Coast Guard that is acting as Environmental Police. The on-the-spot inspections will allow us to reply effectively to fears and to requests, and to establish safety settings and environmental upgrading where really needed, avoiding scaremongering and generalisations”.

Captain Rosario De Meo of the Capitaneria di Porto of Naples said: “The data acquisition has already been used during the pilot stage in many inquiries of the Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Maria Capua Vetere and led to the seizure of several zootechnical businesses that were illegally disposing materials into the Volturno river. The system allows a quick identification of possible anomalies of the environmental characteristics of water and soil”.

President Stefano Caldoro concluded: “We are giving out a signal and meeting our commitments. We have to follow this road. Regione is playing its part”.