Report of activities 2012-2015

This is the third volume on the activities carried out at the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment (IREA) over the last four years. Its publication aims to raise awareness of an Institute that, thanks to the existing expertise, its multidisciplinary and scientific vitality, has grown a lot, not only numerically, in the 15 years since its foundation, becoming a point of reference within the research areas in which it operates, and one of the excellence Institutes of CNR, as recently confirmed by the last evaluation process started in November 2015. The purpose of the volume is to promote and disseminate the acquired scientific knowledge also outside the academic/scientific world, in order to intrigue and motivate non-experts with respect to concepts that are often considered difficult to understand, if not far from everyday reality. By reading the following pages one can capture the high social impact, as well as the scientific one, of the research activities carried out at IREA, which help to give answers to very important issues in relation to major challenges in areas ranging from the monitoring of environment and territory, safety, protection of strategic infrastructure, development of technologies for the sustainable management and protection of cultural heritage, till to agribusiness, healthcare and health.