Since its constitution, Centro ISIDE has considered the research as a point strongly characterizing of the own business. The engagement and efforts in the experimentations in the course of the years have allowed to obtain in 2004 acknowledgment of research laboratory qualified by MIUR (Italian Ministry of University and Research).

Research activities are begun with the GES.TU.R.I. project, regarding the environmental monitoring with the aim to manage and protect water resources. The research topics have regarded: local meteorological monitoring, distributed models of hydrology, the erosion and the sedimentation in the river basins, innovative methods of irrigation and environmental monitoring, models for integrated management of water resources and software to support users to make a choice.

The research subjects developed during the GES.TU.R.I project have been taken up again and improved with the approval of AQUATEC project, in which Centro ISIDE has continued its engagement in the development of instruments and innovative methodological approaches for integrated and sustainable management of water resources. The main activities regard:

• creation of methodologies for the parametric identification of the territorial characteristics (soil, climate, vegetation, etc.) fundamental for quantitative and qualitative appraisals about the elements of the hydrological budget, the solid transport, the sediment production and the quality of superficial waters;
• the realization of guidelines regarding the techniques for data survey (satellite images, GPS, echo sounder for bathymetric relieves, multi-parametric probes and systems for the sampling and the analysis of waters and sediments, weir for the measure of water and sediment flow, etc.) and the choice of the instrumentations either for quantitative and qualitative monitoring of drainage basins.

Other project in which Centro ISIDE has invested own energies is T.E.C.S.A.S., finalized to the development of technologies and competences for the improvement of the conditions of public security and for the safeguard and the protection of civil works of strategic interest and constructions with public or historical and cultural interest.

In particular, the research has allowed to develop a control system that, starting from the technologies, the instrumentations and the tele-control equipment already available, concurs to obtain innovative functionalities for supervisory, control and data acquisition using S.C.A.D.A. systems.

The experience matured in the course of the years, the availability of ideal laboratory either for the development of the research topics in the environmental field and for the results verification in situ (the drainage basin of Alento River and the reservoir of Piano della Rocca) and the scientific and technological cooperation with companies and leader research organizations, make Centro ISIDE the ideal subject for the planning, the realization and the coordination of research activities and scientific and technological advising in the field of the environmental monitoring.