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On May 25, 2016, an artificial riverbank of the Arno River collapsed just upstream from the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in the city of Florence, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. An analysis of the failure was performed to identify the damage condition of the involved structures, to define the causes of the failure, and preserve the site. This study was based on borehole integration and geotechnical characterization, terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) and digital photogrammetry (DP), bathymetric and geophysical surveys, riverbank stability analysis, and wall seismic vibrations assessment. The TLS survey results were used to characterize the three-dimensional (3D) wall deformations pattern, the landslide geometry, and to define the involved volumes. The riverbank stability analysis demonstrates that the lower safety factor was obtained in the case of complete saturation of filling materials and low river level in accordance with the major cause of collapse being attributed to the loss of water from subterranean pipes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, the Province of Florence administration entrusted the Tuscany Health Agency with producing a health impact assessment (HIA) study of a municipal waste incinerator to be located in the west area of Florence, Italy. Study area included a portion of three municipalities with approximately 1,00,000 residents. The objective was to help decision makers to decide whether, one out of the three proposed locations could be selected or none of them. Although the general mortality and morbidity and the majority of causes in the three municipalities had similar results to the standard, some excesses were noteworthy, particularly for lung cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and selected congenital malformations.