Since its foundation in 1981, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Florence carries out the academic and research activities in the field of civil and environmental engineering. The research programs extend to cover extensively the fields of structural Engineering, Hydraulic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Building Design, Transportation Engineering and Topography, Geotechnics, Applied Geology and Geophysics. The research group that will be involved in the present LIFE project has a strong background on sanitary and environmental engineering. The expertise developed concerns: solid waste management and treatment, integrated waste management, anaerobic digestion (sludge and organic fraction of MSW), urban and industrial (mainly tannery, olive mill, pharmaceutical, leachate and textile) wastewater treatment, biological nutrient removal, mathematical modelling of biological processes, biological processes monitoring and control, solid waste optimization of wastewater treatment plants, membrane treatment, monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions from biological processes, treatment for water supply.

The research group has been involved in several projects funded by the EU in the Marie Curie programme (CARBALA project) and LIFE+ programme (BATTLE, BIOCLOC, SHOWW, BIOSUR, PURIFAST) and has established a strong network with local public and private partners in the water and waste sector and has developed long lasting collaboration with other Italian and International Universities. The group has three laboratories were experimental activities concerning sanitary and environmental engineering are carried out. Two out of the three labs are joint labs with private partners (UNALAB and CER2CO).

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