Long-term ecological research (LTER) is performed in many countries across the globe by scientists that gather and analyse multidecadal ecological observations and data, to support understanding and management of the environment. LTER data are used to describe the state and dynamics of an ecosystem. This valuable research is in charge of experts in ecology, and it is performed in the so-called LTER networks (for Europe, see http://www.lter-europe.net ), usually organized at a national level; they consist of sites covering different ecosystem typologies, each one with research and monitoring facilities. In summer 2015, researchers of the Italian LTER network (LTER-Italy) have created a set of naturalistic trails, connecting sites of LTER-Italy ( http://www.lteritalia.it/cammini ), aiming to transfer and share the research results with citizens, through public events and informal science communication. Along one of these trails, performed on the Alps, the organizers proposed the use of two VGI apps to collect either biological or abiotic observations ( http://www.lteritalia.it/it/content/citizenscience ). The apps were chosen according to crucial characteristics, i.e. offline usage, operative system independence, strong development and support community, customization of user interfaces. This paper reports on this first test, discussing lessons learned and, in particular, the impact on the practice of research communities of participative, innovative tools, often neglected in the analysis of mobile application effects.

The present short paper describes the functionalities of a desktop tool enabling non-expert users to develop downstream services for the periodic download and processing of data from Sentinel sources.

Despite successful technological developments, COPERNICUS, the European Earth Observation flagship program, has been showing a weak regional involvement with regards to the wide capacities and benefits it provides for the Environment and Security domains at public and private level. During the DORIS_Net project, a methodology was successfully implemented to raise regional awareness on COPERNICUS potential with the concept of a Regional Contact Offices (RCO) Network. This paper aims to describe the process of RCO's creation and certification. It also presents both benefits and challenges of management and sustainability faced by RCO in order to reach their operational goals. Finally, the paper explores the potential regional impact of RCO.

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is a key variable in the interactions and energy fluxes between the Earth surface and the atmosphere. Satellite data provide consistent, continuous and spatially distributed information on the Earth's surface conditions among which LST. Ten years of NASA-MODIS day-time and night-time 1 km LST data over Southern Italy have been analyzed to quantify the influence of factors such as topography and the land cover on LST spatio-temporal variations. Results show that topography significantly influence LST variability as a function of the land cover and to a different extent for day-time and night-time data. Moreover, the relation between LST and the influential factors varies with the season during the year. This study contributes to a further understanding of the complex relationship between the spatio-temporal variability of the surface thermal conditions and its driving factors highlighting how these relationships might change within the year.

In the framework of the Italian Ev-K2-CNR Project (High Mountain Scientific and Technological Research) a Geographic Information System (G.I.S.) has been planned to model the hydrochemical characteristics of lacustrine environment due to interactions between meteoric waters and soils. The study area is located in the Khumbu valley, at the foot of Mount Everest in the Himalayan Nepal, where, at an altitude of 5,050 m a.s.l., a “Pyramid” of glass and aluminium has been installed to host the scientific laboratories and researchers. The G.I.S. will be organized with different layers containing geographical, geological, geochemical and hydrological information of the area, collected from available cartography, enhanced remotely sensed imagery and in situ field studies. A Kumbu-Himal lake cadastre, including hydrochemical and geo-lithological characteristics, the assessment of water quality and the inventory of phyto and zooplankton populations of monitored lakes, will be included in the G.I.S. to obtain a better definition of the principal components determining the basic chemical composition of the lake environment. The comparison and interpretation of the different data can be useful to identify the presence and the consequent influence of long-range pollution in this area, in an attempt to understand the processes by which many chemicals are transported, and the long-term effects on the lacustrine environment.