56 research outputs found

    Ecology-based planning. Italian and French experimentations

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    This paper examines some French and Italian experimentations of green infrastructuresā€™ (GI) construction in relation to their techniques and methodologies. The construction of a multifunctional green infrastructure can lead to the generation of a number of relevant bene ļ¬ ts able to face the increasing challenges of climate change and resilience (for example, social, ecological and environmental through the recognition of the concept of ecosystem services) and could ease the achievement of a performance-based approach. This approach, differently from the traditional prescriptive one, helps to attain a better and more ļ¬‚ exible land-use integration. In both countries, GI play an important role in contrasting land take and, for their adaptive and cross-scale nature, they help to generate a res ilient approach to urban plans and projects. Due to their ļ¬‚ exible and site-based nature, GI can be adapted, even if through different methodologies and approaches, both to urban and extra-urban contexts. On one hand, France, through its strong national policy on ecological networks, recognizes them as one of the major planning strategies toward a more sustainable development of territories; on the other hand, Italy has no national policy and Regions still have a hard time integrating them in already existing planning tools. In this perspective, Italian experimentations on GI construction appear to be a simple and sporadic add-on of urban and regional plans

    Enhanced Publication Management System: a systemic approach towards modern scientific communication.

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    The impact of the digital revolution and the mass adoption of ICT affected only partially the scientific communication workflow. Scientists are today acquainted to scientific workflows, electronic data, software, e-science infrastructures for carrying out their daily research activities, but the dissemination of research results still relies on the bare scientific article, which simply shifted from being printed to digital. The scientific article alone, however, cannot support an effective assessment of research results or enable science reproducibility: to achieve this goal all products related to a research activity should be shared and disseminated. In the last decades, on the wave of Open Science, the scientific community has approached the problem of publishing research products different from the scientific article. One of the solutions is the paradigm of enhanced publications (EPs). EPs are digital objects that aggregate a digital scientific article and the other research products that have been used and produced during the research investigation described by the article and are useful to: (i) better interpret the article, (ii) enable more effective peer re- view, and (iii) facilitate or support reproducibility of science. Theory and practice of EPs is still not advanced and most Enhanced Publication Information Systems (EPISs) are custom implementations serving community specific needs. EPIS designers and developers have little or no technological support oriented to EPs. In fact, they realize EP-oriented software with a ā€œfrom scratchā€ approach, addressing the peculiarities of the community to serve. Approach The aim of this thesis is to propose a systemic approach to the realisation of EPISs inspired by the lessons learned from the database domain. The state of the art of information systems and data models for EPs has been analyzed to identify the common features across different domains. Those common features have served as building blocks for the definition of a data model and functionalities for the representation and manipulation of EPs. The notion of Enhanced Publication Management System (EPMS) is introduced to denote information systems that provide EPIS designers and developers with EP-oriented tools for the setup, operation and maintenance of EPISs. The requirements of EPMSs have been identified and a reference software architecture that satisfies them is presented. Contributions The main contributions of this thesis relate to the fields of information science and scientific communication. The analysis of the state of the art about EPIS results in a terminology and a classification that can be useful as reference for the com- parison and discussion of such systems. A systemic approach, based on the novel notion of Enhanced Publication Management System (EPMS), is proposed as a more cost effective solution to the realization of EPIS, compared to the current ā€œfrom scratchā€ strategy. A reference architecture for EPMSs and a general-purpose data model for EPs are pro- posed with the intent of contributing at building structured foundations of what is today becoming an area of research on its own

    Environmental and territorial modelling for planning and design

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    Between 5th and 8th September 2018 the tenth edition of the INPUT conference took place in Viterbo, guests of the beautiful setting of the University of Tuscia and its DAFNE Department. INPUT is managed by an informal group of Italian academic researchers working in many fields related to the exploitation of informatics in planning. This Tenth Edition pursed multiple objectives with a holistic, boundary-less character, to face the complexity of today socio-ecological systems following a systemic approach aimed to problem solving. In particular, the Conference will aim to present the state of art of modeling approaches employed in urban and territorial planning in national and international contexts. Moreover, the conference has hosted a Geodesign workshop, by Carl Steinitz (Harvard Graduate School of Design) and Hrishi Ballal (on skype), Tess Canfield, Michele Campagna. Finally, on the last day of the conference, took place the QGIS hackfest, in which over 20 free software developers from all over Italy discussed the latest news and updates from the QGIS network. The acronym INPUT was born as INformatics for Urban and Regional Planning. In the transition to graphics, unintentionally, the first term was transformed into ā€œInnovationā€, with a fine example of serendipity, in which a small mistake turns into something new and intriguing. The opportunity is taken to propose to the organizers and the scientific committee of the next appointment to formalize this change of the acronym. This 10th edition was focused on Environmental and Territorial Modeling for planning and design. It has been considered a fundamental theme, especially in relation to the issue of environmental sustainability, which requires a rigorous and in-depth analysis of processes, a theme which can be satisfied by the territorial information systems and, above all, by modeling simulation of processes. In this topic, models are useful with the managerial approach, to highlight the many aspects of complex city and landscape systems. In consequence, their use must be deeply critical, not for rigid forecasts, but as an aid to the management decisions of complex systems

    Rethinking Sustainability Towards a Regenerative Economy

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    This open access book is based on work from the COST Action ā€œRESTORE - REthinking Sustainability TOwards a Regenerative Economy'', and highlights how sustainability in buildings, facilities and urban governance is crucial for a future that is socially just, ecologically restorative, and economically viable, for Europe and the whole planet. In light of the search for fair solutions to the climate crisis, the authors outline the urgency for the built environment sector to implement adaptation and mitigation strategies, as well as a just transition. As shown in the chapters, this can be done by applying a broader framework that enriches places, people, ecology, culture, and climate, at the core of the design task - with a particular emphasis on the benefits towards health and resilient business practices. This book is one step on the way to a paradigm shift towards restorative sustainability for new and existing buildings. The authors want to promote forward thinking and multidisciplinary knowledge, leading to solutions that celebrate the richness of design creativity. In this vision, cities of the future will enhance usersā€™ experience, health and wellbeing inside and outside of buildings, while reconciling anthropic ecosystems and nature. A valuable resource for scientists and students in environmental sciences and architecture, as well as policy makers, practitioners and investors in urban and regional development

    Methodology to sustain common information spaces for research collaborations

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    Information and knowledge sharing collaborations are essential for scientific research and innovation. They provide opportunities to pool expertise and resources. They are required to draw on todayā€™s wealth of data to address pressing societal challenges. Establishing effective collaborations depends on the alignment of intellectual and technical capital. In this thesis we investigate implications and influences of socio-technical aspects of research collaborations to identify methods of facilitating their formation and sustained success. We draw on our experience acquired in an international federated seismological context, and in a large research infrastructure for solid-Earth sciences. We recognise the centrality of the users and propose a strategy to sustain their engagement as actors participating in the collaboration. Our approach promotes and enables their active contribution in the construction and maintenance of Common Information Spaces (CISs). These are shaped by conceptual agreements that are captured and maintained to facilitate mutual understanding and to underpin their collaborative work. A user-driven approach shapes the evolution of a CIS based on the requirements of the communities involved in the collaboration. Active usersā€™ engagement is pursued by partitioning concerns and by targeting their interests. For instance, application domain experts focus on scientific and conceptual aspects; data and information experts address knowledge representation issues; and architects and engineers build the infrastructure that populates the common space. We introduce a methodology to sustain CIS and a conceptual framework that has its foundations on a set of agreed Core Concepts forming a Canonical Core (CC). A representation of such a CC is also introduced that leverages and promotes reuse of existing standards: EPOS-DCAT-AP. The application of our methodology shows promising results with a good uptake and adoption by the targeted communities. This encourages us to continue applying and evaluating such a strategy in the future

    ā€œBeing Humanā€: A Grounded Theory of Complexity and Serendipity in Cancer Clinical Trials.

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    Abstract Background Cancer presents a complex and intractable disease resulting in millions of deaths worldwide each year. As a metastatic disease bearing metamorphic characteristics, cancerā€™s emergent properties continue to challenge science, medicine, and society. Cancer research is a specialist field crucial to the advancement of patient treatment and care, yet it faces growing challenges due to the complex nature of an evolving disease, stratified treatments, and intensive trial protocols, compounded by increasing global disease burdens. Human ingenuity and resiliency are central to overcoming the greatest challenges facing contemporary populations, achieved through research innovation and knowledge exchange across ranging disciplines. Improving population health and patient-centred outcomes stands at the fore of global challenges facing society in the twenty first century, requiring novel and dynamic responses to increasing chronic disease burdens and exposure risks to emergent viral pathogens. Aims The aim of this thesis was to understand the nature of cancer clinical trial operational delivery, evaluating challenges and burdens of professionals and patients participating in cancer research studies. The nature of multi-agency working and transdisciplinarity across health sciences is as complex as the biological and societal challenges that their research seeks to address. Establishing sustainable, cohesive, and collaborative relationships across the medical continuum is pivotal to solving persistent challenges of complex diseases and societal burdens. The study sought to develop a contextualised grounded theory elucidating situated challenges and complexity experienced at NHS sites in the UK. The purpose of the grounded theory would be to support the development of enhanced, person-centred models of clinical research operational delivery, which could respond to emergent and dynamically adaptive healthcare and epidemiological population needs. Methods Evaluating Follow-up and Complexity in cancer Clinical Trials (EFACCT), the study presented in this thesis, was conducted at ranging NHS secondary care sites in England and Scotland. Drawing on constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), the multi-faceted realities of cancer clinical trial delivery are unveiled, using a mixed methodsā€“grounded theory (MM-GT) design. The comprehensive, contextual evaluation combines evidence from quantitative and qualitative paradigms, using inductive and deductive methods. The study drew together multifaceted perspectives and values of 165 participants from six studies; Delphi, questionnaire, and interview studies, separated into patient and professional cohorts. Results The research provides original insights into the nature of cancer research delivery, its challenges and complexities, highlighting the importance of coherency in healthcare systems. The Constructivist Grounded Theory presented in this thesis, provides an organising framework and practical model for managing and embracing transformative learning and practice in response to dynamically evolving challenges that exist within complex healthcare delivery systems and networks. The original data generated provides new knowledge on the human aspects of clinical research and the contexts for its practice. The situated experiences led to the development of a grounded theory of human perceptions of complexity and serendipity in clinical research and the conception of a Prismatic Coherence Model (PCM) for the evaluation and designing of patient care and follow-up and the effective operational management of complex relationships, practices and processes existing within adaptive clinical research and healthcare delivery systems. PCM is an inclusive and responsive strategic design approach, sensitive to variable contexts and system complexities, and promotes transdisciplinarity in order to advance opportunities, knowledge and resources to advance population health through clinical research

    Innovation-ICT-cybersecurity: The triad relationship and its impact on growth competitiveness

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    This study examines the global growth competitiveness of countries using the dynamics of growth, ICT, and innovation. It also introduces a new dynamic, cybersecurity, and argues that within a growth competitiveness framework, ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity mechanisms allow some countries to achieve higher ranks on the competitiveness ladder than others. Based on a theoretical framework that encompasses the economic growth model, the complementarity theory, and the international law theory, a model that integrates ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity, depicts the relationships amongst them and with growth competitiveness, and incorporates complementary factors with possible moderating effect is presented. The model proposed relationships are then tested using PLS-PM. The model proves to have adequate goodness-of-fit as well as predictive validity. Results support most hypotheses showing: (1) a positive relationship between ICT and innovation; (2) a positive relationship between each of innovation and ICT with growth competitiveness; (3) a mediating effect of innovation has in the ICT ā€“ growth competitiveness relationship; (4) a positive relationship between ICT and innovation on one hand and cybersecurity on the other; (5) a mediating role of cybersecurity in the ICT ā€“ growth as well as the innovation ā€“ growth relationships; and the (6) moderating effect that human capital has in the above relationships. Cyber threats, however, do not have a moderator role in these relationships. These findings are interpreted in relation to the extant body of knowledge related to ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity. Moreover, the theoretical and the practical implications are discussed and the practical significance is shown. Finally, the study limitations are listed, the recommendations are presented, and the direction for future work is discussed

    Housing quality and lost (public) space in Croatia

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    IN ENGLISH: In the post-socialist period and within the current social transition context, urban and rural Croatia has, just like other transition countries, experienced many changes in the social structure and space. One example is the housing quality which is a replica of the situation in the Croatian society and has also undergone some major changes. Socially oriented housing construction co-financed by the state and the cities is in an unfavourable position compared to private housing construction. In the last twenty years the amount of the social housing construction has been only a minor part of the total contruction work in the country. For instance, out of nine newly planned residential housing developments in Zagreb, the capital city, only three have been completed and the work on the rest of them has stopped and is unlikely to continue. Private construction work prevails especially on the edge of the city and is characterised by high density housing. This type of housing construction doesn't benefit the majority of citizens in search of accommodation (price per square meter is too high, low-quality building). There is also a big problem of the community facilities (primary and secondary infrastructure, schools, kindergartens, playgrounds, green areas, sidewalks, public transport etc.). The existing globalisation-transition circumstances of the Croatian society corroborate the fact which experts of various profiles often point out: ignoring the process of (urban) planning will irreparably damage the space. The city transformation shows the absence of comprehensive urban planning which results in an ever increasing number of random buildings which do not fit in the surroundings. This leads up to yet another important issue ā€“ the shrinking and, in some cases, disappearance of public space which becomes the ā€œlost spaceā€œ. In recent years there has been a lot of building in the city core and on the edge which does not quite fit in the existing urban structure, image or the skyline of the city. The current situation in the process of planning can be characterized as a conflict and imbalance between the powerful actors (mostly political and economic) and less powerful actors (mostly professional and civil). The actors who have the political power and influence and the ones who possess the capital are forming an ā€œallianceā€ between two important layers of the social structure. The lack of civil and professional actors, ā€œlost spatial actorsā€, and therefore of civic aggregation is also present and that is also the cause of public space ā€œdisappearanceā€ and undermined process of public participation. --------------- IN CROATIAN: U postsocijalističkom razdoblju i trenutnom tranzicijskom kontekstu urbana i ruralna Hrvatska su, kao i ostale tranzicijske zemlje, doživjele mnoge promjene u druÅ”tvenoj strukturi i samom prostoru. Na primjeru kvalitete stanovanja kao replike stanja u hrvatskom druÅ”tvu mogu se vidjeti značajne promjene. DruÅ”tveno usmjerena stambena izgradnja sufinancirana od strane države i gradova je stoga rjeđa i u nepovoljnijoj je situaciji prema privatnoj stanogradnji. Zadnjih dvadeset godina udjel socijalne stambene gradnje je zanemariv u ukupnoj izgradnji na razini zemlje. Primjerice, od devet planiranih stambenih naselja izgrađenih po modelu POS-a u Zagrebu samo su tri i zavrÅ”ena. Na ostalima je proces gradnje zastao i ne čini se da će se privesti kraju. Privatna je gradnje prisutnija, posebno na rubovima grada, a obilježava je visoka gustoća gradnje. Ovakav tip gradnje ne odgovara većini stanovnika koji su u procesu potražnje stambene nekretnine (visoka cijena kvadratnog metra, a slaba kvaliteta gradnje). Postoji također i problem nedostatne opremljenosti susjedstva (primarna i sekundarna infrastruktura, Å”kole, vrtići, igraliÅ”ta, zelene povrÅ”ine, pjeÅ”ačke staze, javni transport itd.). Navedene globalizacijsko-tranzicijske okolnosti hrvatskog druÅ”tva potvrđuju ono Å”to eksperti različitih profila ističu, a to je da će ignoriranje procesa (urbanog) planiranja nepovratno uniÅ”titi prostor gradova. Ovakve transformacije pokazuju nedostatak sustavnog urbanog planiranja Å”to rezultira sve većim brojem zgrada koje se ne uklapaju u neposrednu okolinu. To nadalje dovodi do drugog važnog aspekta ā€“ smanjivanja i u nekim slučajevima, nestanka javnog prostora koji postaje ā€žizgubljeni prostorā€œ. Posljednjih je godina izgrađen velik broj zgrada, i u srediÅ”tu i na rubovima grada, koje se ne uklapaju u postojeću urbanu strukturu, izgled ili vizuru grada. Ovakvu situaciju obilježavaju sukob i neravnoteža između moćnijih druÅ”tvenih aktera (većinom političkih i ekonomskih) i onih manje moćnih (većinom profesionalnih i civilnih). Politički i ekonomski akteri se često povezuju u ā€žsavezā€œ dvaju najjačih u druÅ”tvenoj strukturi. S druge strane nedostatak utjecaja civilnih i profesionalnih aktera kao ā€žizgubljenih prostornih akteraā€œ dovodi do ā€žnestankaā€œ javnih prostora te smanjenja važnosti procesa participacije (sudjelovanja javnosti)
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