A Sustainable Opportunity to Re-Inhabit Traditional Buildings in Italy: Energy Efficiency Actions and Fiscal Incentives

In recent decades, the Italian building trade has recorded an increasing interest in the renovation and improvement of both listed and unlisted existing buildings by the Ministry of Culture, growing the debate on adapting historical buildings to current sustainability needs. The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) observed the increase in family commuting and the attractiveness of marginal territories. Despite the scarcity of services, one-fifth of Italian small municipalities are attractive according to some indicators, primarily the demographic growth in the last three years. The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to the re-evaluation of inland areas. Remote working and the new need for open spaces could increase the return to small villages and be further boosted by the fiscal incentives. This paper considers the evolution of last year’s real estate market, evaluating whether the regulatory tools for energy retrofit and tax relief meet the trade crisis with a possible benefit of preserving historical buildings. This research cannot ignore the European background; therefore, this paper offers an overview of EU regulatory strategies for energy efficiency recently issued to increase sustainability, focusing on tax credits for improving existing buildings. In conclusion, some considerations are proposed for future in-depth research

Energy retrofitting of urban buildings: A socio-spatial analysis of three mid-sized Italian cities

3The current paper analyses the issue of energy retrofitting of buildings in Italian cities. In particular a mixed-method approach is used combining the socio-spatial analysis of data on the most relevant policy tool, namely tax deduction, together with qualitative analysis of three case studies of middle-sized cities. The results show that on the one hand tax deduction has not been very effective in promoting a deep renovation of buildings and it may exacerbate already existing inequalities. On the other hand, it emerges that progress in eco-retrofit of buildings depends mainly on creation of new intermediators and intermediation incentives. They are increasingly necessary in an urban panorama that has become inevitably polycentric.partially_openembargoed_20220430Natalia Magnani; Giovanni Carrosio; Giorgio OstiMagnani, Natalia; Carrosio, Giovanni; Osti, Giorgi

Digital representation of park use and visual analysis of visitor activities

Urban public parks can serve an important function by contributing to urban citizens' quality of life. At the same time, they can be the location of processes of displacement and exclusion. Despite this ambiguous role, little is known about actual park use patterns. To learn more about park use in three parks in Zurich, Switzerland, extensive data on visitor activities was collected using a new method based on direct recording via a portable GIS solution. Then, the data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper examines whether geographic visualization of these data can help domain experts like landscape designers and park managers to assess park use. To maximize accessibility, the visualizations are made available through a web-interface of a common, off-the-shelf GIS. The technical limitations imposed by this choice are critically assessed, before the available visualization techniques are evaluated in respect to the needs and tasks of practitioners with limited knowledge on spatial analysis and GIS. Key criteria are each technique's level of abstraction and graphical complexity. The utility and suitability of the visualization techniques is characterized for the distinct phases of exploration, analysis and synthesis. The findings suggest that for a target user group of practitioners, a combination of dot maps showing the raw data and surface maps showing derived density values for several attributes serves the purpose of knowledge generation best

Multi-temporal Remote Sensing Land-cover Change Detection for Biodiversity Assessment in the Berg River Catchment

Due to the intimate relationship that exists between land cover and biodiversity it is possible to draw inferences on the current state of the biodiversity of an area, assess the likely future pressures and plan accordingly based on an analysis of land-cover change. As a means of assessing the state of biodiversity in the Cape Floristic Region, two land-cover maps (1986/7 and 2007) were developed and demonstrated for the Berg River catchment in the Western Cape province of South Africa using multispectral Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data. The land-cover maps were produced to an accuracy of 85% using an object-orientated nearest neighbour supervised classification. The existing vegetation types of South Africa data set were superimposed on the newly classified remnants of natural vegetation to model changes in biodiversity. It was found that the area occupied by natural vegetation increased by more than 14%, suggesting an increase in biodiversity from 1986/7 to 2007. Considerable variation between vegetation types was, however, recorded. The land cover mapping, change analysis and biodiversity modelling methods employed by this study show that land-cover change analysis provides an ideal platform from which to initiate more intensive analyses of biodiversity change and conservation. Some limitations to the use of Landsat imagery for biodiversity monitoring are discussed

Non-industrial private forest owners’ attitudes and forest management decisions

© Altamash Bashir (2021) Faculty of Applied Ecology, Agricultural Sciences and Biotechnology Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management, Evenstad. This material is protected by copyright law. Without explicit authorization, reproduction is only allowed if it is permitted by law or by agreement with a collecting society.Skogeieres holdninger til sin skog har store konsekvenser for bærekraften i skogforvaltningen. Med det som bakgrunn forsøker forskningen min å bidra til en dypere forståelse av hvordan den store variasjonen i skogeieres sosio-demografiske egenskaper, eiendomsvariabler, holdninger og adferd påvirker deres beslutninger om forvaltning, som tømmerhogst, bevaring av biodiversitet, besittelse av skogbruksplan og oppsøking av informasjon. For å nå dette målet brukte jeg et datasett basert på en nasjonalt dekkende spørreundersøkelse av personlige skogeiere, altså enkeltpersoner som eier skog. Undersøkelsen ble utviklet av Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet i nært samarbeid med Statistisk Sentralbyrå og distribuert i hele Norge. Resultatene viser at de fleste skogeierne har flere målsetninger for skogforvaltningen, fra ivaretakelse av sosiale verdier og biodiversitet til tømmerproduksjon. Et hovedfunn i avhandlingen er at det multifunksjonelle skogbruket som forvaltningsstrategi har en sterk posisjon blant personlige skogeiere i Norge. Skogeiere som forvalter skogen ut fra økonomiske målsetninger ser på skogeiendommen som en viktig ressurs for sin økonomiske trygghet og velferd. Informasjon fra offentlig forvaltning kan øke kunnskapen om skogforvaltning, som støtte til skjøtselstiltak, miljøverdier og bruk av skogbruksplan. Forskningen gir et viktig bidrag ved å peke på grupper av skogeiere som trenger spesiell oppmerksomhet når makthavere innenfor skogbruket jobber med politikkutforming og rådgivere gjennomfører informasjonskampanjer. Studien kan hjelpe det skogpolitiske apparatet til å formulere og utføre politikk og strategier som oppfordrer skogeierne til å skjøtte og ta skogressursene ytterligere i bruk, på en økonomisk, økologisk og sosial bærekraftig måte.Abstract Forest owners’ attitudes towards their forests have large impacts on the sustainability of forest management. In this context, my research strives to provide greater depth of understanding of how the diverse socio-demographic and property characteristics of forest owners, their attitudes and behavior ultimately affects their management decisions, such as timber harvesting, biodiversity conservation, possessing a forest management plan or seeking information. To achieve this research goal, I utilized a questionnaire dataset originated from a national survey of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) owners, developed and distributed across Norway by the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in close collaboration with Statistics Norway. The results signify that most owners manage their forests for multiple objectives; ranging from ensuring social values and biodiversity to timber production. A main finding in this thesis is that the multifunctional forestry as a management strategy has a strong position among the NIPF owners in Norway. Forest owners managing their property for economic objectives consider their forest property as an important asset to attain financial security and well-being. Information from public management authorities may increase knowledge about forest management like timber harvest incentives, schemes for forest activities, environmental knowledge, and use of forest plans. This research study provides important contribution by pointing to specific groups of forest owners that demand special attention from forest policymakers and extension services while drafting different policies and executing various information campaigns. This study also provides valuable insights that can guide forest policy makers to formulate and execute policies and strategies that encourage forest owners to further manage and utilize forest resources while adhering to the principles of economic, ecological and social sustainability.publishedVersio

Planning for World Heritage: Experiences and Future Directions for Use of Geographical Information Systems

Events leading to the World Heritage listing of north Queensland rainforests and subsequent ban on timber harvesting result from a number of factors including insufficient education of an increasingly articulate and environmentally aware public. Foresters should meet this challenge by renewing efforts to collect reliable information on the multi-resource values of forest areas. GIS has the potential to contribute to this process, particularly when applied as part of a multi-resource decision support system. Source data for multi-resource management could be collected in conjunction with timber inventory, provided additional funding is made available. Use of a GIS as a map overlaying tool can be prone to error unless its users are fully aware of limitations that can arise with this approach. Any multi-resource strategy should be phased into existing timber inventory programmes. Full scale adoption of a multi-resource decision support system in forest services is not likely to occur until the full cost of land use conflicts is included in the cost benefit equation

Exploring the potential of an online platform for citizen science-based ecological monitoring of plant- and wildlife on the high-Arctic Archipelago Svalbard

Citizen science is increasingly used to include in ecological monitoring over the past three decades. Web-based applications or smart phones enable citizens to record observations or experiences at larger temporal and spatial scale and provide opportunities for a larger number of citizens to participate in mapping observations. Citizen science can also be used to record, or map observed and experienced ecological changes. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how a warming climate affects plants- and wildlife in the high-Arctic Archipelago of Svalbard through the eyes of citizens that are residing or visiting the islands. To examine the kind of ecological phenomena that citizens are observing on Svalbard, I used a dedicated digital platform to register local observations and experiences on how plant- and wildlife species are impacted by climate change. Residents and visitors were invited to share their knowledge and observations about how the environment is changing in Svalbard including nine categories, where my focus was primarily on plant- and wildlife. The online PPGIS survey had an overall response rate of 11% for mapping all kinds of environmental changes, wherein 21 of the respondents mapped 75 observations on plants- and wildlife covering most of the archipelago. The observations were divided into six categories: invertebrates, vegetation, marine mammals, terrestrial mammals, birds, and other. The experienced changes in plants- and wildlife were compared to existing ecological monitoring by using five ecological phenomena: spatial distribution, abundance, behaviour, phenology, and impacts of abnormal events. I assess how and in what way citizen science as an approach, using an online citizen science platform, can contribute to and complement traditional ecological monitoring. I found two-thirds of the observations to focus on presence of the species or the abundance. Most were observations of charismatic species without references to any potential causal mechanisms of change. I found that citizen science is most likely to contribute to the monitoring of species ecology by expanding the spatial scale of plant- and wildlife observations. However, the limited amount of data in this thesis makes it difficult to conclude on the full potential and possibilities of using citizen science in ecological monitoring

PACIOLI 17; Innovation in the management and use of Micro Economic Databases in Agriculture

The PACIOLI network explores the need for and feasibility of innovation in farm accounting and its consequences for data gathering for policy analysis in Farm Accountancy Data Networks (FADNs). PACIOLI 17 took place in Ettenhausen, Switzerland, in June 2009. The theme of the workshop was 'Innovation in the management and use of Micro Economic Databases in Agriculture'