Is there room for shared cars in Italy? Considerations from some recent experiences

Car sharing is increasing its role worldwide as an alternative transport mode, that could contribute to a more sustainable urban mobility by reducing congestion and pollution. The paper focuses on the understanding of which are the main characteristics of this service starting from the literature on this topic both in terms of user profile and impact of the service; in the second part of the paper, the Italian context will be presented starting from the analysis of four Italian experiences with a particular focus on Milan’s car sharing. Summarizing the conclusion, it emerges that to date, the overall impact on transport is still quite low, in part due to a scarce integration and coordination with other transport modes and in part because car is still perceived primarily as a status symbol and a “good” rather than as a “service”. Therefore, car sharing can perform as a significant complementary and sustainable solution to mobility needs only in a context of cultural change and inside a transport policy aimed at changing transport behavior.car sharing; sustainable mobility; transport policy; urban mobility; peer to peer car sharing;

Internet of things

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Digital Earth was born with the aim of replicating the real world within the digital world. Many efforts have been made to observe and sense the Earth, both from space (remote sensing) and by using in situ sensors. Focusing on the latter, advances in Digital Earth have established vital bridges to exploit these sensors and their networks by taking location as a key element. The current era of connectivity envisions that everything is connected to everything. The concept of the Internet of Things(IoT)emergedasaholisticproposaltoenableanecosystemofvaried,heterogeneous networked objects and devices to speak to and interact with each other. To make the IoT ecosystem a reality, it is necessary to understand the electronic components, communication protocols, real-time analysis techniques, and the location of the objects and devices. The IoT ecosystem and the Digital Earth (DE) jointly form interrelated infrastructures for addressing today’s pressing issues and complex challenges. In this chapter, we explore the synergies and frictions in establishing an efficient and permanent collaboration between the two infrastructures, in order to adequately address multidisciplinary and increasingly complex real-world problems. Although there are still some pending issues, the identified synergies generate optimism for a true collaboration between the Internet of Things and the Digital Earth

Exploring Carsharing Diffusion Challenges through Systems Thinking and Causal Loop Diagrams

The diffusion of carsharing in cities can potentially support the transition towards a sustainable mobility system and help build a circular economy. Since urban transportation is a complex system due to the involvement of various stakeholders, including travelers, suppliers, manufacturers, and the government, a holistic approach based on systems thinking is essential to capture this complexity and its causalities. In this regard, the current research aims at identifying cause-and-effect relationships in the diffusion of carsharing services within the urban transport systems. To do so, a causal loop diagram (CLD) is developed to identify and capture the causalities of carsharing adoption. On this basis, the main four players within the carsharing domain in urban transportation were scrutinized and their causes and effects were visualized, including (i) the characteristics, behavior, and dynamics of the society population; (ii) transportation system and urban planning; (iii) the car manufacturing industry; and (iv) environmental pollution. The developed CLD can support decision-makers in the field of urban transport to gain a holistic and systemic approach to analyzing the issues within the transport sector due to their complexity. Moreover, they can help regulators and policymakers in intensifying the diffusion of more sustainable modes of transport by highlighting the role of population, car manufacturing, the transportation system, and environmental pollution

Optimal design of stand-alone solutions based on RES + hydrogen storage feeding off-grid communities

4openopenMarocco, Paolo; Ferrero, Domenico; Lanzini, Andrea; Santarelli, MassimoMarocco, Paolo; Ferrero, Domenico; Lanzini, Andrea; Santarelli, Massim