Opportunities for Web-Based Indicators in Environmental Sciences

This paper proposes a set of web-based indicators for quantifying and ranking the relevance of terms related to key-issues in Ecology and Sustainability Science. Search engines that operate in different contexts (e.g. global, social, scientific) are considered as web information carriers (WICs) and are able to analyse; (i) relevance on different levels: global web, individual/personal sphere, on-line news, and culture/science; (ii) time trends of relevance; (iii) relevance of keywords for environmental governance. For the purposes of this study, several indicators and specific indices (relational indices and dynamic indices) were applied to a test-set of 24 keywords. Outputs consistently show that traditional study topics in environmental sciences such as water and air have remained the most quantitatively relevant keywords, while interest in systemic issues (i.e. ecosystem and landscape) has grown over the last 20 years. Nowadays, the relevance of new concepts such as resilience and ecosystem services is increasing, but the actual ability of these concepts to influence environmental governance needs to be further studied and understood. The proposed approach, which is based on intuitive and easily replicable procedures, can support the decision-making processes related to environmental governance

The role of Nature-Based Solutions in architectural and urban design

In 2015 the European Commission published the report Towards an EU Research and Innovation policy agenda for Nature-Based Solutions and Re-Naturing Cities. The document standardised the many research and innovation opportunities linked to the new designing, realisation and management procedures which utilise the natural component as an important tool to support urban regeneration processes capable of building resilience and developing a green economy. This essay analyses critically the new technical elements of architectural and urban design that make use of nature-based solutions. The aim is to examine their actual capability to generate/regenerate ecosystem services and circular economy processes at various levels

Risks for the current ecological transition and new challenges for ecosystems and territories

The current model of ecological transition, considered as a reference at the institutional level, has climate change as its central object, and is mainly based on the goals identified by the Paris Agreement (2015) and the European Green Deal (2019). The article discusses the implications of this model for the local eco-territorial level, a combination of bio-physical ecosystems and identity values. It raises the issue of the relationship between planetary common goods and local common goods, in many real cases resulted in conflicts between the various actors involved; and highlights the current condition of a ‘perfect storm’, as several critical factors (macro-trends and the inertia of greenhouse gas concentrations, the closeness of tipping points in critical climatic processes, the consequences of the ongoing war on uses of energy and compliance with international agreements) menace to make the current transition model ineffective. Therefore, it proposes a better balance between mitigation and adaptation strategies, also through win-win actions responding to both needs and also including, for the various actors involved, paths to share the contents of an acceptable evolution of local ecosystems and territories

Ecosistema, paesaggio e territorio; la prospettiva della valutazione ambientale

Si affronta il tema generale dal punto di vista della valutazione ambientale integrata, ricordando in premessa come la trattazione dei sistemi ambientali complessi avvenga attraverso approcci differenti e complementari; tra essi, quello tecnico-scientifico e quello giuridico-amministrativo si propongono come quelli meglio in grado di ridurre gli inconvenienti della soggettivita’ ponendo nello stesso tempo problemi di coordinamento reciproco. Si propongono, anche attraverso analisi comparative mediante indicatori, alcuni riferimenti di base per una differenziazione delle prospettive complementari di ecosistema, paesaggio, territorio. Si ricordano i principali strumenti tecnico-amministrativi esistenti che necessitano di strumenti di valutazione integrata, e si forniscono alcuni suggerimenti conclusivi per un percorso di tipo interdisciplinare