Chapter Analysis of the theoretical settlement scenario implemented by the municipal plans. the case study of the Romagna coast municipalities

In Italy, the transformative predictions of the municipal urban planning instruments are very often far away from the socio-economic dynamics. In fact, the political component considers the oversizing of urban transformative projections as a solution to improve the situation of the territories in crisis for several aspects. This work analyses the projections of the urban planning instruments in force in the coastal municipalities of Emilia-Romagna. The work aims to highlight how the planned urban areas can change the future settlement structure in the case study area

Indicators for monitoring the Sustainability of Transformations in Territorial Planning

This research aims to identify a set of indicators for the Abruzzo Region to monitor the sustainability of the transformations in territorial planning, in order to focus the “position” of the Region with respect to the goals of the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) and the 17 Goals of the 2030 Agenda. The proposed methodology consists of: a coherence analysis with the aim of verifying the existence of a convergence between the goals and the general strategies of the Abruzzo Region’s Plans, and the Goals/Principles of environmental sustainability derived from the NSDS; a recognition of the sustainability indicators already developed by various public/private institutions, at national level, in order to select the most suitable sustainable development indicators for the Abruzzo Region

The urban pressure on Italian river areas

Rivers have been the hub of economic and social development in the human evolution, because they are essential resources for: agricultural development, infrastructure networks and development of the first urban strategies. Territory has had a radical transformation that led to a national average urbanization of about 10%; but this development has happened with different degrees of awareness and without uniform models and criteria. One of the main causes of this is due to an extreme fragmentation of planning, because the municipalities’ plans are a binding power modality, in force in Italy, but they don’t have significant and strategic references at regional and territorial scale. In particular, the Italian river areas have undergone a real siege by urban growth, outlining a critical scenario in terms of risks for the population and for the natural system. Some disciplines such as landscape ecology have contributed substantially to the integration of some environmental issues that have led into greater consideration for the protection of the landscape. In the same way the concept of Ecosystem Services combines knowledge, techniques and legislation to achieve the goal of sustainable planning. So, it is necessary that these scientific disciplines, which deal with environmental planning in various ways, find the right devices to guarantee a multi-criteria approach to the problem of consumption of the Natural Capital

INDICATOR ENGINEERING FOR LAND TAKE CONTROL AND SETTLEMENT SUSTAINABILITY

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Tecniche integrate di Remote Sensing e GIS a supporto della stima del potenziale fotovoltaico su tetti in aree urbane

Le ultime linee guida approvate dal Governo Italiano per sostenere finanziariamente il fotovoltaico (PV) e lo sviluppo della produzione di energia solare (Quarto e Quinto Conto Energia, Gennaio 2012 e succ.), al fine di evitare il consumo di suolo in aree agricole o naturali, comprendono indicazioni specifiche che rendono più vantaggiosa l’installazione d’impianti su tetti o superfici di copertura di edifici. In questo contesto diventa importante, per una adeguata attività di pianificazione e monitoraggio del PV, la mappatura estensiva delle superfici a disposizione, coincidenti con i tetti e l’accurata valutazione del loro potenziale fotovoltaico. Dal momento che tali coperture si trovano soprattutto nelle aree urbane o industriali, in cui fattori come eterogeneità tridimensionale, albedo, torbidità atmosferica ed ombreggiamenti reciproci influenzano in modo significativo l’irraggiamento solare locale, è necessario tenere conto adeguatamente di questi elementi mediante una mappatura GIS tridimensionale ed avanzati strumenti di modellazione, in modo da stimare efficacemente la radianza solare disponibile a livello dei tetti. La metodologia implementata, basata su tecniche di telerilevamento e GIS, ha permesso di valutare e mappare la radiazione solare globale su tutti i tetti presenti nel territorio del Comune di Avellino. Partendo da dati di tipo LIDAR, è stato ottenuto in primo luogo il DSM di tutta l’area di interesse (~ 42 Km2), quindi il modello tridimensionale di ogni edificio da cui sono stati derivati i parametri geometrici di tutte le coperture. Per tenere conto della trasparenza atmosferica e della percentuale di radiazione solare (diffusa/diretta) sulle superfici di interesse, sono stati utilizzati i dati e gli strumenti applicativi presenti sul sito web PVGIS, sviluppato dalla UE. L’elaborazione finale, basata sull’utilizzo di strumenti GIS anche di tipo open source, ha permesso di ottenere le mappe di radianza solare e di potenziale PV per tutti i tetti presenti nell’area di studio.The last guidelines approved by Italian government to financially support the solar Photovoltaic (PV) Energy production development (Fourth and Fifth feed-in-scheme, January 2012 and later), in order to avoid soil consumption in agricultural or naturals areas, include specific indications for more advantageously funding the installations exploiting roofs or covers surfaces. In this context it becomes important, for a suitable PV planning and monitoring, the extensive mapping of the available surfaces extent, usually corresponding to covers and properly assessing their quality in term of PV potential. Since the covers are mainly located in urban or industrial areas, whose 3D heterogeneity, albedo, atmospheric turbidity and casting shadows significantly influence the local solar irradiance, it is necessary to suitably account for these distributed factors by means of GIS mapping and advanced modeling tools in order to provide realistic estimates of solar available radiance at roofs level. The implemented methodology, based on remote sensing techniques, has allowed to estimate and map the global solar radiance over all the roofs within Avellino municipality. Starting from LIDAR data, DSM of the entire area of interest (~42 Km2) has been firstly obtained; then the 3D model of each building and related cover has been derived. To account for the atmospheric transparency and the related time-dependent diffuse/direct radiation percentage on the area, data and tools from EU PVGIS web application have been also used. The final processing to obtain the solar radiance maps has been carried out using specific software modules available within commercial and open-source GIS packages

L’immigrazione nella trasformazione dei contesti urbani: il caso siciliano, l’esigenza del recupero culturale ed il rifiuto della marginalizzazione

The issue of the immigration leads to reorganize the whole social architecture of the societies in which it occurs. Considering the urban environment as a microcosm which has a great deal of influence on global dynamics, it is right to think about the living conditions of urban citizens who live in the multicultural present societies, often suffering marginalization. As the last researches claim, the local government system is the one that could help to deal with the immigration matter in the best way and this also needs to be urgently addressed, as the “Immigration in Sicily” case study could show

Lice (Haematopinus tuberculatus) in water buffalo farms from central Italy

The aim of the present study was to obtain information about the presence and distribution of the suckling louse Haematopinus tuberculatus in water buffalo farms in central Italy. The survey was carried out on 127 farms (epidemiological units), selected using a grid approach within a Geographical Information System, followed by proportional allocation. In each farm 6 buffaloes were examined in order to detect the louse presence. Parasitological examinations were performed on each buffalo at predilection sites. A total of 762 water buffaloes were examined. H. tuberculatus was found in the 11.0% (14/127) of the farms and in the 4.5% (34/762) of the animals. The presence H. tuberculatus should be routinely considered because it is a cause of serious health, production and economic damages in intensive breeding buffaloes

Serum Resistin, Cardiovascular Disease and All-Cause Mortality in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

Background: High serum resistin has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease in the general population, Only sparse and conflicting results, limited to Asian individuals, have been reported, so far, in type 2 diabetes. We studied the role of serum resistin on coronary artery disease, major cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in type 2 diabetes. Methods: We tested the association of circulating resistin concentrations with coronary artery disease, major cardiovascular events (cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction and non-fatal stroke) and all-cause mortality in 2,313 diabetic patients of European ancestry from two cross-sectional and two prospective studies. In addition, the expression of resistin gene (RETN) was measured in blood cells of 68 diabetic patients and correlated with their serum resistin levels. Results: In a model comprising age, sex, smoking habits, BMI, HbA1c, and insulin, antihypertensive and antidyslipidemic therapies, serum resistin was associated with coronary artery disease in both cross-sectional studies: OR (95%CI) per SD increment = 1.35 (1.10–1.64) and 1.99 (1.55–2.55). Additionally, serum resistin predicted incident major cardiovascular events (HR per SD increment = 1.31; 1.10–1.56) and all-cause mortality (HR per SD increment = 1.16; 1.06–1.26). Adjusting also for fibrinogen levels affected the association with coronary artery disease and incident cardiovascular events, but not that with all cause-mortality. Finally, serum resistin was positively correlated with RETN mRNA expression (rho = 0.343). Conclusions: This is the first study showing that high serum resistin (a likely consequence, at least partly, of increased RETN expression) is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in diabetic patients of European ancestry

Il GIS negli studi di sostenibilità delle energie rinnovabili

Projections to 2020 indicate that renewable energy sources (RES) could cover, from 20 to 30 percent of the world's energy needs. To implement an effective e-governance in this direction, it is necessary to implement new methodologies to support decisionmaking in the local energy planning. The environmental impact is one of the main concern existing at different levels, in addition to the growing soil consumption in Europe. A significant problem for some types of plants, mainly solar and wind power, is the interaction of the devices with the surrounding environment, with possible negative effects in terms of visual impact and soil consumption. It is, therefore, very important to define which weight can have different impacts and to consider all possible scenarios