An approach to the multidimensional assessment of food security and environmental sustainability: a vulnerability framework for the Mediterranean region

Poster presented at First International Conference on Global Food Security. Noordwijkerhout (The Netherlands), 29 Sep - 2 Oct 201

An approach to the multidimensional assessment of food security and environmental sustainability: a vulnerability framework for the Mediterranean region

Poster presented at First International Conference on Global Food Security. Noordwijkerhout (The Netherlands), 29 Sep - 2 Oct 201

Multidimensional assessment of food security and environmental sustainability: a vulnerability framework for the Mediterranean Region [Poster]

Poster presented at Tropentag 2013. International Research on Food Security, Natural Resource Management and Rural Development. "Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum". Stuttgart-Hohenheim (Germany), Sep 17-19 2013

Modeling sustainable food systems

The processes underlying environmental, economic, and social unsustainability derive in part from the food system. Building sustainable food systems has become a predominating endeavor aiming to redirect our food systems and policies towards better-adjusted goals and improved societal welfare. Food systems are complex social-ecological systems involving multiple interactions between human and natural components. Policy needs to encourage public perception of humanity and nature as interdependent and interacting. The systemic nature of these interdependencies and interactions calls for systems approaches and integrated assessment tools. Identifying and modeling the intrinsic properties of the food system that will ensure its essential outcomes are maintained or enhanced over time and across generations, will help organizations and governmental institutions to track progress towards sustainability, and set policies that encourage positive transformations. This paper proposes a conceptual model that articulates crucial vulnerability and resilience factors to global environmental and socio-economic changes, postulating specific food and nutrition security issues as priority outcomes of food systems. By acknowledging the systemic nature of sustainability, this approach allows consideration of causal factor dynamics. In a stepwise approach, a logical application is schematized for three Mediterranean countries, namely Spain, France, and Italy

EVALUATION OF A REMOTE SENSING BASED METHOD FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF AGRICULTURAL CROP RESIDUES ON THE SOIL SURFACE

Increased agricultural mechanization in the recent past and susceptibility of certain soils to degradation generate widespread concern among experts on the overall environmental sustainability of some of the current agricultural practices in Europe. A number of solutions could be adopted to better preserve soil resources, some of which are already supported by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Researchers demonstrated that erosion and reduction in soil organic matter are among the most acute degradation issues in Europe and that the release of crop residues on the soil surface after harvesting can greatly reduce their incidence. The use of a permanent soil cover (e.g. by use of crop residues) is one of the three fundamental principles of Conservation Agriculture. Quantifying the amount of crop residues on the ground is important for soil and water protection, modelling of erosion processes and legislation enforcement purposes. However, common monitoring methods based on ground sampling are expensive and likely to be impracticable on vast surfaces. Remote sensing can offer a valid alternative for monitoring. The present research intends to contribute to the efforts towards the establishments of methods for the assessment and monitoring, through remote sensing, of the effects of conservation agriculture practices on the environment, with focus on soil resources. In this respect, the research specific objective is the evaluation of a remote sensing based method for the quantification of crop residue cover in a conservation agriculture farm in Northern Italy by use of hyperspectral satellite imagery. Results achieved show that not only crop residues percent cover is linearly related to certain remote sensing-based indices, therefore making possible to estimate how well soil is preserved from weathering, but also that spaceborne hyperspectral sensors such as Hyperion appear to have great potentiality towards monitoring of other environmental targets due to their very high spectral and spatial resolution. The research was deeply inspired by the outcomes of a European project (\u201cSustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation through simplified cultivation techniques\u201d - SoCo) aimed at improving protection of soil resources in the European agriculture sector through a stock taking and promotion of soil-friendly agriculture practices and systems, in particular simplified cultivation techniques, within the current legislative framework

DAMA/NaI results

The DAMA/NaI set-up of the DAMA experiment has been operative during seven annual cycles and has investigated several rare processes. In particular, it has been realised in order to investigate the model independent annual modulation signature for Dark Matter particles in the galactic halo. With the total exposure collected in the seven annual cycles (107731 kg day) a model independent evidence for the presence of a Dark Matter particle component in the galactic halo has been pointed out at 6.3 sigma C.L.. Some of the many possible corollary model dependent quests for the candidate particle have been presented as well.Comment: Contributed paper to the Rencontres de Moriond "Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories", La Thuile, Aosta Valley, Italy, March 200

Polarization Asymmetry In The Photodisintegration Of The Deuteron

The reaction ²(γ,p)n has been studied using a monochromatic and polarized gamma ray beam at energies E(γ)=19.8, 29.0, 38.6, and 60.8 MeV. The beam of an intensity ∼4×10⁵ γ/sec was obtained by Compton back scattering of mode-locked laser light off electron bunches in the Adone storage ring. Photoneutron yields were measured at nine neutron angles thetan≃15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 135, 150, and 165 deg in the center of mass (c.m.) for E(γ)=19.8, 29.0, and 38.6 MeV, and at thetan≃30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 deg c.m. for E(γ)=60.8 MeV. The polarization independent component Iₒ(theta) of the differential cross section and the polarization dependent component PI₁(theta) were deduced and the angular distribution of the azimuthal asymmetry factor Σ(theta)=I₁(theta)/Iₒ(theta) was obtained. An extensive comparison with theory has been carried out and the inclusion of corrections due to meson exchange currents and to Δ-isobar configurations have been shown to be mandatory at energies E(γ)≳40 MeV. Theoretical and experimental implications of intermediate energy deuteron photo- disintegration studies are discussed in some detail

QTLs for Morphogenetic Traits in Medicago Truncatula

Plant morphogenesis that includes growth, development and flowering date, drives a large number of agronomical important traits in both grain and forage crops. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping is a way to locate zones of the genome that are involved in the variations observed in a segregating population. Co-location of QTLs and candidate genes is an indication of the involvement of the genes in the variation. The objective of this study was to analyse segregation of aerial morphogenetic traits in a mapping population of recombinant inbred lines of the model legume species M. truncatula , to locate QTLs and candidate genes