On the complexity of the boundary layer structure and aerosol vertical distribution in the coastal Mediterranean regions: A case study

The planetary boundary layer structure in the coastal areas, and particularly in complex orography regions such as the Mediterranean, is extremely intricate. In this study, we show the evolution of the planetary boundary layer based on in situ airborne measurements and ground-based remote sensing observations carried out during the MORE (Marine Ozone and Radiation Experiment) campaign in June 2010. The campaign was held in a rural coastal Mediterranean region in Southern Italy. The study focuses on the observations made on 17 June. Vertical profiles of meteorological parameters and aerosol size distribution were measured during two flights: in the morning and in the afternoon. Airborne observations were combined with ground-based LIDAR, SODAR, microwave and visible radiometer measurements, allowing a detailed description of the atmospheric vertical structure. The analysis was complemented with data from a regional atmospheric model run with horizontal resolutions of 12, 4 and 1 km, respectively; back-trajectories were calculated at these spatial resolutions. The observations show the simultaneous occurrence of dust transport, descent of mid-tropospheric air and sea breeze circulation on 17 June. Local pollution effects on the aerosol distribution, and a possible event of new particles formation were also observed. A large variability in the thermodynamical structure and aerosol distribution in the flight region, extending by approximately 30km along the coast, was found. Within this complex, environment-relevant differences in the back-trajectories calculated at different spatial resolutions are found, suggesting that the description of several dynamical processes, and in particular the sea breeze circulation, requires high-resolution meteorological analyses. The study also shows that the integration of different observational techniques is needed to describe these complex conditions; in particular, the availability of flights and their timing with respect to the occurring phenomena are crucial

Benzo[a]pyrene modelling over Italy: comparison with experimental data and source apportionment

Abstract This work describes the extension of the Flexible Air quality Regional Model (FARM) to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Modules accounting for the partitioning of these species between gaseous and particulate phases were inserted in a simplified version of the model and in a more state–of–the–art configuration implementing the SAPRC99 gas–phase chemical mechanism coupled with the aero3 aerosol module. Both versions of FARM were applied over Italy for the year 2005. The analysis of model results was focused on benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), which is considered a marker substance for the carcinogenic risk of PAHs. Simulated B[a]P concentrations were compared with observed data, collected at background sites mainly located in Po Valley, and with concentrations produced at continental scale by EMEP/MSC–E model. Higher B[a]P yearly average concentrations were simulated by the national modelling system as a result of different factors: the higher resolution adopted by the national modelling system, the greater Italian emissions estimated by the national inventory and the effects induced by the use of a high resolution topography on meteorological fields and thus on the dispersion of pollutants. The comparison between observed and predicted monthly averaged concentrations evidenced the capability of the two versions of FARM model to capture the seasonal behaviour of B[a]P, characterised by higher values during the winter season due to the large use of wood for residential heating, enhanced by lower dispersion atmospheric conditions. The statistical analysis evidenced, for both versions of the model, a good performance and better indicators than those associated to EMEP/MSC–E simulations. A source apportionment was then carried out using the simplified version of the model, which proved to perform similarly to the full chemistry version but with the advantage to be computationally less expensive. The analysis revealed a significant influence of national sources on B[a]P concentrations, with non–industrial combustion employing wood burning devices being the most important sector. The contribution of the industrial sectors is relevant around major industrial facilities, with the largest absolute contribution in Taranto (above 1 ng m −3 ), where steel industries are the largest individual source of PAHs in the country

Assessing complementarity of wind and solar resources for energy production in Italy. A Monte Carlo approach

Wind and solar energy are expected to play a major role in the current decade to help Europe reaching the renewable energy penetration targets fixed by Directive 2009/28/EC. Nevertheless, both wind and solar energy actual production profiles are difficult to be predicted and depend heavily on the meteorological features of sun radiation and wind speed. In ideal system where wind and solar electricity are both injected in a fast reacting grid instantaneously matching supply and demand, wind and solar electricity production profiles should complement each other as much as possible in order to minimize need for storage and additional capacity. In the present paper the complementarity of wind and solar resources is assessed for a test year in Italy. To achieve this goal, high space and time resolution data for both sun radiation and wind speed in Italy obtained from running two state of the art models (PVGIS and MINNI) are employed: hourly profiles for solar and wind energy produced in each 4x4 grid point in Italy in 2005 are compared and hourly, daily and monthly correlation coefficients are computed in order to locally assess the complementarity of the two resources. Moreover, a Monte Carlo approach is also developed in order to assess how large scale wind and solar energy productions are expected to complement each other when up to 100 relevant production sites will be built spread all over Italy or its major geographical areas (North, Centre, South, Sardinia and Sicily). The results show how local complementarity can be very interesting with monthly correlation coefficients reaching values lower than -0.8 in several areas. Large-scale complementarity is also relevant with nation-wide monthly correlation coefficients showing values between -0.65 and -0.6 . These results provide the indication that in the sample here of 2005, wind and solar energy potential production have shown behaviours complementary in time, favourably supporting their proper integration in the energy system.JRC.F.7-Renewable Energ

Il parco archeologico della via Severiana

un grande parco che riconnette le tracce sensibili di Ostia e Fiumicin

A Cooperation Project in Lesotho: Renewable Energy Potential Maps Embedded in a WebGIS Tool

In this paper the background, activities undertaken, and main outcomes of the cooperation project “Renewable Energy Potential Maps for Lesotho” are presented. The project was launched in 2018 in fulfilment of the Paris Agreement by the Italian Ministry for the Environment and the Lesotho Ministry of Energy and Meteorology, with the aim to facilitate the local Government in the future planning and development of renewable energy in the country. A user-oriented WebGIS platform was utilised to share and analyse the outcomes of the project: a hydrological map to recognize potential areas for power generation; a wind atlas to identify specific sites with the most potential for wind energy generation; a solar radiation map, defining the different levels of radiation intensity, useful to localise sites for photovoltaic production. Human capacity building and technology transfer were carried out to strengthen the local expertise and ability to manage and plan renewable energy sources exploitation. The implementation of the project was based on a fruitful collaboration between scientists and stakeholders at the same time giving the local authorities a useful dataset and tool for renewable energy growth in Lesotho

Evaluating the Impact of a Wall-Type Green Infrastructure on PM10 and NOx Concentrations in an Urban Street Environment

Nature-based solutions can represent beneficial tools in the field of urban transformation for their contribution to important environmental services such as air quality improvement. To evaluate the impact on urban air pollution of a CityTree (CT), an innovative wall-type green infrastructure in passive (deposition) and active (filtration) modes of operation, a study was conducted in a real urban setting in Modena (Italy) during 2017 and 2018, combining experimental measurements with modelling system evaluations. In this work, relying on the computational resources of CRESCO (Computational Centre for Research on Complex Systems)/ENEAGRID High Performance Computing infrastructure, we used the air pollution microscale model PMSS (Parallel Micro-SWIFT-Micro SPRAY) to simulate air quality during the experimental campaigns. The spatial characteristics of the impact of the CT on local air pollutants concentrations, specifically nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM10), were assessed. In particular, we used prescribed bulk deposition velocities provided by the experimental campaigns, which tested the CT both in passive (deposition) and in active (filtration) mode of operation. Our results showed that the PM10 and NOx concentration reductions reach from more than 0.1% up to about 0.8% within an area of 10 × 20 m2 around the infrastructure, when the green infrastructure operates in passive mode. In filtration mode the CT exhibited higher performances in the abatement of PM10 concentrations (between 1.5% and 15%), within approximately the same area. We conclude that CTs may find an application in air quality hotspots within specific urban settings (i.e., urban street canyons) where a very localized reduction of pollutants concentration during rush hours might be of interest to limit population exposure. The optimization of the spatial arrangement of CT modules to increment the “clean air zone” is a factor to be investigated in the ongoing development of the CT technology

The Role of Vegetation on Urban Atmosphere of Three European Cities—Part 1: Evaluation of Vegetation Impact on Meteorological Conditions

This study quantifies the vegetation impact on urban meteorology by means of the numerical model WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting model). The assessment was made for two months: July and January. These were considered as representative for the summer and winter seasons, for the reference year 2015 in three European cities: Bologna, Milano, and Madrid. Two simulations at 1 km resolution were conducted over the cities with and without the actual urban vegetation, called VEG and NOVEG, respectively, in the model input. Then, the impact of vegetation was evaluated as the difference between the two simulations (VEG-NOVEG) for temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed fields. In general, we found that, as can be expected, urban vegetation tends to cool the atmosphere, enhance the humidity, and reduce the wind speed. However, in some cases, areas with the opposite behaviour exist, so that no a priori results can be attributed to the presence of urban vegetation. Moreover, even when major impact is confined around grid cells where urban vegetation is present, changes in meteorological quantities can be observed elsewhere in the city’s area. The magnitude of urban vegetation impact is higher in summer than in winter and it depends on the city’s morphological peculiarities, such as urban texture and vegetation types and distribution: average July temperature variations due to the presence of urban vegetation reach peaks of −0.8 °C in Milano, −0.6 °C Madrid, and −0.4 °C in Bologna, while in January, the values range between −0.3 and −0.1 °C. An average heating effect of ca. +0.2 °C is found in some parts of Madrid in January. For relative humidity, we found increments of 2%–3% in July and 0.5%–0.8% in January, while a decrease in wind speed was found between 0.1 and 0.5 m/s, with the highest occurring in Madrid during July

Dent's disease and prevalence of renal stones in dialysis patients in Northeastern Italy.

Abstract Dent's disease (DD) involves nephrocalcinosis, urolithiasis, hypercalciuria, LMW proteinuria, and renal failure in various combinations. Males are affected. It is caused by mutations in the chloride channel CLCN5 gene. It has been suggested that DD is underdiagnosed, occurring in less overt forms, apparently without family history. A possible approach to this problem is to search for CLCN5 mutations in patients who may have a high prevalence of mutations: end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients with previous calcium, struvite, or radio-opaque (CSR) stones. We looked for CLCN5 mutations in 25 males with ESRD-CSR stones selected from all of the patients (1,901 individuals, of which 1,179 were males) of 15 dialysis units in the Veneto region. One DD patient had a new DD mutation (1070 G > T) in exon 7. The new polymorphism IVS11-67 C > T was detected in intron 11 in one patient and one control. We also found 28 females with ESRD and stone history, and seven more males with ESRD and non-CSR stones. The prevalence of stone formers among dialysis patients in our region was 3.2%, much lower than the prevalence observed in older studies. Struvite stones continue to play a major role in causing stone-associated ESRD

Corrigendum to Characterization of Bifidobacterium species in feaces of the Egyptian fruit bat: Description of Bifidobacterium vespertilionis sp. nov. and Bifidobacterium rousetti sp. nov. [Syst. Appl. Microbiol. 42 (2019) 126017]

none22siCorrigendum to Characterization of Bifidobacterium species in feaces of the Egyptian fruit bat: Description of Bifidobacterium vespertilionis sp. nov. and Bifidobacterium rousetti sp. nov.mixedModesto, Monica; Satti, Maria; Watanabe, Koichi; Puglisi, Edoardo; Morelli, Lorenzo; Huang, Chien-Hsun; Liou, Jong-Shian; Miyashita, Mika; Tamura, Tomohiko; Saito, Satomi; Mori, Koji; Huang, Lina; Sciavilla, Piero; Sandri, Camillo; Spiezio, Caterina; Vitali, Francesco; Cavalieri, Duccio; Perpetuini, Giorgia; Tofalo, Rosanna; Bonetti, Andrea; Arita, Masanori; Mattarelli, PaolaModesto, Monica; Satti, Maria; Watanabe, Koichi; Puglisi, Edoardo; Morelli, Lorenzo; Huang, Chien-Hsun; Liou, Jong-Shian; Miyashita, Mika; Tamura, Tomohiko; Saito, Satomi; Mori, Koji; Huang, Lina; Sciavilla, Piero; Sandri, Camillo; Spiezio, Caterina; Vitali, Francesco; Cavalieri, Duccio; Perpetuini, Giorgia; Tofalo, Rosanna; Bonetti, Andrea; Arita, Masanori; Mattarelli, Paol