Assessment of a urban sustainability and life quality index for elderly

The research here presented originates from some of the ongoing challenges of our society: the demographic changes and the high share of population living in urban areas. The aim of the research is the definition of an index of sustainability and quality of life for elderly at suburban scale, not only able to outline aspects related to the local territorial context but also to represent the neighbourhood level. This would provide significant added value to existing indicators that represent the quality of life for much larger areas as cities, regions and nations. Indeed, it is universally recognised that the quality of life varies quite considerably depending on whether you live in different neighbourhoods or urban areas. The index proposed with the research is elaborated on the base of objective and subjective indicators integrated with the judgment of experts, in order to give an accurate and truthful weight to each indicator. Moreover, it has been elaborated for microscale analysis, dividing urban areas into cells, in order to highlight more in detail the real needs of each specific zone. As a result, the elaborated index would be an available tool to be provided to the local public administration to facilitate and optimise the urban planning and management, prioritizing interventions on the base of the sustainability principles and subjective needs of the population, in particular of elderly

Coupled ground uplift and groundwater rebound in the metropolitan city of Naples (southern Italy)

Subsidence and ground uplift are phenomena that may have natural or anthropogenic origin and cause strong socioeconomic and environmental impacts, especially in urban areas. In this paper, the coupling between ground uplift and groundwater rebound in a complex multi-layered aquifer system in the metropolitan city of Naples (southern Italy) has been investigated. By an integrated use of hydrogeological and DInSAR monitoring data covering the periods 1989–2013 and 1993–2010, respectively, the spatio-temporal evolution of natural ground deformation following the strong reduction and interruption of groundwater pumping has been analysed. Hydrogeological monitoring data have shown large-scale groundwater rebound, with the highest amplitude of approximately 16m and a groundwater rising velocity up to approximately 1.0 m/yr. DInSAR data show a general ground uplift with a magnitude of approximately 40mm on average, except for the southern sector of the study area where some local natural and human-induced subsidence has been identified. A comparison between trends of groundwater level and ground displacement indicates that the ground uplift is linked to a poro-elastic rebound mechanism in the porous aquifer system, which is triggered by the increase of pore pressure, while the rate of ground displacement is controlled by the hydrostratigraphic characteristics of the multilayered aquifer system. The results improve the knowledge of man-induced deformation in complex urban aquifers affected by groundwater rebound and highlight that the implementation of an appropriate hydro-mechanical deformation model is a necessary step to correctly model and manage a new geohazard in a highly urbanized environment