Climate change risk management for the sustainable development of the historic city: from the material to the territory

191 p.La ciencia de la conservación del patrimonio histórico se caracteriza por la amplia y articulada variedad de disciplinas que la componen. Sin embargo, no siempre existe una visión integral del sistema cultural capaz de identificar las acciones y estrategias para preservar, tutelar y valorizar el patrimonio, considerando la evolución de la sociedad contemporánea y del medioambiente.El trabajo de investigación propuesto se basa en una aproximación proactiva y conceptual de la conservación, cuyo objetivo es reducir al mínimo la perdida de los bienes culturales, a través de un estudio de vulnerabilidad para prevenir, mitigar y controlar los factores de riesgos y minimizar sus efectos en el patrimonio. La complejidad de algunos conjuntos, como son los centros históricos requieren el uso de métodos de trabajos sistemáticos y herramientas de gestión adaptables a las particularidades de cada lugar. El acercamiento metodológico para la evaluación de riesgos en las ciudades históricas se basa en estrategias de planificación tanto a nivel de edificio como de su entorno, combinando, de forma integral y holística, conocimientos de mitigación de desastres naturales, adaptación al cambio climático, conservación del patrimonio, gestión de la información y toma de decisión, como proceso sostenible para el desarrollo de la ciudad histórica, objetivo último de la presente investigación.Tecnalia Politecnico Milano 1863

Towards Smarter Management of Overtourism in Historic Centres Through Visitor-Flow Monitoring

Historic centres are highly regarded destinations for watching and even participating in diverse and unique forms of cultural expression. Cultural tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), is an important and consolidated tourism sector and its strong growth is expected to continue over the coming years. Tourism, the much dreamt of redeemer for historic centres, also represents one of the main threats to heritage conservation: visitors can dynamize an economy, yet the rapid growth of tourism often has negative effects on both built heritage and the lives of local inhabitants. Knowledge of occupancy levels and flows of visiting tourists is key to the efficient management of tourism; the new technologies—the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and geographic information systems (GIS)—when combined in interconnected networks represent a qualitative leap forward, compared to traditional methods of estimating locations and flows. A methodology is described in this paper for the management of tourism flows that is designed to promote sustainable tourism in historic centres through intelligent support mechanisms. As part of the Smart Heritage City (SHCITY) project, a collection system for visitors is developed. Following data collection via monitoring equipment, the analysis of a set of quantitative indicators yields information that can then be used to analyse visitor flows; enabling city managers to make management decisions when the tourism-carrying capacity is exceeded and gives way to overtourism.Funded by the Interreg Sudoe Programme of the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF

Climate change risk management for the sustainable development of the historic city: from the material to the territory

191 p.La ciencia de la conservación del patrimonio histórico se caracteriza por la amplia y articulada variedad de disciplinas que la componen. Sin embargo, no siempre existe una visión integral del sistema cultural capaz de identificar las acciones y estrategias para preservar, tutelar y valorizar el patrimonio, considerando la evolución de la sociedad contemporánea y del medioambiente.El trabajo de investigación propuesto se basa en una aproximación proactiva y conceptual de la conservación, cuyo objetivo es reducir al mínimo la perdida de los bienes culturales, a través de un estudio de vulnerabilidad para prevenir, mitigar y controlar los factores de riesgos y minimizar sus efectos en el patrimonio. La complejidad de algunos conjuntos, como son los centros históricos requieren el uso de métodos de trabajos sistemáticos y herramientas de gestión adaptables a las particularidades de cada lugar. El acercamiento metodológico para la evaluación de riesgos en las ciudades históricas se basa en estrategias de planificación tanto a nivel de edificio como de su entorno, combinando, de forma integral y holística, conocimientos de mitigación de desastres naturales, adaptación al cambio climático, conservación del patrimonio, gestión de la información y toma de decisión, como proceso sostenible para el desarrollo de la ciudad histórica, objetivo último de la presente investigación.Tecnalia Politecnico Milano 1863

The costs of breed reconstruction from cryopreserved material in mammalian livestock species

The aim of this work was to compare costs, in the horse, cattle, sheep, swine, and rabbit species, for the creation of gene banks for reconstruction of an extinct breed, using different strategies: embryos-only, embryos in combination with semen, and semen-only. Three cost measures were used: time required for population reconstruction, cost for creation of the gene bank, number of years-keeping-female to reach reconstruction. Semen costs were estimated across four scenarios: the presence or absence of a commercial market for semen, purchase of semen donors, and semen extracted from the epididymus. The number of cells were doubled to take into account the creation of two storage sites. The strategy embryos-only required the shortest time to reach reconstruction. With the strategy embryos + semen, time increased with decreasing proportions of embryos. With semen-only, reconstruction time varied from 2 to 21 years. A high variation of costs was observed across species and strategies, from 360 Euros in the rabbit to 1 092 300 in the horse. In all species, the embryos-only strategy was about 10% more expensive than using 90% embryos + semen. Decreasing the percentage of embryos further diminished costs. The number of years-keeping-female ranged across strategies, from 2 in the rabbit, to a maximum of 12 878 in the horse

Do we know how urban heritage is being endangered by climate change? A systematic and critical review

It is worldwide accepted that climate change is affecting cities and that the conservation of the cultural heritage contributes to sustainable development. However, despite the high level of interest and research in climate-change risks on socioeconomic, urban and natural systems, studies that assess climate change impacts on urban cultural heritage and contribute to a holistic understanding on the subject present noticeable gaps in knowledge. A systematic review and meta-analysis was carried out to assess the state-of- the-art of cultural heritage risk assessment methodologies within urban systems in the context of climate change, specifically historic urban areas. For this purpose, a systematic search was applied using Web of Science and Scopus. The search identified and characterized existing methodologies on vulnerability and risk assessment for cultural heritage in a changing climate following the PRISMA protocol, and it synthesized knowledge gaps to be addressed in the near future. This study aims to bring risk assessment methodologies closer to urban planners for more efficient climate change adaptation policies. The research concluded that there is an unbalance between the amount of methodologies for the different climate change derived hazards and their impacts on historic urban areas. The amount of methodologies focused on flooding highlights that further research is needed for other relevant hazards, like heat and cold waves, that contribute to a holistic perspective.The authors wish to acknowledge funding from the European Com-mission through the SHELTER project (GA 821282) and from the Uni-versity of the Basque Country UPV/EHU (PPGA20/26), as well as the support of research groups IT1314-19 of the Basque Government, GIU19/029 of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and SAREN of the Faculty of Engineering in Bilbao. 9. Annex I – Papers reviewed References Year Citations Author keywords Hazard (s) Risk aspects/Systems 1 [49] 2020 0 Damage Assessment; Climate-Change; Precipitation; Future; Model; Management; Framework; Hazard Floods Vulnerability/Physical 2 [60] 2020 1 Floods Vulnerability/Physical (continued on next page) Fig. 6.Articles published each year. L. Quesada-Ganuza et al

Vulnerability assessment of cultural heritage sites towards flooding events

Historic sites are threatened by diverse weather patterns, mainly due to global climate change, such as sea-level rise and increasing frequency of storms and other extreme precipitation events. As climate change is becoming an increasing urban problem, heritage located in this context is considered as a sensitive and vulnerable element of the city. Adaptation should be oriented to a sustainable transformation of the historic city, leading to more resilient and safe environments. Risk-based approaches should incorporate an assessment of sensitiveness and capacity to adapt to these hazards. Vulnerability is often assessed on a large scale (e.g. regional, local) and buildings are not considered as part of the urban environment, while conservation is often developed on the operational scale of a monument or site. Management of cultural heritage requires therefore for an urban approach, which considers all the elements and buildings as part of the urban environment. Research presented in this paper describes a methodological approach (MIVES - Integrated Value Model for Sustainability Assessment) for vulnerability assessment of historic sites, supported by multilevel indicators (urban, building, element), in order to provide an informed decision-making. The solution proposed in based on an organised and structures decision tree, which provides a comparable and unique vulnerability index on the building level.Authors would like to acknowledge the funding provided by the Basque Government through the ADVICE project and the research group IT781-13 at the UPV/EHU

In silico candidate gene mining in livestock species

AbstractThe identification of genes involved in livestock production and disease is a challenge due to the multi-genic, multifactorial nature of the traits and the complexity of integration of information from different studies. Genome-wide techniques such as microarray analysis, SAGE, linkage analysis and linkage disequilibrium analysis have been extensively used in livestock and have often identified a large number of candidate genes. Selection of the most probable candidate genes for further empirical analysis remains a challenge. Novel extensive biological databases (DB) provide an opportunity for candidate gene mining. Bioinformatic methods and tools to prioritize candidate genes underlying pathways or diseases have been presented mostly for application to human disease candidate gene search. These computational methods employ data from a variety of sources to identify the most likely candidate genes from genes sets. The objectives of the study were: 1. to test a set of existing gene prioritization c..

ADAPTATION TO FLOODING EVENTS THROUGH VULNERABILITY MAPPING IN HISTORIC URBAN AREAS

Historic urban areas are complex and inter-reliant systems, vulnerable to natural hazards. Over the recent years, the increase frequency in extreme precipitation events and sea-level rise, have impacted on a large number of historic areas, growing concern over disaster mitigation related to climate change. Most of the changes in the climatological indicators may have adverse impacts on historic areas, leading to physical, social and cultural consequences and should be included in urban planning practice. The importance of addressing cultural heritage in disaster risk has also been included in The Sendai Framework, considering the dimensions of vulnerability, adaptive capacity and exposure through systematic evaluation. Urban planning decisions involve an understanding of complex interactions between different aspects of the city, in its constructive, social, economic, environmental and cultural system. The analysis of these interactions requires a systemic approach as the components operate on different spatial and temporal scales and generate a large amount of data. This information can be used to determine the vulnerability of historic areas by assessing it at the building level, through the creation of typologies representing the building stock, often characterized by similarities and common constructive elements. The comprehension of the information can be supported and homogenized by a multi-scale urban model, to facilitate the understanding of interactions and the link among the different disciplines involved. This paper describes the methodology proposed for vulnerability mapping in historic urban areas, by using a categorization method supported by an information strategy and a multi-scale urban model.Authors would like to acknowledge the funding provided by the Basque Government through the ADVICE project and the research group IT781-13 at the UPV/EHU

Systemic Innovation Areas for Heritage-Led Rural Regeneration: A Multilevel Repository of Best Practices

This paper presents the result of the analysis of the data gathered from 20 Role Models (RM) case studies regarding their successful heritage-led rural regeneration models. For the study and comparison of the narratives of these Role Models two tools were used: the Community Capitals Framework, which studied the transference of capitals in each process and the identification of six Systemic Innovation Areas that allow this capital transference. A multilevel repository of best practices has been developed allowing the identification of common features, mechanisms for mobilisation of capitals and required resources that will facilitate the replication in other rural areas. The results of this work support the acknowledgement of the contribution of culture, together with cultural and natural heritage, to economic growth, social inclusion and environmental sustainability in rural areas reinforcing the role of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development

the science behind vitamins and natural compounds for breast cancer prevention getting the most prevention out of it

Summary This review highlights the role of vitamins and natural compounds in breast cancer prevention, with a particular focus on Vitamin D. In the last decades, both encouraging and discouraging results about the association between antioxidant supplementation and cancer have been reported to public and scientific community. Their safe and favorable toxicity profile makes them suitable to be investigated in a preventive setting. However, a recent large meta-analysis showed that treatment with beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase mortality, whereas the potential roles of vitamin C and selenium on mortality need further study. Likewise, folate levels were not associated with reduced breast cancer risk in a recent meta-analysis. Several studies have shown that a high proportion of women at-risk for breast cancer or affected by the disease have deficient vitamin D levels, i.e., 250H-