190 research outputs found
The new Unimore interdisciplinary teaching on transversal sustainability skills
The global situation of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed several aspects of University life and management. In this context, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore) has introduced a new course for all of its students called "Transversal Skills on Sustainability". This course consists of 13 Modules offered by the various Unimore Departments to address the issue of Sustainability at 360 degrees. Each Department offers a thematic module concerning Sustainability in its own field of study and research. The course ranges from engineering issues with renewable energy, waste, air quality, to economics and sustainable finance. In addition, the course deals with issues related to sustainability in the medical, chemical and legal fields and many others. In this first year of delivery, this teaching has proven to be highly appreciated among students. Over 950 students have enrolled in teaching for the 2020/2021 academic year. Enrolled students come from all areas of the university: there are students of engineering, geology, economics, chemistry, but also of medicine, pharmacy, and many others.Keyword:Â Education, Sustainability, Multidisciplinary, global approac
Climatology of atmospheric PM10 concentration in the Po Valley
The limits to atmospheric pollutant concentration set by the European Commission provide a challenging target for the municipalities in the Po Valley, because of the characteristic climatic conditions and high population density of this region. In order to assess climatology and trends in the concentration of atmospheric particles in the Po Valley, a dataset of PM10 data from 41 sites across the Po Valley have been analysed, including both traffic and background sites (either urban, suburban or rural). Of these 41 sites, 18 with 10 yr or longer record have been analysed for long term trend in de-seasonalized monthly means, in annual quantiles and in monthly frequency distribution. A widespread significant decreasing trend has been observed at most sites, up to few percent per year, by Generalised Least Square and Theil-Sen method. All 41 sites have been tested for significant weekly periodicity by Kruskal–Wallis test for mean anomalies and by Wilcoxon test for weekend effect magnitude. A significant weekly periodicity has been observed for most PM10 series, particularly in summer and ascribed mainly to anthropic particulate emissions. A cluster analysis has been applied in order to highlight stations sharing similar pollution conditions over the reference period. Five clusters have been found, two gathering the metropolitan areas of Torino and Milano and their respective nearby sites and the other three clusters gathering north-east, north-west and central Po Valley sites respectively. Finally the observed trends in atmospheric PM10 have been compared to trends in provincial emissions of particulates and PM precursors, and analysed along with data on vehicular fleet age, composition and fuel sales. Significant basin-wide drop in emissions occurred for gaseous pollutants, contrarily to emissions of PM10 and PM2.5, whose drop resulted low and restricted to few provinces. It is not clear whether the decrease for only gaseous emissions is sufficient to explain the observed drop in atmospheric PM10, or if the low drop in particulate emissions is indeed due to the uncertainty in the emission inventory data for this species
Long-term trend and variability of atmospheric PM10 concentration in the Po Valley
The limits to atmospheric pollutant concentration set by the European Commission provide a challenging target for the municipalities in the Po Valley, because of the characteristic climatic conditions and high population density of this region. In order to assess climatology and trends in the concentration of atmospheric particles in the Po Valley, a data set of PM10 data from 41 sites across the Po Valley have been analysed, including both traffic and background sites (either urban, suburban or rural). Of these 41 sites, 18 with 10 yr or longer record have been analysed for long-term trend in deseasonalized monthly means, in annual quantiles and in monthly frequency distribution. A widespread significant decreasing trend has been observed at most sites, up to a few percent per year, by a generalized least squares and Theil–Sen method. All 41 sites have been tested for significant weekly periodicity by Kruskal–Wallis test for mean anomalies and by Wilcoxon test for weekend effect magnitude. A significant weekly periodicity has been observed for most PM10 series, particularly in summer and ascribed mainly to anthropic particulate emissions. A cluster analysis has been applied in order to highlight stations sharing similar pollution conditions over the reference period. Five clusters have been found, two encompassing the metropolitan areas of Turin and Milan and their respective nearby sites and the other three clusters gathering northeast, northwest and central Po Valley sites respectively. Finally, the observed trends in atmospheric PM10 have been compared to trends in provincial emissions of particulates and PM precursors, and analysed along with data on vehicular fleet age, composition and fuel sales. A significant basin-wide drop in emissions occurred for gaseous pollutants, contrarily to emissions of PM10 and PM2.5, whose drop was low and restricted to a few provinces. It is not clear whether the decrease for only gaseous emissions is sufficient to explain the observed drop in atmospheric PM10, or if the low drop in particulate emissions is indeed due to the uncertainty in the emission inventory data for this species
Trends and variability of atmospheric PM2.5 and PM10-2.5 concentration in the Po Valley, Italy
The Po Valley is one of the largest European regions with a remarkably high concentration level of atmospheric pollutants, both for particulate and gaseous compounds. In the last decade stringent regulations on air quality standards and on anthropogenic emissions have been set by the European Commission, including also for PM2.5 and its main components since 2008. These regulations have led to an overall improvement in air quality across Europe, including the Po Valley and specifically PM10, as shown in a previous study by Bigi and Ghermandi (2014). In order to assess the trend and variability in PM2.5 in the Po Valley and its role in the decrease in PM10, we analysed daily gravimetric equivalent concentration of PM2.5 and of PM10-2.5 at 44 and 15 sites respectively across the Po Valley. The duration of the times series investigated in this work ranges from 7 to 10 years. For both PM sizes, the trend in deseasonalized monthly means, annual quantiles and in monthly frequency distribution was estimated: this showed a significant decreasing trend at several sites for both size fractions and mostly occurring in winter. All series were tested for a significant weekly periodicity (a proxy to estimate the impact of primary anthropogenic emissions), yielding positive results for summer PM2.5 and for summer and winter PM10-2.5. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed moderate variability in PM2.5 across the valley, with two to three main clusters, dividing the area in western, eastern and southern/Apennines foothill sectors. The trend in atmospheric concentration was compared with the time series of local emissions, vehicular fleet details and fuel sales, suggesting that the decrease in PM2.5 and in PM10 originates from a drop both in primary and in precursors of secondary inorganic aerosol emissions, largely ascribed to vehicular traffic. Potentially, the increase in biomass burning emissions in winter and the modest decrease in NH3 weaken an otherwise even larger drop in atmospheric concentrations
SENSORI A BASSO COSTO PER IL CONTROLLO DIFFUSO DELLA QUALIT\uc0 DELL\u2019ARIA URBANA
ABSTRACT
L'inquinamento atmosferico colpisce tutti, ed \ue8 la seconda principale causa di morte per malattie non trasmissibili dopo il fumo di tabacco. Secondo l\u2019Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanit\ue0 (OMS), si sono verificati oltre 550\u2d9000 decessi in Europa nel 2016 attribuibili agli effetti congiunti dell'inquinamento atmosferico indoor e outdoor e stime recenti (Lelieveld et at., 2019), ancora pi\uf9 allarmanti, rendono l'inquinamento atmosferico la prima causa ambientale di morte prematura in Europa.
Oltre l'80% delle persone che vivono in aree urbane ove sia monitorato l'inquinamento atmosferico sono esposte a livelli di contaminanti che superano i limiti delle linee guida dell'OMS per la qualit\ue0 dell\u2019aria, con esposizioni pi\uf9 alte nei paesi a basso e medio reddito. In Europa, tra le principali fonti di inquinamento atmosferico si trovano il traffico stradale, il riscaldamento domestico e la combustione industriale. Gli impatti ambientali del traffico veicolare sono assai rilevanti in molte aree metropolitane europee.
Le direttive sulla qualit\ue0 dell\u2019aria ambiente (2004/107/CE; 2008/50 /CE) stabiliscono l'obbligo di sviluppare e attuare piani di qualit\ue0 dell'aria e conseguenti misure per zone e agglomerati ove le concentrazioni di inquinanti superino gli standard dell'Unione Europea (UE). Piani e misure sono stati quindi implementati dagli stati membri, e costituiscono l\u2019elemento centrale della gestione della qualit\ue0 dell'aria. Nel 2013 la Commissione Europea ha pubblicato il pacchetto "Aria pulita" (Clean Air Policy) che mira sostanzialmente a ridurre l'inquinamento atmosferico in tutta l'UE, stabilisce obiettivi per diminuire gli impatti sulla salute e sull'ambiente entro il 2030 e contiene proposte legislative volte ad attuare norme pi\uf9 severe in materia di emissioni e di inquinamento atmosferico.
Nel febbraio 2017, la Commissione Europea ha allertato cinque paesi, tra cui Spagna e Italia, per i ripetuti superamenti dei limiti di inquinamento atmosferico da biossido di azoto (NO2), ed ha esortato tali stati ad attivarsi per garantire una buona qualit\ue0 dell'aria e salvaguardare la salute pubblica.
Il maggiore contributo alle emissioni totali di biossido di azoto nell'UE viene dal settore dei trasporti su strada, mentre la combustione di carburanti nell\u2019ambito di attivit\ue0 commerciali, istituzionali e domestiche contribuisce principalmente alle emissioni di particolato primario, soprattutto in alcune nazioni dell\u2019Est Europa.La maggior parte delle misure attivate dagli Stati membri in ottemperanza alle direttive sulla qualit\ue0 dell'aria ambiente negli ultimi 3 anni mira a ridurre concentrazioni e numero di superamenti dei valori limite di PM10 e NO2 (EEA, 2018). Per diminuire l\u2019impatto del traffico veicolare si adottano agevolazioni per passare ad altre modalit\ue0 di trasporto, si interviene su pianificazione urbanistica ed infrastrutture per il trasporto sostenibile, su miglioramenti al trasporto pubblico, sugli appalti pubblici.
Seguono misure relative a combustione commerciale e residenziale, all'industria per il PM10, e alla combustione industriale, commerciale e residenziale per NO2, prevedendo principalmente il passaggio a carburanti a basse emissioni, l\u2019introduzione di apparecchiature per il controllo delle emissioni e l\u2019aggiornamento delle tecnologie.
Sono infine importanti anche le modalit\ue0 di comunicazione: l'amministrazione locale \ue8 il principale responsabile della pianificazione ed attuazione delle misure e della notificazione delle azioni che i singoli possono adottare per ridurre l'inquinamento atmosferico (EEA, 2018).
La valutazione della qualit\ue0 dell'aria a termini di legge (D.Lgs. 155 del 13/08/2010, attuazione 2008/50/CE) viene svolta dagli enti territoriali preposti (Agenzie ARPA) con reti di stazioni di misura in siti fissi, ove il monitoraggio segue un rigoroso protocollo Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA /QC) per garantire incertezze di misura comprese in intervalli specifici ed appropriati allo scopo. I costi associati al mantenimento ed all\u2019efficienza di tali siti di monitoraggio hanno per\uf2 portato a una riconfigurazione delle reti di controllo normativo per la qualit\ue0 dell'aria in Europa nell'ultimo decennio, con conseguente miglioramento delle reti, ma anche diradamento spaziale dei siti di misura fissi. Ci\uf2 risponde alle principali esigenze legislative, ma non alla crescente domanda di informazioni diffuse sulla qualit\ue0 dell'aria nelle aree urbane, dove vive la maggior parte della popolazione mondiale (Nazioni Unite, 2015). Infatti, anche se la maggior parte delle misure attivate riguarda il settore trasporto su strada, si risente della mancanza di strumenti per stimare in modo efficiente e rapido il livello di inquinamento nelle diverse zone delle citt\ue0, derivante principalmente dalle condizioni del flusso di traffico: tali strumenti potrebbero ottimizzare le strategie di controllo ed anche accrescere nella popolazione la consapevolezza delle condizioni di qualit\ue0 dell'aria.
Sono stati quindi sviluppati ulteriori approcci per stimare lo stato di inquinamento in ambienti complessi come le aree urbane: fra i pi\uf9 promettenti fino ad ora adottati, si trovano la simulazione della dispersione atmosferica di inquinanti e l\u2019utilizzo di piccoli sensori a basso costo. Il primo approccio prevede la modellizzazione della dispersione con software di diversa complessit\ue0 ed adeguata scala spazio-temporale, ampiamente documentati in letteratura, mentre il secondo consiste nella dislocazione di sensori per mappare la qualit\ue0 dell'aria con risoluzione temporale (Bigi et al., 2018), o altre applicazioni, migliorando la copertura dell\u2019area urbana. L\u2019utilizzo di sensori a basso costo per la misura di inquinanti atmosferici in fase gas o particolato, soluzione tra le pi\uf9 economiche e di facile installazione, \ue8 oggi oggetto di notevole attenzione: nel prossimo futuro nei paesi \u201csviluppati\u201d essi saranno affiancati alle stazioni di monitoraggio normativo in aree urbane per aumentare la copertura spaziale, pur fornendo dati affetti da maggiore incertezza. Mentre nelle zone urbane di paesi in via di sviluppo essi potrebbero sostituirsi alle centraline di qualit\ue0 dell\u2019aria normative, per le quali manca l\u2019infrastruttura necessaria
Analysis of the air pollution climate at a background site in the Po valley
The Po valley in northern Italy is renowned for its high air pollutant concentrations. Measurements of air pollutants from a background site in Modena, a town of 200 thousand inhabitants within the Po valley, are analysed. These comprise hourly data for CO, NO, NO2, NOx, and O3, and daily gravimetric equivalent data for PM10 from 1998\u20132010. The data are analysed in terms of long-term trends, annual, weekly and diurnal cycles, and auto-correlation and cross-correlation functions. CO, NO and NO2 exhibit a strongly traffic-related pattern, with daily peaks at morning and evening rush hour and lower concentrations over the weekend. Ozone shows an annual cycle with a peak in July due to local production; notwithstanding the diurnal cycle dominated by titration by nitrogen oxide, the decreasing long term trend in NO concentration did not affect the long term trend in O3, whose mean concentration remained steady over the sampling period. PM10 shows a strong seasonality with higher concentration in winter and lower concentration in summer and spring. Both PM10 and ozone show a marked weekly cycle in summer and winter respectively. Regressions of PM10 upon NOx show a consistently greater intercept in winter, representing higher secondary PM10 in the cooler months of the year. There is a seasonal pattern in primary PM10 to NOx ratios, with lower values in winter and higher values in summer, but the reasons are unclear
“COMPETENZE TRASVERSALI SULLA SOSTENIBILITÀ”, IL NUOVO INSEGNAMENTO ATTIVATO IN UNIMORE
La formazione transdisciplinare sulla sostenibilità è riconosciuta come indispensabile in ogni ambito, professionale, politico, sociale. La situazione globale pandemica di Covid-19 ha modificato diversi aspetti della vita e della gestione degli Atenei, italiani e mondiali, fra cui certamente le modalità di erogazione della didattica. In questo contesto, l'Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Unimore) ha introdotto un nuovo insegnamento aperto a tutti gli studenti, denominato "Competenze Trasversali sulla Sostenibilità ", fruibile on line. L’insegnamento si compone di 12 moduli offerti dai diversi Dipartimenti di Unimore, che affrontano il tema della Sostenibilità da ogni prospettiva. Ciascun Dipartimento propone uno o più moduli tematici relativi alla Sostenibilità nei propri ambiti di studio e ricerca. L’insegnamento quindi spazia da moduli su energie rinnovabili, gestione rifiuti, qualità dell'aria, cambiamenti climatici, rischi naturali e antropici, fino ad altri su economia e finanza sostenibile e alla sostenibilità in ambito medico e legale, nella filosofia e nelle scienze umane. Nel primo anno di erogazione, 2020/2021, questo insegnamento ha riscosso grande interesse fra gli studenti. Oltre 950 studenti si sono iscritti, provenienti da tutti i corsi di studio dell'Ateneo, sia di primo che di secondo livello (triennali e magistrali) che a ciclo unico
Photocatalytic-treated asphalt road in Copenhagen for urban NOx removal
Atmospheric nitrogen oxides ([Formula: see text] ) are key pollutants and short-lived climate forcers contributing to acid rain, photochemical smog, aerosol formation and climate change. Exposure to nitrogen dioxide ([Formula: see text] ) emitted mainly from transportation, causes adverse health effects associated with respiratory illnesses and increased mortality even at low concentration. Application of titanium dioxide ([Formula: see text] )-based photocatalysis in urban environment is a new air cleaning solution, activated by sunlight and water vapour to produce OH radicals, able to remove [Formula: see text] and other pollutants from the planetary boundary layer. This study is a large-scale evaluation of [Formula: see text] removal efficiency at a near-road environment with applied photocatalytic NOxOFF™ technology on an urban road west of Copenhagen, thus supporting local municipality in meeting their clean-air Agenda 2030. The photocatalytic NOxOFF™ granulate containing [Formula: see text] nanoparticles was applied on an asphalt road in July 2020 and ambient [Formula: see text] was measured during a six-month monitoring campaign. It is the first [Formula: see text] monitoring campaign carried out at this road and specific efforts have been devoted to evaluate the reduction in ambient [Formula: see text] levels with NOxOFF™-treated asphalt. Several methods were used to evaluate the photocatalytic effect, taking into account analysis limitations such as the short reference period prior to application and the highly uncertain measurement period during which SARS-CoV-2 lockdown measures impacted air quality. There was no statistically significant difference in [Formula: see text] concentrations between the reference period and the photocatalytic active period and NO removal efficiency resulted in [Formula: see text] (± 1.27). An upper limit removal of 17.5% [Formula: see text] was estimated using a kinetic tunnel model. While [Formula: see text] comparison with COPERT V street traffic model projection was roughly estimated to decrease by 39% (± 38%), although this estimate is subject to high uncertainty. The observed annual mean [Formula: see text] concentration complies with Frederiksberg clean-air Agenda 2030 and air quality standards. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: A graphical abstract illustrating the air cleaning properties of [Formula: see text] -based photocatalytic-treated asphalt [Image: see text
Air quality (PM10) scenarios resulting from the expansion of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle in Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy)
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