Energy Community in Action—Energy Citizenship Contract as Tool for Climate Neutrality

Cities are responsible for 65% of energy consumption and for the 70% of CO2 emissions. Incisive actions are fundamental to bring cities towards climate neutrality by 2050 working by and for the citizens. For this reason, the “100 climate-neutral cities Mission” anticipates the target of climate neutrality by 2030. The objective of this paper, developed within the H2020 GRETA project—GReen Energy Transition Actions (GA101022317), is to investigate energy communities and climate city contracts as key interventions to face the ambitious goal of implementing citizenscentered and climate-neutral cities. To achieve this objective, this paper is structured as follows: (1) an updated framework of European and Italian legislation concerning energy communities; (2) an overview of climate city contracts’ definition and key aspects; (3) a selection and analysis of energy communities’ case studies; (4) a description of already developed pilot climate city contracts. The results provide more advanced knowledge about EU energy communities strategies and about the possible contractual agreements that can guarantee commitment between parties and can allow the active participation of citizens in the energy system. The lessons learned contribute to the application in the GRETA Italian case study, whose first participation activities are also described in the paper

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

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND GREENING STRATEGIES AS ENABLING PRACTICES FOR INCLUSIVE AND RESILIENT CITIES

The climate change challenges call for innovative and sustainable policies and governance models, capable of achieving adaptation and mitigation goals working on a necessary behavioural societal change, both at individual and collective levels. Cities and their public spaces represent an ideal ground for the implementation of innovative strategies, which combine participatory and engagement practices to physical transformations of urban areas in a regenerative perspective. Co-design and participatory paths can trigger reactivation and re-appropriation of underused spaces, generate new dynamics in the public space use and provide effective solutions to tackle climate change, improving outdoor microclimatic comfort conditions. The implementation of demonstrative and temporary interventions – based on greening actions co-created with local administrations, stakeholders and citizens and supported by technologies – represents a viable and effective practice in order to experiment, test, monitor and evaluate shared pathways to more liveable, resilient and sustainable cities. This combined approach was experimented in the Bologna University area by the EU Horizon 2020 project ROCK – Regeneration and Optimisation of Cultural Heritage in Creative and Knowledge Cities (GA 730280) – through a series of pilot actions aimed at public open space utilization and potential enhancement in particular in the historical city centres, generating new resilient processes in terms of environmental sustainability and social inclusion

Feasibility of municipal waste reuse for building envelopes for near Zero Energy Building

This paper deals with the experimental stage of an Italian research aimed at testing the feasibility of municipal waste reuse for the designing of building envelopes for Zero-Energy Buildings. The first stage dealt with the designing of the single components, whilst the stage described in the present contribution is about the project for a pilot didactic class for the “Mira Porte” Primary school, located in the town of Mira (Venice, Italy). It is the result of a research agreement between the Interdepartmental Centre for Territory, Building, Conservation and Environment of the Sapienza University of Rome (CITERA) and the Municipality of Mira. Energy efficiency of public buildings and the creation of safe and healthy schools are central topics in current national and local Italian politics, topics which include incentives and funds. The paper describes the main architectural, technological and plant characteristics of the classroom project. The building is an NZEB, configured as an additional independent volume, placed in the courtyard of the existing school. It is composed of a room for 25 students and an adjoining winter garden which has both a bioclimatic and a didactic function. The main feature of the project is the use of prefab building components made from solid urban waste, in particular wooden pallets and tyres, instead of traditional building materials, so as to contribute to a decreasing demand for energy and improve eco-friendly waste management. The present experiment aims at demonstrating the authentic behavior of the components once they have been assembled into a built structure and the overall functioning of the building structure and its systems

Cultural Heritage Leading Urban Futures: Actions and Innovations from ROCK Project

The ROCK project sees historic city centres as laboratories to demonstrate how Cultural Heritage can be an engine of regeneration, sustainable development and economic growth. ROCK approach foresees the systemic and flexible application of a series of role-model practices in the testing sites of three Replicator cities, to turn historic city centres afflicted by physical decay, social conflicts and poor life quality into Creative and Sustainable Districts. This book provides an overview of the project, extracting themes, material and final remarks from the Open Knowledge Week “Cultural Heritage Leading Urban Futuresâ€, held on 27-30 October 2020. Over the past three years, ten ROCK cities – Athens, Bologna, Cluj-Napoca, Eindhoven, Lisbon, Liverpool, Lyon, Skopje, Turin, and Vilnius â€“ together with service providers and knowledge brokers have tested and advanced numerous soft and hard tools, collaborative approaches aimed at shaping sustainable, heritage-led urban futures. This book shows their shared results, best practices and lessons learnt from interdisciplinary research, innovative action, dissemination of knowledge and creation of new synergies at European level

EVALUATION OF SHEEP GRAZING EFFECTS ON NEMATODE COMMUNITY, INSECT INFESTATION AND SOIL FERTILITY IN SWEET CHESTNUT ORCHARDS: A CASE OF STUDY

In sweet chestnut cultivation, important ecosystem in Europe, the moderate sheep grazing practice may have some beneficial effects in organic farming. Its impact, on soil fertility, soil nematode community and level of fruit infested by tortricids and curculionids was evaluated in a case of study in Tuscany (Central Italy). An organic farm with sheep grazing system (SG) based on long-term field application was compared with an adjacent organic farm with poultry manure system (PM). In both managements, no treatment to control pests and diseases was applied and 0.19 kg /plant of nitrogen were distributed. SG increased twice the amount of organic C, total N and available P than PM. Moreover, the salinity effect of uric acid significantly increased the pH values in SG (from 5.0 to 6.2). The greatest accumulation of organic matter under SG provided stability in nematode community structure and the plant parasitic nematodes decreased. The analysis on the nematodes emerged from Galleria mellonella larvae, revealed that the abundance of native entomopathogenic nematodes was low and not effective to control insect pests. The sheep demonstrated to be the effective predators of tortricid and weevil larvae and in November, the total infestation was significantly lower in SG (34.3%) than PM (54.3%)

Influences of Wolbachia (Rickettsiales Rickettsiaceae) on the cellular response to cold stress in Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera Drosophilidae)

Wolbachia pipiensis (Hertig et Wolbach, 1924) is known to manipulate the expression of genes implicated in the metabolism, immunity and reproduction in Drosophila melanogaster (Meigen, 1830). Under stress, cells activate the cellular stress response (CSR). The CSR is a conserved network of pathways regulating identification, check and response to stress, preserving the cellular homeostasis. The CSR involves the unfolded protein response, autophagy, the heat shock response and other subcellular pathways. How Wolbachia affects the CSR has not yet been investigated. Here, we report the influence of Wolbachia infection and cold stress on the expression of the Heat-shock-protein-70Aa (Hsp70Aa), Autophagy-related gene-1 (Atg1) and X box binding protein-1 (Xbp1) genes and the influence of cold stress on the Wolbachia surface protein gene (wsp). The Hsp70Aa, Atg1, and Xbp1 genes were affected by Wolbachia infection since they were found to be up-regulated in the Wolbachia-free flies. After cold stress, the Wolbachia-infected flies showed high expression of the Atg1 and Hsp70Aa genes in comparison to the Wolbachia-free flies. Moreover, cold stress negatively influenced the expression of the wsp gene

Passive Houses a confronto: distribuzione geografica, tipologie edilizie, tecnologie costruttive, ambiti di innovazione

Il contributo analizza la diffusione dello standard Passive House in Europa con un focus sull'Italia. Attraverso il database e la mappa messi a disposizione dal Passive House Institute, viene sviluppata un\u2019indagine che consente di selezionare i progetti filtrandoli a seconda della loro localizzazione geografica, la tipologia edilizia, la tipologia costruttiva e l\u2019eventuale livello di certificazione, se presente. In base alle risultanze dell'indagine, la Fiorita Passive House, caso studio oggetto del libro di cui la postfazione fa parte, \ue8 la prima e sola in tutta l\u2019area mediterranea ad adottare una struttura in legno, sia tra gli edifici certificati che tra quelli non certificati. Vengono poi presentate 7 schede riassuntive che descrivono le principali caratteristiche dei progetti certificati Passive House inclusi nella tipologia Apartment House. Tutti gli edifici sono accomunati dall\u2019essere stati realizzati con struttura in legno e si trovano in Europa, in aree caratterizzate da climi freddi o continentali. La Fiorita Passive House \ue8 l'unica eccezione. Il contributo si chiude con un confronto tra i vari progetti analizzati, estrapolando considerazioni su alcune delle principali caratteristiche che li accomunano, su quelle che li differenziano e sull\u2019evoluzione in atto

The network for the project of prevention and ex-post dynamics

The network for sharing, generating and transferring knowledge has to develop competences and generate operational, managerial and organisational models, valid also (and above all) in the case of disruptive and sudden events. Therefore, if it is true that the access, the sharing and the implementing of knowledge are typical actions of all stakeholders, nonetheless the role of those working for the organising, structuring and systematising of information must be acknowledged for the purpose of making it rapidly available, organised in relation to different levels of depth and summarisation, but however available to any kind of recipient and open to interferences generated by the crossing of different aims. Such activity can be defined as safeguarding and maintenance of the system-network and is the responsibility of those who operate in order to generate knowledge

Ristrutturazione del campanile dell'ex Cattedrale di Santa Colomba

Il contributo documenta un restauro scientifico con ampliamento del campanile della ex cattedrale di Santa Colomba a Rimini. Il progetto ha affrontato la tematica dell\u2019inserimento di un nuovo volume in un complesso antico e vincolato dalla Soprintendenza, il rispetto e valorizzazione delle preesistenze, non ultimi i rinvenimenti conseguenti allo scavo archeologico, gli aspetti tecnici legati al restauro, il rapporto tra vecchie e nuove tecnologie e tra materiali storici e contemporanei. Particolare attenzione \ue8 stata dedicata alla cura del dettaglio costruttivo, architettonico e strutturale ed al contenimento del consumo energetico