Claudia Ceppi

Climate alteration in the metropolitan area of bari: temperatures and relationship with characters of urban context

Urban planning exerts influences on environmental, social and economic system related with the city. Processes of land transformation and city growth determine radical changes in urban landscape morphology and as a consequence they affect air temperature and energy exchange. The urbanization can bear on local climate more intensively than the global warming does. This is due to the rapidity of human made changes related to natural ones. The present work analyzes the state of the art of studies involved in studying urban climate anomalies --- Urban Heat Islands (UHI) --- in order to explore relationship between urban planning morphology and urban climate. The research aim wants to indentify how urban geometry can be related with climate alterations in order to provide guidelines for planners to frame urban form planning and environmental quality. The case study is the city of Bari, located on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, in Apulia, one of the regions in Italy.

The Estimation of the Depreciation of Property Due to Environmental Risk: The Case of Taranto

The environmental damage due to industrial pollution activities to produce the adaptations in the behavior of economic agents involved: if there is a decrease of environmental quality, it may lead to a negative change in real estate market values, identified the quantities and the prices of traded goods.Starting from these considerations a situation analysis was carried out about three municipalities of Apulia Region (Brindisi, Bari and Taranto), which are affected by major environmental industrial detractors. The “Federico II” coal power plant and the Coal Docks in the harbour of Brindisi, the presence of the “Fibronit” Asbestos plant, in which the production of asbesto-cement mixed materials has ceased but the site has partially been cleanup in Bari, and the presence of the “ILVA” steel plant in Taranto.

Characterization of Minor Historic Centers: Quantitative Indexes, and Qualitative Aspects

According to Cassatella et al. (2011), the “sense” of the landscape, environmental or urban that is, can be found in the intersection of different dimensions. From here arises the difficulty of “measuring” the value of a territory while at the same time the qualitative and quantitative evaluations must endeavor to overcome these difficulties. An assessment, however complex and composed by different dimension, must measure the effects of the changes that minor historical centers are inevitably undergoing and to compare the results of human actions. In this chapter, we explain the main indicators, often borrowed from other contexts, that quantify the different components that characterize a historic center as well as how they can contribute to a systemic characterization.

Contribution of Geomatics Engineering and VGI Within the Landslide Risk Assessment Procedures

This paper presents a literature review on the methodology called Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and its use for Landslide Risk Assessment (LRA). General risk assessment procedures are discussed and the potential contributions of VGI are identified, in particular when quantitative characterization of factors such as Hazard, Vulnerability and Exposure is required. The review shows that the standard LRA procedures may benefit from input given by surveyors when performing hazard assessments, while crowdsourced data would be a valuable support in vulnerability/damage assessment studies. The review also highlights several limitations related to the role of VGI and crowdsourcing in LRA.

Assessing vulnerability to landslides in Italy

The present work aims at answering the following research questions: (a) to infer on the causes of vulnerability (e.g. in infrastructures) to landslides and assess the contribution of these factors to vulnerability risks in disaster management; (b) to address policy implications for planning solutions to help reducing the risk of vulnerability to landslides in the Italian context. To answer to these questions we assess the concept of vulnerability in the context of natural disasters. Second, with a Multinomial Logit regression we infer data on the order of damages, with the characteristics of landslides in order to study the relationship between the vulnerability of structures and infrastructures, with the landslide phenomenon. Third, we argue on the need of an effective policy strategy at national level in line with the indications given at EU level.

Methods and Techniques for Integrated Mesoscale and Microscale Analysis of Urban Thermal Behavior: The Case of Bari (Italy)

Within the general study of urban heat islands, some specific aspects were investigated in the city of Bari, South Italy, where the analyzes were carried out at two different scales, in order to explore the thermal patterns of all the areas including public housing complexes. In fact, it was considered that those are among the most vulnerable to urban and building decay, also due to poor original environmental and constructional quality, so that improvement actions at different decision-making levels are highly desirable. Specifically, starting from a GIS-based analysis of the overall urban area at the mesoscale, through some representative parameters and their relationships with the land surface temperatures, the assessment was further carried out at the microscale, which suggested retrofitting strategies on the buildings, in order to address both district heat mitigation and envelope energy efficiency.