Giuliano Marella

Use of the Contingent Valuation Method in the assessment of a landfill mining project

A comprehensive approach for the evaluation of the economic feasibility of landfill mining (LFM) should take into account not only the direct costs and revenues for the private investor, but also the social benefits or costs (generally called externalities), in such a way that projects generating major social benefits (and no significant private revenues) are not overlooked. With a view to contributing to the development of a common framework for the evaluation of LFM projects, this paper presents the results of a case study where the issue of the assessment of social benefits from a LFM project is addressed. In particular, the Contingent Valuation Method is applied for the monetary assessment of the community-perceived benefits from the remediation of an old uncontrolled waste deposit by means of LFM and the conversion of the area into a park. Based on the results of a survey carried out on a random sample of people living near the old landfill, the economic values of the individual willingness to pay (WTP) for LFM and the subsequent creation of a public park were calculated and the correlations with the relevant variables (distance from the landfill site, age, income, sex, education level) assessed. The results were then suitably extended and the monetary value of the welfare increase of the whole population resident in the area and potentially affected both by LFM and the creation of the park was calculated.

Residential construction cost: An Italian survey

This paper reports data describing development projects for new buildings according to construction costs in North-East Italy. A survey was carried out on local companies undertaking new residential development projects in two Italian regions (Veneto and Lombardy). The aim of this survey was to record new real estate construction projects, collecting both technical and socio-economic cost features. It is extremely difficult to collect such data for the Italian real estate construction sector, due to its lack of transparency, so that the novelty for the Italian scenario is the dataset itself. Another interest perspective of this survey is that socio-economic characteristics were also recorded; they are often studied in urban economics, but are usually related to property purchase prices and values, not to construction costs. The data come from an analysis of Canesi and Marella regarding the relationship between the trend of construction costs and the socio-economic conditions of the reference setting, such as the mean years of schooling of the workforce, housing market trends, and average per capita income.

How Regulation Affects Energy Saving: Smart Grid Innovation in Tall Buildings

The economic problems involved in new high-rise buildings are mainly approached from the developer’s perspective, especially in private-public partnerships, popular in Italian urban planning. Interest in energy savings and sustainability for buildings has recently increased considerably. Italian regulations have generally approached these problems from the viewpoint of materials and structures; zoning regulations do not cover energy from the viewpoint of investment projects and their externalities, either in urban development or from the economic viewpoint.

Housing price gradient and immigrant population: Data from the Italian real estate market

The database presented here was collected by Antoniucci and Marella to analyze the correlation between the housing price gradient and the immigrant population in Italy during 2016. It may also be useful in other statistical analyses, be they on the real estate market or in another branches of social science. The data sample relates to 112 Italian provincial capitals. It provides accurate information on urban structure, and specifically on urban density. The two most significant variables are original indicators constructed from official data sources: the housing price gradient, or the ratio between average prices in the center and suburbs by city; and building density, which is the average number of housing units per residential building. The housing price gradient is calculated for the two residential sub-markets, new-build and existing units, providing an original and detailed sample of the Italian residential market. Rather than average prices, the housing price gradient helps to identify potential divergences in residential market trends. As well as house prices, two other data clusters are considered: socio-economic variables, which provide a framework of each city, in terms of demographic and economic information; and various data on urban structure, which are rarely included in the same database.

Data from RE distressed market: Properties Auctions in Italy

This paper reports data describing Real Estate (RE) distressed market, focusing on properties foreclosures occurred in North-East Italy. A survey was carried out consulting financial institutions, courts of law and different associations of public notaries. The aim of this survey was to record RE auctions, collecting technical and socio-economic features. The novelties of this survey are mainly two. The first consists in the dataset itself, due to the difficult in collecting such type of data in the Italian scenario. The second one is the recording of socio-economic features related to the occurrence of the survived Re auction. The collected socio-economic characteristics regard housing market trends and performance as well as demographic features. These features could be analyzed in order to relate the performances of this type of distressed market and the surrounding urban context. The database come from an analysis of the authors regarding the discount existing between the Forced Sale Price and the Market value, assessed by appraisers.

How Regulation Affects Innovation: The Smart Grid Case At Urban Scale

Purpose: The paper discusses energy saving policies implemented in Italy in the last ten years and shows their ineffectiveness in promoting innovation in new energy systems, such as Smart Grids.The economic fundamentals involved in energy consumption are investigated with specific reference to high rise – high density settlements and their prevalent building typology, i.e. tall buildings. The paper discusses how the energy demand and consumption of a single building can affect the energy trade-off of entire cities.Approach – We examine current local and national policies- for energy consumption reduction, then we discuss how Italian urban planning should adopt ad hoc regulation in order to pursue innovative systems of energy saving. We also - debate on the present absence of procedures to evaluate these policies’ effects on market demand in both new building construction and deep energy retrofit. Finally we argue the inadequacy of Italian national and local legislation in promoting Smart Grids as innovative systems of electric energy production, distribution and consumption.Findings – We represent the stat of art in the Italian legislation for energy saving and we offer a theoretical framework to verify the effectiveness of these measures. Furthermore we propose a new way to promote innovative systems of energy production for high density settlements. In this respect, due to technological and facility management characteristics tall buildings are an opportunity to experiment smart grids at neighborhood level. Beyond the construction engineering advances, we present how regulation should help to improve innovation.Research limitations/implications – The paper is mainly exploratory and identifies some issues for further research. Data on housing market demand related to public incentives must be collected to measure the effectiveness of local norms. Furthermore, selected case studies must be investigated to verify the energy demand at diverse urban density: this survey is preliminary to the definition of protocols for both technological and regulatory interventions.Originality/values – The paper is the first attempt in Italy to present the role of town planning norms in the promotion of Smart Grids and, in general, to match innovative distributed energy systems to legislation in planning. Furthermore the present contribution highlights the potential of specific building typologies, e.g. tall buildings, in the promotion of Smart Grids.

Traffic Noise and Housing Values

Noise is one of the most serious forms of pollution and one of the main causes of the deterioration of the quality of life in urban areas. This paper analyzes the effects of traffic noise on house prices in the historic center of Ferrara. The analysis was done by analyzing the distribution of house prices and noise pollution, using multiple regression. This study also demonstrates that the discomfort produced by noise is highly variable and that it increases more than proportionally to the noise produced. There is however a clear and significant negative relationship between the discomfort produced by noise and housing values. Average housing devaluation is 1,900 ITL per percentage point of people disturbed by noise per square meter of surface area. Noise pollution, therefore, clearly affects property values, which in turn legitimizes the recent protective norms for urban environment.

La valutazione ex-ante degli effetti sul valore immobiliare di interventi della salvaguardia ambientale nell'isola di Sant'Erasmo nella laguna di venezia : un approccio gerarchico

Il presente contributo si prefigge lo scopo di valutare gli effetti degli interventi di salvaguardia dell’isola di Sant’Erasmo, nella Laguna di Venezia, sul patrimonio immobiliare, nel tentativo di verificare se la loro attuazione possa portare ad un incre∗ Giuseppe Stellin, professore ordinario di Economia ed Estimo civile, Giuliano Marella, ricercatore in Estimo, e Chiara D’Alpaos, dottoranda di ricerca in Estimo ed Economia territoriale, afferiscono al Dipartimento di Innovazione Meccanica e Gestionale dell’Università degli Studi di Padova; Paolo Rosato, professore associato di Economia ed Estimo Civile, al Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Università degli Studi di Trieste ed alla Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei. La presente ricerca è stata finanziata dal CORILA – Consorzio per la gestione del centro di coordinamento delle attività di ricerca inerenti il sistema lagunare di Venezia e svolta nell’ambito del Laboratorio di Valutazioni Immobiliari e Ambientali dell’Università degli Studi di Padova diretto dal prof. G. Stellin. Questo lavoro è stato sviluppato in stretta collaborazione dagli autori. Tuttavia la stesura dei paragrafi 3 e 4 è attribuibile a P. Rosato, 2 e 5 a G. Marella e 6, 7 e l’appendice a C. D’Alpaos. Comuni la premessa e le considerazioni conclusive. Si ringrano i tecnici del Consorzio Venezia Nuova per le informazioni fornite. La descrizione degli interventi fa riferimento al Progetto Generale Definitivo e al Primo Intervento Attuativo del Progetto Generale Definitivo approvato dal Comune di Venezia e dalla Commissione per la Salvaguardia di Venezia, è datato luglio 2000. Il valore attuale degli edifici nello stato attuale è stato stimato utilizzando la seguente funzione: Vui = 1786 Ii. Il coefficiente è stato stimato dividendo la somma dei prezzi unitari di mercato registrati per gli immobili compravenduti nell’ultimo anno per la somma dei relativi indicatori di valore. A questo proposito si ringrazia l’arch. Alfredo Marascalchi per le preziose informazioni fornite sul mercato immobiliare veneziano.