Search Results (28)

Catastrophic precipitation is an inherent feature of temperate climates. Its occurrence is a manifestation of climate change, but also of the variability of atmospheric circulation. Mountainous areas may be particularly vulnerable as they receive more precipitation and are also areas where relief plays an important role in modifying the distribution of precipitation. One such area is the Polish Western Carpathian Mountains, especially the area around the city of Bielsko-Biała, located at their foot and directly exposed to rain-bearing winds. In 2024, two episodes of unusually heavy precipitation in quick succession occurred in this area, resulting in severe damage to infrastructure. This painful experience inspired a study focusing on the frequency of such catastrophic precipitation events and their synoptic circumstances spanning the period from the mid-20th century to the present day. Daily precipitation totals covering the study period of 74 years were used to identify a category of catastrophic precipitation (here set at above 100 mm). The six events identified to match the criteria appeared from May to September, always accompanied by cyclonic circulation types with advection from the northern sector and with a cyclonic trough situation over southern Poland. The study showed that the leading role in their formation was played by deep convection, especially a Genoa low moving along the Vb Van Bebber track. The damage and destruction suffered as a result were a consequence of the cumulative impact of high-intensity rainfall, itself caused by a combination of specific synoptic thermodynamic and orographic conditions. Full article

Urban afforestation is a key strategy for combating climate change and enhancing urban living by reducing carbon emissions and improving air quality. Reflecting these priorities, Italy’s National Ecological Transition Plan (NETP), led by the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MiTE), introduced the National Urban Forestry Plan to accelerate sustainability and resilience in urban areas. This plan focuses on reducing carbon emissions, enhancing natural capital through reforestation, and promoting Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for climate adaptation. Our study aligns with this framework by exploring how local urban forestry initiatives support the NETP’s objectives, providing a concrete example of policy implementation. Genoa (Italy) serves as a compelling case study. In 2023, the city received PNRR funding under the “Protection and Enhancement of Urban and Extra-Urban Greenery” initiative to improve air quality, restore biodiversity, and strengthen ecological corridors. Our research identifies three key areas for improvement: ecological planning, citizen engagement, and impact monitoring. We present initial findings and quantitative data, evaluating CO₂ sequestration potential, communication strategies, and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the specific context. These findings highlight the need for further investigation to optimize and communicate urban greening efforts. Full article

Urban green spaces, including green roofs (GRs), are vital infrastructure for climate resilience, retaining water in city landscapes and supporting ecohydrological processes. Quantifying the hydrologic performance of GRs in the urban environment for future climate scenarios is the original contribution of this research developed within the URCA! project. For this purpose, a continuous modelling approach is undertaken to evaluate the hydrological performance of GRs expressed by means of the runoff volume and peak flow reduction at the event scale for long data series (at least 20 years). To investigate the prediction of GRs performance in future climates, a simple methodological approach is proposed, using monthly projection factors for the definition of future rainfall and temperature time series, and transferring the system parametrization of the current model to the future one. The proposed approach is tested for experimental GR sites in Genoa and Rende, located in Northern and Southern Italy, respectively. Referring to both the Genoa and Rende experimental sites, simulation results are analysed to demonstrate how the GR performance varies with respect to rainfall event characteristics, including total depth, maximum rainfall intensity and ADWP for current and future scenarios. Full article

To create an inclusive city, it is essential to have accessible pedestrian infrastructure. The accessibility of pedestrian infrastructure is ensured through the proper maintenance of sidewalks. When resources are limited, it is necessary to prioritize sidewalks by identifying those in the most critical condition, and this is often achieved through multi-criteria analyses. This paper proposed an analysis of the criteria to be considered, which include not only pavement distresses but also the importance of the sidewalk in connecting various parts of the city and ensuring accessibility to significant places for all, including vulnerable users. Methodologies for evaluating a sidewalk in relation to these criteria were proposed and an application of these methods to a simple case study in Genoa was presented. In this context, the evaluation of the criteria weights was performed using subjective and objective methods. The weights calculated with the two methods generated the same priorities. All the experts interviewed agreed with the proposed set of criteria and two experts suggested considering a new criterion relating to the level of danger of the context in which a pavement is located. Full article

Background: Nutrition, cooking, and gardening lessons individually and together have been shown to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in school-aged children. The CATCH Rainbow program incorporated nutrition education, cooking, and gardening lessons aimed at increasing FV consumption in elementary school-aged children and assessed changes in participants’ BMI, self-reported FV consumption, and skin carotenoid levels at baseline and post-intervention. Methods: Two-hundred and twenty-five 4th and 5th graders (mean age: 9.8 years and 52% male participants) at Genoa Elementary School participated in six cooking and six gardening sessions between September 2021 and May 2022. Each nutrition education session was 25 min long, paired with either hands-on cooking activities or gardening skills. At baseline and post-intervention, participants’ height and weight were assessed with a stadiometer/scale, and skin carotenoid measurement was taken by a Veggie Meter^® (Longevity Link Corporation (Salt Lake City, UT, USA)). Students also completed the Block Food Frequency Questionnaire to self-report FV consumption at both time points. Focus groups were conducted with children at the end of the program for qualitative feedback. Results: paired samples T-test and regression analysis results indicate no significant decrease in BMI or significant increase in skin carotenoid scores from pre- to post-intervention. However, though not significant, there was an increase in self-reported FV intake by 0.4 servings. Additionally, the qualitative feedback was positive, as children mentioned benefits of healthy eating and expressed enjoyment for growing, cooking, and tasting fruits and vegetables. Conclusions: Results from this study can be used to guide future cooking and gardening programs for elementary school children. Time of the year when implementing these programs and collecting data may impact study outcomes due to seasonal variations in fruit and vegetable intake. Full article

The topic of the circular economy and its potential applications to urban areas is currently widely discussed as it is seen as a possible solution to the state of environmental, economic, and social unsustainability resulting from the previous consumption model. However, although many contributions focus on one or more key sectors affecting the urban environment (Mobility, Waste, Built Environment, Water, Energy, and Food), few attempts address the topic comprehensively, promoting a broad vision that encompasses all sectors and evaluates their interrelation. This paper aims to meet this need by first providing an overview of the topic of circular cities, best practices, and circular actions, and subsequently defining a synergistic methodological framework of intersectoral circular actions that considers the interrelation of the various key sectors and that can be used as a tool to contribute to the overall closure of the urban cycle of a city. The city of Genoa is proposed as a case study for a first application. This research should be incorporated into a possible Urban Circular Action Plan aimed at implementing current international strategies. Full article

The theme of adaptive reuse, of great topicality for those who deal with built heritage, has its roots in the recent past, dating back to the end of the last century, when the problem of reuse proved to be competitive, for economic and cultural reasons, with respect to total demolition and reconstruction. Since then, various disciplinary and methodological approaches have been confronted with theories and methods of intervention, on an ever-expanding cultural heritage. This article offers a research perspective, with application of a case study of particular relevance to the city of Genoa, Italy. Adaptive reuse, in the text, is specifically dedicated to religious and sacred heritage that has lost its original function but has retained material traces and intangible values. The methodological approach, shared by several European architectural schools, is multi-disciplinary in nature and stems from the need to preserve material traces but, at the same time, preserve the spirit of the place, according to what is defined by the international community. The methodology and results are applied to the enhancement and reuse work for the former Genoa University Library, formerly the church of the Genoese Jesuit College (17th century). Full article

Urban resilience must consider the ability of cities to cope with the effects of climate change. Community awareness raising and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs) are often mentioned in the literature as effective adaptation actions while the success of these solutions is highly context-dependent and improved planning procedures are urgently needed. In this framework, the URCA! project represents a good practice aiming to strengthen the resilience of urban areas by promoting the implementation of SUDs in territorial planning. The main objective of the present research deals with the role of participation in promoting the use of SUDs and their uptake in town planning and land management involving local communities, students, experts, local authorities, and enterprises. To this end, the research adopts a participatory approach to SUDs urban planning for three case studies in Italy selected under the criterion of maximum variation (Brescia, Genoa, and Matera). For the three case studies, participatory approaches are at different stages of development thus requiring appropriate ways of interacting and resulting in different impacts on decisions. Preliminary results, drivers, and barriers in the application of the participatory approach are discussed and compared in order to bring innovation into planning practices, stimulating a revision of typical governance mechanisms. Full article

Planning for resilient cities requires an evidence-based understanding of flood risk and the involvement of stakeholders and local actors. The paper addresses research developed within the URCA!—Urban Resilience to Climate Change: to activate the participatory mapping and decision support tool for enhancing sustainable urban drainage—project. A top-down/bottom-up participatory and flexible methodology for the conception of participatory mapping aimed at the planning and installation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) on the territory is then developed. The innovative methodology is applied and tested in the case study of the Sampierdarena district in Genoa, northern Italy. This research paper illustrates the development of a participatory map (Pmap) that can support the implementation of SUDS as mitigation/adaptation strategies, integrating technical assessment and containing community visions and expectations. Findings concerning the connections between proposed SUDS locations and their frequencies confirm the relevance of the commercial area and the main traffic lanes along, confirming that all zones characterized by intense vehicular and pedestrian flow are suitable for SUDS as a solution to contribute to urban flood resilience. The georeferenced and intergenerational Pmap may be integrated into a decision support system to be developed as a guidance tool for the public administration. Full article

Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) is one of the most valid solutions to tackle the problems affecting public transport today, both in urban and rural areas. Despite its undoubted advantages, it still remains underdeveloped compared to its great potential. The purpose of this paper is to understand the role that on-demand transport plays in the strategic choices of public transport authorities (PTAs): to this end, this study examined the DRT services of three geographically distant European cities, in order to test different social, cultural and regulatory backgrounds, examining their main characteristics. Tampere, Braunschweig and Genoa were selected for the purposes of this work; data and information were collected by viewing the official websites of public transport companies and by direct contact via mail/telephone with the managers responsible for on-call transport. The data collected were then analyzed based on specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) identified in academic literature. The results of this paper show that the role of on-call service in the strategic decisions of PTAs depends on the cultural context of reference; some cities focus more on urban services, others on rural transport. In all three case studies examined, on-demand transport is an important aspect of local mobility and with wide room for growth. Full article

This paper deals with a variant of the multifacility location-routing problem in urban areas. The distribution network is modelled by an undirected graph, in which the nodes are split into a set of pickup-delivery stations, a depot, and a set of customers. The arcs represent the minimum-cost connections between nodes. A customer is assigned to a pickup-delivery station if he or she can reach it at the lowest sustainable cost, i.e., on foot or by bicycle, without exceeding a predefined maximum distance. The goal is to minimise the goods’ total delivery cost, including pollutant emissions. In this perspective, both travel distance and means of transport play a key role. We present an exact novel approach based on partitioning the research space of the solutions of a Mixed Integer Linear Programming model. In the model, Boolean decisional variables, representing the selection of the locations for the pickup-delivery stations, are fixed simultaneously with the solution of the classical Travelling Salesman Problem. A branching constraint allows us to determine the route that serves the selected pickup-delivery stations and the route, if any, that serves customers who do not go to any pickup-delivery station. We conduct extensive experimentation to test the proposed approach’s computational efficiency and analyse the optimal solution’s robustness with respect to the maximum distance of customers from the stations, their activation cost and the pollutant emissions. The effectiveness of the proposed approach in terms of solution quality and computation time is certified by a set of computational tests based on randomly generated instances with up to 150 customers and 30 pickup-delivery stations. The application of the proposed exact method to a case study related to a district of the city of Genoa (Italy) confirms its validity also for sustainably addressing real-size urban delivery problems. An evaluation of incentives for customers using pickup-delivery stations, possibly by implementing discount policies on orders, is also proposed. Full article

Making all types of public and private transport services available to users through a single and integrated digital platform is the new urban mobility paradigm called Mobility as a Service (MaaS). This scheme allows both a more sustainable urban transportation system and a more efficient transport service for users. For MaaS to be successful, its implementation should adapt to the specific features of the location covered by the service. The city maturity level has to be considered in terms of multimodality, infrastructures, regulations, user goals, and user willingness to use and pay for MaaS services. This paper discusses and analyses the results of a survey on MaaS conducted in three Italian metropolitan areas: Turin, Rome, and Genoa, which have very different and specific characteristics. The comparative analysis enables the definition of drivers, obstacles, and requisites for MaaS implementation to be successful. When it comes to cities with conservative mobility policies or cities that are new to MaaS experiences, resistance to adoption of the service might occur. The results of the research discussed in this paper can be a useful resource to enable decision makers to develop more effective and efficient transportation policies. Full article

This paper aims at exploring the potentiality of the multimodal fusion of remote sensing imagery with information coming from mobility demand data in the framework of land-use mapping in urban areas. After a discussion on the function of mobility demand data, a probabilistic fusion framework is developed to take advantage of remote sensing and transport data, and their joint use for urban land-use and land-cover applications in urban and surrounding areas. Two different methods are proposed within this framework, the first based on pixelwise probabilistic decision fusion and the second on the combination with a region-based multiscale Markov random field. The experimental validation is conducted on a case study associated with the city of Genoa, Italy. Full article

The paper illustrates the enhancement of knowledge of architecture from 1945 onwards in Genoa by means of the publication on the Geoportal of the Municipality, which was developed with open-source systems, of a proper dataset and tools for digital storytelling for citizens. The implementation on the municipal Geoportal of a section called “Contemporary Architecture from 1945 onwards in Genoa” was made possible through collaboration between the University of Genoa Architecture and Design Department (DAD) and the Municipality of Genoa Office for Geographical Information Systems. The data related to the buildings in the Municipality of Genoa were extracted from a previous study about contemporary architecture in Liguria carried out by DAD. The case study introduced two tools for the promotion and enhancement of knowledge of such architecture, a map on which the buildings are located and associated with an information form and geostories with in-depth information on selected buildings, the latter of which can be sorted based on thematic itineraries or by author. The use of integrated services contributes to the competitiveness and sustainability of the city, raising citizens’ awareness of the value of the architecture of the second half of the 20th century and thus activating conservation processes as advocated in the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations General Assembly. Full article

Dense urban areas are facing relevant issues related to their high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and ecosystem health. The study presents a case study of a regeneration project with Nature-based Solutions in the city of Genoa (Italy) and, more specifically, in a neighbourhood characterised by relevant health and well-being issues. The performances of three design scenarios for a city hotspot, including plant species selected with a systemic approach and light pavements, are analysed in terms of improved microclimate by means of the ENVI-met software V4.4.5. The results show different benefits on the microclimate compared to the current state depending on the different scenarios: A UTCI decrease from 4.1 °C to 5.4 °C, a reduction of mean radiant temperature from 12.3 °C to 17.3 °C, a relative humidity increase from 3.8% to 5.6%, and a progressive decrease in wind speed are detected in a directly proportional way to the gradual increase in greenery inside the scenarios. In reverse, better results for air temperatures are detected for the scenario with less greening (Δt = 1.8 °C). The study relies on the re-parametrisation of plant species characteristics in the ENVI-met database to reach a high level of accuracy. Full article