Higher Institute on Territorial Systems for Innovation
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The Sanctuary of Vicoforte
No full textRenowned for its massive masonry oval dome, the largest worldwide, the Sanctuary of Vicoforte has faced significant structural issues, including settlement and cracking. Since the 1980s, a sophisticated monitoring system has evolved, incorporating static and dynamic measurements, supported by geotechnical surveys. Recent advancements include the integration of satellite data. The collection and the analysis of these different kind of data aimed at developing a robust Digital Twin for real-time diagnostics and predictive analysis, paving the way for resilient management of architectural heritage. Temperature-induced behaviors, such as changes in vibration frequencies and crack dynamics, reveal complex interactions between environmental conditions and structural responses. Future upgrades will focus on further integrating remote sensing capabilities to enhance this innovative approach
Icone della produzione. Sei territori della provincia in transizione
No full textIl volume si propone di indagare i processi di transizione in atto nei territori dell’Italia di mezzo assumendo come focale la lente della produzione. Lo fa attraverso la decostruzione di alcune “icone” della produzione moderna e premoderna: le cave di Carrara, le saline di Cervia, lo stabilimento chimico di Bussi sul Tirino, le acciaierie di Terni, il distretto industriale laniero di Biella, i campi dell’agricoltura estensiva di Borgo Mezzanone nel Tavoliere pugliese. Questi territori, pur non apparendo oggi come luoghi interessati da importanti processi di di cambiamento, nascondono segnali opachi, sussulti e scricchiolii che, dal nostro punto di vista, raccontano in modo più significativo rispetto ad altri contesti vistosamente innovativi, elementi di transizione e mutamento dei territori della provincia italiana.
Il volume evita volutamente un approccio iperdescrittivo e assume questi luoghi come terreno d’inchiesta, concentrandosi su due chiavi di lettura principali.
La prima riguarda il rapporto tra vecchie e nuove iconografie. Osservando questi luoghi è possibile cogliere come talvolta le rappresentazioni novecentesche lascino (o no) il passo ad altre iconografie che hanno la forza di costruire consenso attorno a politiche e progetti territoriali. In alcuni casi, le iconografie novecentesche permettono la definizione di nuove rappresentazioni altrettanto potenti, mentre in altri si verifica una sostituzione delle vecchie iconografie con strategie di brandizzazione del territorio più o meno originali. In altri ancora, il peso delle vecchie immagini consolidate impedisce l’affermarsi di nuove dinamiche territoriali.
La seconda chiave di lettura, intrinsecamente legata alla prima, è legata all’osservazione dei nuovi attori emergenti nella provincia (imprese, fondazioni bancarie, enti del terzo settore): la domanda che ci poniamo è quali siano oggi i soggetti di rilievo in questi territori, in un contesto generale di sfiducia verso i corpi intermedi tradizionali? L’ emergere di nuovi soggetti permette di comprendere i mutamenti territoriali sopra descritti come processi innanzitutto sociali dove la ricomposizione di ruoli e competenze costruisce alleanze, discrepanze e conflittualità talvolta determinanti nel racconto della trasformazione della provincia italiana.
Le disconnessioni e le sfasature di queste “icone” offrono spunti di riflessione sul presente, rivelando paradossi e difficoltà dei territori. La ricerca si concentra su storie molto diverse tra loro, alcune sorprendenti per la loro resistenza ai cambiamenti, altre più tradizionali ma comunque mutevoli. Le storie di questi luoghi, segnati da accadimenti, resistenze, declini e collassi, esplorano problemi sanitari, ambientali, sociali ed economici emersi negli ultimi anni tracciando storie di transizione più opache e meno patinate rispetto a quelle –prevalentemente metropolitane– delle narrazioni dominanti
WASTELAND ACTIVISM: Political Weeds and Ecological Imaginaries in Montreal
No full textDrawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Montreal, this article examines the ways in which urban dwellers and activists engage with the living materialities of wastelands to illuminate evolving ecological imaginaries and their political potentials. I focus on a seemingly marginal topic - urban weeds - to explore how human–weed relations can help us situate contemporary environmental concerns within longer histories of spatial violence, ecological degradation and settler power relations. Shifting perceptions of invasive and native weeds unsettle normative frameworks of urban biodiversity and reveal how polluted ecologies can be reinterpreted as sites of value and resistance. Here, I use wasteland activism to define grassroots efforts to protect unconventional, often stigmatized forms of urban nature from erasure within ongoing processes of urban redevelopment. Wasteland activism not only challenges official green transition narratives but also produces alternative visions of ‘worthy environments’ that expose the inherent contradictions of top-down narratives of repair and growth. In contexts where industrialism, far from belonging to the past, is very much an ongoing project, political weeds embody the disjuncture between institutional promises of green development and the slow work of building living presents amid enduring contamination
Guerrilla clonal growth strategy leads to amorphous pattern formation in a drylands vegetation model
No full textResource concentration in the vicinity of plants is observed in drylands as a result of various mechanisms, developed to cope with water scarcity. This often leads to self-organized spatial patterns that enhance drylands’ ecosystem resilience to environmental changes. Numerous vegetation dynamics models have been developed over the past few decades to study this pattern formation. Generally, they represent plant spatial spread as a diffusive process, which captures well species that reproduce via seed dispersal or through clonal growth following the “phalanx” strategy, characterized by slow, compact expansion. However, many dryland species exhibit “guerrilla” clonal growth, characterized by rapid, directional exploration of favourable areas, which is poorly captured by diffusion. To address this limitation, we introduce a novel term for lateral biomass expansion into a classical dryland model.
We found conditions suitable for periodic patterns to emerge with a Turing analysis, aiming to test the stability of a uniform solution against uniform and periodic perturbations. However, numerically, these patterns could not be observed by perturbing the homogeneous equilibria with small perturbations, possibly because of the non-linearity of the guerrilla expansion term. Instead, remarkably, the model produced amorphous, far-from-equilibrium patterns when integrated along a rainfall precipitation gradient.
These findings highlight the need to represent the diversity of clonal plant strategies in dryland ecosystem models, as they play an important role in pattern formation and, thus, may influence ecosystem resilience and responses to global environmental change. Furthermore, our results highlight the need to move beyond linear analyses when studying systems with nonlinear dispersal dynamics
Design and modeling of asymmetric bow-tie VCSELs for 100 GHz and beyond
Full text linkWe present the design and numerical analysis of an asymmetric bow-tie vertical-cavity
surface-emitting laser (ABT-VCSEL) that enables PAM-2 direct modulation up to 100 GHz.
The device concept relies on photon-photon resonance (PPR) between laterally coupled modes,
triggered by a structural asymmetry introduced via a hollowed dielectric mirror. This approach
avoids the need for asymmetric pumping and probing while ensuring strong modal coupling
under uniform carrier injection. A dynamical in-house suite, combining field-carrier interaction,
electromagnetic, and thermal problems, is developed and discussed to evaluate device performance
under realistic conditions. The simulation results predict a 3-dB bandwidth up to 70 GHz with
low modulation swing, and open eye diagrams at 100 GHz PAM-2 modulation and 70 GHz
PAM-4 modulation. The proposed ABT-VCSEL concept shows robustness against geometrical
variations and ambient temperature when proper cavity detuning is applied, making it a promising
candidate for next-generation ultra-fast short-reach interconnects
Sustainability in the New Space Economy: a Multidisciplinary Approach. Present and Future Trajectories, and the role of Earth Observation in Aviation
No full textL'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen
Energy retrofitting of the Olimpia motorway tunnel
No full textNowadays, the increasing deterioration of existing infrastructures requires refurbishment to guarantee service continuation in safe conditions. However, this may represent a valuable opportunity to renovate the existing heritage of infrastructures not only from a structural but also from a sustainable viewpoint. The paper illustrates the first-ever documented case of an existing tunnel section systematically converted into an energy geostructure during rehabilitation works. The geothermal piping arranged in the tunnel lining is connected using pre-insulated collectors to other heat exchanger pipes embedded in the motorway pavement. Such a geothermal system is now being tested against anti-icing and solar-collecting purposes in winter and summer, respectively. A comprehensive overview of the additional installation stages needed to energy-retrofit the existing tunnel is provided, along with a description of the adopted methodology. Then, the pressure and thermal response testing needed to verify the integrity and functionality of the system are described. Finally, the paper discloses the outcomes of the solar-collecting and anti-icing test campaigns
Disaster capitalism and the political ecology of wildfire recovery in North Evia, Greece
No full textAmid the global proliferation of wildfires, in this article we explore post-disaster fire governance in Greece. Drawing on empirical research into the aftermath of the 2021 North Evia wildfires and engaging with scholarship on the political ecology of fires and disaster capitalism, we examine how the wildfire was framed as an opportunity for spatial restructuring. Our analysis unpacks the mechanisms through which state and non-state actors reconfigured planning and environmental governance to bypass democratic processes, undermine local environmental claims and marginalize resin cultivators, beekeepers, shepherds and farmers in favor of touristification and urban expansion. We argue that, under the guise of the climate emergency, recovery strategies not only displace rural livelihoods but also erode socio-environmental resilience, facilitating processes of wildland gentrification that reproduce and intensify vulnerabilities to climate change-induced catastrophes in fire-prone areas. Elite actors hold a key role in these processes as they attempt to capitalize upon their involvement in climate change adaptation strategies and gear recovery policy towards their interests
EM-BIM: VPL interoperable processes for paradata management in archaeological virtual reconstructions using Extended Matrix (EM) and bSDD as knowledge representation systems
No full textThe paper presents a two-phase methodological protocol for creating an Extended Matrix (EM) based BIM model (EM-BIM). The EM, developed by the ISPC-CNR institute, was designed to manage data, metadata, and paradata related to virtual reconstructions in archaeology. This research introduces a methodology for geometric and informational modelling, based on an HBIM approach, of existing architectural heritage using EM tools within the Historical Building Information Modelling (HBIM) approach. Knowledge-based structure of EM is similar to the object-based system of BIM: both methodologies are grounded in a relational approach to 3D data structuring. Furthermore, EM explicitly incorporates paradata using a visual knowledgee graph system. Tested on the Doric Stoa of Priene, the first phase of the study focused on decoding the graphic language of EM to automatically generate and populate ad hoc descriptors within the HBIM environment using a visual programming language (VPL). A second phase involved the setting up of a BuildingSMART Data Dictionary (bsDD) to map the EM classification against the IFC classes, to standardise the generation of dedicated property sets
Waste heat won't make membrane distillation cool: Thermodynamic analysis of cooling and pumping burdens
No full textMembrane distillation is promoted as a thermally driven desalination process capable of utilizing low-grade heat, yet its full thermal and hydraulic burdens have not been comprehensively resolved. The cooling burden is often neglected altogether, an assumption rarely met in real applications and especially in severe water stressed regions. This study develops a lumped thermodynamic framework that quantifies heating, cooling, and pumping duties across three representative membrane distillation configurations. Results show that cooling loads can reach the same order of magnitude as heating, up to 80–100% of the thermal input in open-loop feed setups, and remain of comparable magnitude even with internal or external heat recovery. Pumping penalties of 0.2–0.5 kWh/m3 emerge at typical single-pass water recoveries of only 2–6% and pressure losses of 300 mbar, underscoring the need for joint thermal–hydraulic optimization. The analysis also suggests a techno-economic trade-off: lowering specific energy consumption requires efficient heat utilization, typically achieved through effective system-level integration, large modules, minimization of terminal temperature differences, and internal or external heat recovery solutions; whereas compact designs entail modest capital expenditures but disproportionately high operational expenditures. Finally, a methodology for converting classical energy requirement indicators into actual energy consumption values is presented. The analysis compares different heating and cooling strategies, showing that feasibility relies not only on “free” heat availability, but also on heat sinks effectiveness, optimized heat recovery, and low-resistance module hydraulics