15 research outputs found
On Venetian Campi Resilience to Climate Change
No full textVenice is known for its history and beauty and its fragility and potential demise. The city is experiencing an increase in yearly average temperatures affecting outdoor - indoor comfort and average energy expenditure. Owing to existing literature demonstrating how local microclimate depends on urban density, shape, and orientation of buildings and materials, the work studies the influence of changing Venice temperatures by targeting such issues, focusing on an urban fabric typical form, known as Campi. Based on IPCC's future weather predictions for 2050 scenario A1B, the work highlights how the urban fabric configuration affects the local microclimate and outdoor conditions to define how buildings will mitigate and adapt to environmental transitions. The method couples microclimate and outdoor comfort users' perception of Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), via ENVI-met. Preliminary results show that the compactness of the urban fabric in Venetian Campi significantly reduces outdoor temperatures due to the increased density of shadow areas in the courtyard or in narrow Venice streets. The role of water is also simulated via ENVI-met, as buildings' materials and indoor energy consumption are assumed as invariant to evaluate the historic urban fabric climate resilience. The results constitute a first step towards understanding to what extent a particular urban fabric type is thermally resilient.Environmental Technology and Desig
Climate change and indoor temperature variation in Venetian buildings: The role of density and urban form
No full textAlthough the influence of urban form on microclimate and building thermal processes has been acknowledged, few studies have addressed the influence of overheating mechanisms on heterogeneous urban fabrics for existing historical cities. This study investigates the impact of changing urban climate on indoor temperatures by focusing on three Venice morphological patterns. Through microclimate modelling techniques, outdoor and indoor temperatures are simulated in 2020 and 2050 scenarios. Results show that the compactness of the urban fabric contributes to reducing indoor building temperatures. The analysis suggests that the increased density of shadow areas can mitigate the outdoor temperature values and reduce direct radiation on façades. When comparing the two climate scenarios 2020 and 2050, average indoor temperatures increase in the latter. However, the analysis highlights that the absence of insulation and the relatively high thermal mass of typical Venetian envelopes plays a crucial role in the building thermal processes preserving indoor comfort in a warmer climate future.Environmental Technology and Desig
Regeneration of gasometer industrial heritage in Venice
No full textThe reticular structures, which time has seen to change for uses and destinations, characterize
the area as a sum of grafts and highly compromised architectural stratifications.
The traces present acquire an archaeological value and the stratifications are testimonial elements that return the complexity and the story of the transformation of the sector.
Starting from the intrinsic potential of places, the project does not intend to implement a radical transformation of the place but to start an evolutionary phase, which treasures the collective memory of the place.
The thesis, whose supervisor was A. Massarente and co-supervisor A. Verde, was discussed in School of Architecture University of Ferrara in 2016, then published as shortlisted project in the same year for the “European Architectural Medals for the Best Diploma Projects” Award
On the thermal resilience of venetian open spaces
No full textVenice is known for its urban heritage fragility. The city is experiencing an increase in yearly average temperatures affecting outdoor–indoor comfort and average energy expenditure. Owing to existing literature demonstrating how local microclimate depends on urban density, form, and materials, this investigation studies the influence of the changing local climate on Venetian vernacular open spaces, known as Campi. Based on the comparison of contemporary weather and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) future predictions for the 2050 scenario, this investigation highlights how Campi’s open spaces and the surrounding buildings, canals, and green public areas contribute to building climate resilience. By employing advanced modelling, the study analyses microclimate and outdoor comfort with respect to users’ perception of Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET). The ENVI-met tool is used to simulate the thermal behaviour of two representative Campi: SS. Giovanni e Paolo and S. Polo. Despite significant temperature growths, Venetian urban fabric characteristics seem to play a crucial role in strengthening the climate resilience of open spaces, thus preserving outdoor comfort quality in a warmer future. The analysis shows how the historical matrix of open spaces and buildings cooperate. Thus, this study offers a contribution to how built heritage should be considered in light of climate change
Environmental Urban Morphology: A Multidisciplinary Methodology for the Analysis of Public Spaces in Dense Urban Fabrics
No full textA city is an organism made of social, economic, cultural, and environmental fabrics, the interactions of which determine the form and functioning of city life. Different disciplines are then involved in analyzing the complex processes of the 21st-century city. The aim of this study was to explore the use of an analytical method that can act as a catalyst for the main players involved in the environmental urban morphology (EUM). This multidisciplinary methodology focuses on the study of public space in dense urban fabrics as a key context for understanding a city. Operationally, the work shows the potential of integrating morphological analysis, pedestrian flow analysis, and environmental analysis and applying them in dense and compact urban fabrics. The first of these analyses methods was carried out using urban survey tools and the geographic information system (GIS) in order to detect the physical forms of the city and develop a number of morphological maps. The second, using the global positioning system (GPS) and on-site detectors, maps pedestrian movement within public spaces. The latter mainly focuses on the microclimatic analysis of public spaces and outdoor comfort, carried out using environmental software such as ENVI-met (4.4 version). The ultimate goal of this study was to achieve the definition of a dynamic, multidisciplinary, and multilayer methodology for the analysis of dense urban fabrics which we believe could be very useful for addressing the regenerative processes of the contemporary city.Environmental Technology and Desig
Climate change and indoor temperature variation in Venice buildings: the role of density and urban form
No full textDespite the influence of urban form on microclimate and building thermal processes has been acknowledged,
few studies have addressed the influence of overheating mechanisms on heterogeneous urban fabrics for existing historical cities. This study investigates the impact of changing urban climate on indoor temperatures by focusing on three Venice morphological patterns. Through microclimate modelling techniques, outdoor and indoor temperatures are simulated in 2020 and 2050 scenarios. Results show that the compactness of the urban fabric contributes to reducing indoor building temperatures. The analysis suggests that the increased density of shadow areas can mitigate the outdoor temperature values and reduce direct radiation on façades. When comparing the two climate scenarios 2020 and 2050, average indoor temperatures grow in the latter. However, the analysis highlights that the absence of insulation and the relatively high thermal mass of the typical Venetian envelopes plays a crucial role in the building thermal processes preserving indoor comfort in a warmer climate future
REGIONAL AND FARM SPECIALISATION IN SPANISH AGRICULTURE BEFORE AND AFTER INTEGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
No full textIn this paper, we study the evolution of agricultural product specialisation at farm and county level from 1979 to 1997 in Spain, thus covering all the stages of the gradual implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy. We use a multiproduct version of Theil and Finizza's index of segregation that allows us to decompose farm product specialisation into county specialisation with respect to the national level, i.e., the usual measure of regional specialisation, and farm specialisation within counties. Our results confirm the importance of increasing regional specialisation but also highlight that trends of farm specialisation within counties have varied across large agricultural areas. In particular, regions more specialised in export-oriented products seem to have speeded regional specialisation.
Occupational and industrial segregation of female and male workers in Spain: An alternative approach
No full textThis paper aims to analyze occupational and industrial segregation in the Spanish labor market by using the alternative tools proposed by Alonso-Villar and Del Río (2007), along with some new extensions put forward here. In particular, two decompositions of their segregation curves are proposed. The approach followed in this article allows measuring segregation of women and men separately, since the distribution of each group of workers across occupations and industries is compared with the distribution of total employment. To analyze industrial segregation, an aggregated classification of industries in four large groups (agriculture-fishing, industry, construction and services) and another by branches of activity are considered while to study occupational segregation, several partitions of individuals and of occupations are included.Occupational and industrial segregation; Segregation curves; Gender
An evaluation of an entropy based index of segregation
No full textThis paper reviews the properties suggested in the methodological literature on the measurement of gender segregation by occupation. It is found that an index of segregation based on the entropy concept satisfies twelve basic axioms previously proposed in the single-dimensional case. This index can be expressed as the sum of a between-group and a within-group term in the two-dimensional case. In pair-wise comparisons, it can be meaningfully decomposed into three terms, one of which is independent of both the gender composition of the population and the population's distribution across occupations. Finally, it can be motivated as two different loglikelihood tests in nonparametric econometric models. Other existing measures of segregation either fail to satisfy one or more of the basic axioms, do not admit a between/within decomposition, have not been motivated from a statistical approach, or are based on more restricted econometric models
Occupational segregation by race and ethnicity in the US: Differences across states
No full textUsing the 2005–2007 American Community Survey, we analyze the occupational segregation of workers by race and ethnicity across states. Although the unconditional analysis shows great geographical variation in segregation, with the largest levels in the Southwest, the analysis of segregation conditioned on the distribution of characteristics reveals that segregation of workers with similar characteristics is generally greater in the East Central region. To quantify conditional segregation, we adapt a propensity score technique that simultaneously controls for several characteristics, allowing the identification of the factors that explain the geographical variation of unconditional segregation.occupational segregation, race, ethnicity, states, United States.
