204,011 research outputs found
Trade as a cultural identity aspect in a city. A case study on Catania
No full textIn the present-day post-industrial society and in a globalised economy there is a strong tendency towards standardization and homologation. If we consider one of the most traditional urban functions - the commercial one - analysing what is happening in the centre of the cities of all the developed countries of the world, we notice a process of standardization regarding the offer, both in the sense of the single articles sold and in the sense of the commercial area in all its complexity (uniformity of the showcases for the exposure, diminution of the historical shops with sale of distinctive articles, diffusion of the branches of national and international chains and the phenomenon of franchising). Therefore, the central areas of our cities tend to be more and more alike. Obviously this is fruit of a more complex process, that is concretized in the tendency towards the diversification of the distributive network through the rapid diffusion of hypermarkets and commercial centres in the outskirts of cities and in the changed behaviour of the consumers, more and more directed to American styles of consumption. What kind of role will the more traditional commercial structures that characterize the Italian historical centres have in the future? Despite the fact that these last ones are, at the moment, under considerable pressure that pushes towards a more radical change, there is the possibility however that the particular "commercial landscape" that characterizes them could itself become a new model of development capable of promoting the urban culture, close to the functionalistic model, currently in expansion, totally directed towards the peripheral spaces. Catania is a city where we find, to a great extent, the evolutionary characteristics of the southern urban system, but in which we find even more the changes and the tendencies present in the cities of the more developed regions when processes of decentralization of economic activities, residential activities and of the social structures are outlined. The commercial patrimony of Catania, besides the cultural one, represents one of the pivots on which the identity of the city is based. It represents a resource for the development of the town and a stimulation of tourism. This research investigates the solidity and the potentialities of traditional commerce in the central areas of the city of Catania in relation to the dynamics of development of the external commercial centres.
Problems and contradictions in the constitution of a southern european metropolitan area: Catania
No full textThe Metropolitan Area of Catania has been created with a Regional law of 1986 (together with that of Palermo and Messina). With its 27 municipalities and for its characteristics it resembles, more than any other area in Sicily, a Metropolitan Area (MA), that is, a complex urban system in continuos evolution and at an advanced stage of the urban life cycle. However, it is still possible to trace some incongruous elements in the creation of such a system: a) the decentralisation process of function and activities, with respect to the main urban core, is at a very early stage; b) the main urban core still has difficulties to attract highly technological tertiary activities and strategic services which would allow a connection between the local, the national and the global level; c) the medium and small size centres have a low functional specialisation and are identified by highly hierarchical relationships; d) the MA has a weak cohesion in terms of economic and functional relations. The ambiguity of the relationships among the different centres, their low level of specialisation and the strong hierarchical dependency of the peripheral ones represent an obstacle to the creation of the Metropolitan Government of the area of Catania. This appears as a top down manoeuvre without solid territorial basis and with persistence of contradictory elements in the development and consolidation of the MA. This does not mean that a system to govern the MA would not be necessary to strengthen the evolution of Catania urban complex. This evolution has, in fact, known a clear intensification in the last ten years and has shown how urgent it is for this Government to realise socio-economic, infrastructural and cultural policies capable of accelerating the ongoing process. It is also essential for this Government to make its choices without incorporating automatically the power of local autonomies, but by reaching agreements on common issues.
Actors and resources of an evolving local system. The processes that involve Catania, a dynamic reality in a low developed region
No full textSince the second half of the ''''70s, a great crisis has hit the local system of Catania, - which is the most important town in the North-east of Sicily - both in its economical aspects and in its social and political ones. In the ''''90s, nevertheless, the city has been interested by deep transformations which have caused new actors and innovative resources to emerge. During the years of crisis, the Catania local system was based on the building industry and on the public expenditure that have nourished clientelistic and also illegal activities. In fact the public expense played a very important role in the economic development of Sicilian society, where most of the industrial enterprises worked in protected sectors. A few exceptions regarded SMEs with innovative capabilities and larger firms depending from an exogenous management. From this point of view, the authors of this paper will try to draw a clear picture of the changes happened in the last decade in the Catania socio-economic system, pinpointing its ability of nourishing new initiatives in high technology sectors and attracting others from the outside, thanks to the new political atmosphere present in the city and its ambitious aspiration to became an important node in the Mediterranean Basin. Some of the actors of these changes are a group of innovative entrepreneurs, the local University and a new class of politicians more sensitive to the economic and social development of the community.
The 2006 eruption of Mt. Etna (Italy): new multidisciplinary approach implemented by the UFSO staff of INGV Catania Section
No full textThe 2006 eruption of Mt. Etna (Italy): new
multidisciplinary approach implemented by the UFSO
staff of INGV Catania Section
S. Mangiagli, M. Neri, E. Pecora, D. Reitano, A. Amantia, E. Biale, M. D’Agostino,
M. La Via and O. Torrisi
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, P. Roma, 2 - 95125,
Catania Italy ([email protected], [email protected])
During the latest (2006) eruptive activity of Mount Etna (Sicily - Italy) multidisciplinary
instrumental networks and observations produced useful and significant data
in order to understand the eruptive dynamics of this volcano. In this context, the
staff of the INGV Catania Section Department called Unità Funzionale Sala Operativa
(UFSO) actively participates in national and European research projects dealing
with the development and use of new systems with high technological content useful,
in particular, during eruptions or seismic crises. Another aspect of this work is
represented by the development of software for the supervisory and automatic control
of the working systems. For example during the last few weeks of 2006, ash-rich
columns several km in height, and consequent fallout characterized the eruption of
Mt Etna and severely hampered the functioning of the nearby International Airport of
Catania. Therefore, for a better evaluation of real time systems a new dedicated web
site has been realized, improving the availability of fundamental data for the Italian
Department of Civil Defence (DPC). The DPC staff, using also INGV scientific data,
releases daily bulletins to Italian government authorities. Multidisciplinary data are
collected and well represented in risk maps. Moreover, various algorithms have been
implemented and used to make simulations of eruptive clouds from Mt. Etna. All realized
maps also use wind forecasts at different altitude and different scenarios are
available in a new software able to plot different parameters like, for example, temperature
and wind speed/direction in different isobaric levels, precipitation rate and
total cloud cover.INGV, Sezione CataniaPublishedVienna, Austria1.5. TTC - Sorveglianza dell'attività eruttiva dei vulcani5.5. Attività di Sala Operativaope
The 2006 eruption of Mt. Etna (Italy): new multidisciplinary approach implemented by the UFSO staff of INGV Catania Section
No full textThe 2006 eruption of Mt. Etna (Italy): new
multidisciplinary approach implemented by the UFSO
staff of INGV Catania Section
S. Mangiagli, M. Neri, E. Pecora, D. Reitano, A. Amantia, E. Biale, M. D’Agostino,
M. La Via and O. Torrisi
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione di Catania, P. Roma, 2 - 95125,
Catania Italy ([email protected], [email protected])
During the latest (2006) eruptive activity of Mount Etna (Sicily - Italy) multidisciplinary
instrumental networks and observations produced useful and significant data
in order to understand the eruptive dynamics of this volcano. In this context, the
staff of the INGV Catania Section Department called Unità Funzionale Sala Operativa
(UFSO) actively participates in national and European research projects dealing
with the development and use of new systems with high technological content useful,
in particular, during eruptions or seismic crises. Another aspect of this work is
represented by the development of software for the supervisory and automatic control
of the working systems. For example during the last few weeks of 2006, ash-rich
columns several km in height, and consequent fallout characterized the eruption of
Mt Etna and severely hampered the functioning of the nearby International Airport of
Catania. Therefore, for a better evaluation of real time systems a new dedicated web
site has been realized, improving the availability of fundamental data for the Italian
Department of Civil Defence (DPC). The DPC staff, using also INGV scientific data,
releases daily bulletins to Italian government authorities. Multidisciplinary data are
collected and well represented in risk maps. Moreover, various algorithms have been
implemented and used to make simulations of eruptive clouds from Mt. Etna. All realized
maps also use wind forecasts at different altitude and different scenarios are
available in a new software able to plot different parameters like, for example, temperature
and wind speed/direction in different isobaric levels, precipitation rate and
total cloud cover.INGV, Sezione CataniaPublishedVienna, Austria1.5. TTC - Sorveglianza dell'attività eruttiva dei vulcani5.5. Attività di Sala Operativaope
The urban strategic planning in the peripherical regions: the case of Catania (Sicily)
No full textMore and more regional development appears as an effect of the role that cities are able to carry out in the territory. This implies reconsidering not only resources which are available to a city but, above all, its ability to organize urban activities and functions. If these considerations have already found careful appraisal in the most developed regions, by means of the renewal of instruments for the strategic planning of cities, it seems still insufficient the use of these new planning instruments in the less developed regions, although their primary role in the processes of local development. In Southern Italy, for instance, the proliferation of financial support from various sources (E.U., National Government and Regional ones), which imposes plans at different scales (the interregional one, the among cities one and the among suburbs one), and the emergence of actors and stakeholders, also within the presence of public order problems and infrastructural deficiencies, constitute a network that bridles and conditions the city activities and functions, on one side, but can also be a set of occasions that - if used - can push the city towards development itineraries, on the other side. With our paper we propose to compare some experiences of strategic planning in the Southern Italy and to analyse the case of Catania (a central city in an Objective 1 region, Sicily), putting in evidence how the new Plans give order to the activities and the functions of the city, trying to achieve one balanced and sustainable development, by means of the recovery of urban identity.
A systematic approach concerning the assessment and strengthening of reinforced concrete buildings of Catania
No full textThe Catania I Project has yielded some preliminary results regarding the losses consequent to different seismic scenarios in the area of Catania. The aim of the Catania II Project is to gain a deeper insight into the problem starting from the results of the previous project, through the development of a "Detailed seismic scenario finalized to losses reduction in the urban area of Catania city". Concerning the losses mitigation, the authors have been involved in the development and implementation of two products: a Code of Practice concerning the Assessment and Strengthening of Reinforced Concrete Buildings, an intelligent Data Bank supporting and integrating the Guidelines and aiming at assisting the operators in the task of acquiring the data and assessing the vulnerability
Abstract Book - XLIV Congresso Nazionale AIEOP | 13-15 ottobre 2019, Catania (Italy) - C0018 Qualità e sicurezza in emato-oncologia pediatrica: il fenomeno delle cure infermieristiche compromesse in Italia.
No full textAssemblage and analyses on the building inventory in Catania
No full textCatania is a medium-size city, presently having some 500.000 inhabitants in an
urban area that exceeds the municipal boundaries. We remind that it was
catastrophically hit by two M∼7 earthquakes in 1159 and 1693, and damaged by a few
other earthquakes. After the 1693 disaster it was entirely rebuilt and its large
expansion after 1945 occurred in the absence of earthquake norms for buildings
(enforced in the municipality only since 1981).
For its high vulnerability and hazard, Catania is representative of he situation of
several important cities of Southern Italy and in other Mediterranean countries facing
a high seismic risk exposure.
A basic aim of this Project is the estimation of direct damage to residential
buildings, in the assumption that the impact of such damage in Catania would be
dominant in terms of life and economic losses in case of a repetition of the 1693
earthquake. Damage evaluation for other structures, such as bridges and viaducts,
churches and ecclesiastic monuments, or induced damage on natural environment
(liquefaction) are also of interest in the Project and are described in the other
contributions.Published95-1045T. Sismologia, geofisica e geologia per l'ingegneria sismic
Linear and Nonlinear Perturbed Wave Equations
No full textWe consider several Cauchy problems for the wave equation with some perturbation.
First of all, we consider the wave equation with a metric perturbation, that is, we consider the d'Alembert operator in the Schwarzschild metric (which is a model for a static black hole). Because of the sign changing properties of the solution to this equation, it is not trivial to establish the global existence or the blow-up of the solution depending on the power of the nonlinearity. However, introducing suitable weighted average functions and proving some modified versions of the well-known Kato lemma, we are able to provide two blow-up results, one in the case of small data far from the black hole, and one when the initial data are close to the black hole but large (even this case is not trivial at all). In both cases, we restrict ourselves to radial solutions and power p less than 1+sqrt(2).
We treat even the case of a linear wave equation with a potential-like perturbation. We consider a small electromagnetic potential depending on space and time with optimal decay properties, and null initial data. Under these assumptions, we can prove optimal dispersive estimates and in particular a 1/t decay in time. The proof exploits the gauge invariancy of the electromagnetic potential, which allows a suitable integral representation of the solution.
The thesis also reviews some important known results concerning the previous problems and deals with related and open problems
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