182,377 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 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.
L'archivio della R. Università di Catania; storia, riordinamento, indici.
No full textMode of access: Internet
A case of Racial Discrimination: Azeglio Bemporad, astronomer poet
No full textA case of racial discrimination : Azeglio Bemporad, who worked at Catania Astrophysical Observatory until 1938, year of purge against Jews in Italy
The role of alternating outcrops of sediments and basaltic lavas on seismic urban scenario: the study case of Catania, Italy
No full textExperimental data and numerical modelling were used to study the effect of local geology on the seismic response of the Catania area. The town extends on a marly clays bedrock and terraced deposits made up by coastal sands and alluvial conglomerates. This sedimentary substratum is deeply entrenched by paleo-valleys filled by lava flows and pyroclastics. Available borehole data and elastic parameters were used to reconstruct a geotechnical model in order to perfome 1D numerical modeling. Seismic urban scenarios were simulated considering destructive (Mw = 7.0), strong (Mw = 6.2) and moderate (Mw = 5.7) earthquakes to assess the shaking level of the different outcropping formations. For each scenario
seven real accelerograms were selected from the European Strong Motion Database to assess
the expected seismic input at the bedrock. PGA and spectral acceleration at different periods were obtained in the urban area through the equivalent linear numerical code EERA, and contour maps of different levels of shaking were drawn. Standard and horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios were achieved making use of a dataset of 172 seismic events recorded at ten sites located on the main outcropping lithotypes. Spectral ratios inferred from earthquake data were compared with theoretical transfer functions. Both experimental and numerical
results confirm the role of the geological and morphologic setting of Catania. Amplification of seismic motion mainly occurs in three different stratigraphic conditions: (a) sedimentary deposits mainly diffused in the south of the study area; (b) spots of soft sediments surrounded by lava flows; (c) intensely fractured and scoriaceous basaltic lavas.In press4.1. Metodologie sismologiche per l'ingegneria sismicaJCR Journalrestricte
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
Terremoti con effetti macrosismici in Sicilia orientale Calabria meridionale nel periodo Gennaio 1999 - Dicembre 2001
No full textIl presente lavoro è costituito dalla raccolta sistematica delle indagini macrosismiche eseguite in occasione dei terremoti di maggior rilievo verificatisi in Sicilia orientale e Calabria meridionale dal Gennaio 1999 al Gennaio 2001. I rilievi precedenti al Settembre 1999 sono stati effettuati nell’ambito delle attività del Gruppo Nazionale per la Difesa dai Terremoti, svolte presso l’Istituto Internazionale di Vulcanologia – CNR di Catania. Successivamente a tale data le indagini macrosismiche hanno costituito parte integrante delle attività di monitoraggio del Sistema Poseidon. Entrambi gli enti adesso costituiscono la sezione di Catania dell’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia.Published1-591.11. TTC - Osservazioni e monitoraggio macrosismico del territorio nazionaleN/A or not JCRope
Terremoti con effetti macrosismici in Sicilia orientale Calabria meridionale nel periodo Gennaio 1999 - Dicembre 2001
No full textIl presente lavoro è costituito dalla raccolta sistematica delle indagini macrosismiche eseguite in occasione dei terremoti di maggior rilievo verificatisi in Sicilia orientale e Calabria meridionale dal Gennaio 1999 al Gennaio 2001. I rilievi precedenti al Settembre 1999 sono stati effettuati nell’ambito delle attività del Gruppo Nazionale per la Difesa dai Terremoti, svolte presso l’Istituto Internazionale di Vulcanologia – CNR di Catania. Successivamente a tale data le indagini macrosismiche hanno costituito parte integrante delle attività di monitoraggio del Sistema Poseidon. Entrambi gli enti adesso costituiscono la sezione di Catania dell’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia.Published1-591.11. TTC - Osservazioni e monitoraggio macrosismico del territorio nazionaleN/A or not JCRope
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