1,721,162 research outputs found
La valutazione dell’attitudine delle dimore storiche al riuso economico “sostenibile”: un approccio multiattributo non additivo
No full textIl saggio illustra un modello di valutazione multicriterio volto ad analizzare l’attitudine di edifici storici al riuso economico “sostenibile”. Lo sviluppo del modello muove dalla constatazione, per certi versi ovvia, che il riuso costituisce una promettente strategia di conservazione dal degrado e dall’abbandono solo se è capace di creare risorse adeguate al mantenimento del patrimonio e, nel contempo, tutelare le principali caratteristiche storiche e artistiche. La possibilità di sviluppare progetti capaci di tale sintesi è legata, da un lato, alle potenzialità economiche del contesto e, dall’altro, alla “flessibilità” del manufatto. Il modello utilizza funzioni non-lineari che sintetizzano e riassumono vari parametri e criteri: le caratteristiche intrinseche dell’edificio, la qualità dell’ambiente, le potenzialità turistiche ed economiche del territorio circostante. La procedura di valutazione è stata costruita e calibrata a partire da giudizi di professionisti esperti nel campo del restauro, del recupero e dell’sviluppo locale. Il modello utilizza indicatori di tipo quantitativo e quantitativo e fornisce indicazioni a varie scale di dettaglio e rispetto a tre tipi di riuso (residenze, hotel, uffici)
An optimization framework for supporting decision making in biodiesel feedstock imports: Water footprint vs. import costs
No full textGiven the expected rise in the importance and rate of decisions being made in the biofuel sector and the complexity of the system, this paper is focused on an analysis that, although well-established in economic and environmental evaluation theory, has not been widely used yet to assess biodiesel production. The aim of this study, in particular, is to analyze, from a quantitative point of view, the water footprint resulting from the use of various types of crops for the production of Italian biodiesel, combining it with the import costs of these crops, based on the current trade partners, and the crop energy conversion efficiency. The problem from the importing country's point of view is to minimize the total cost related to the import of crop products and, at the same time, to minimize the overall water footprint, ensuring a quantity of biodiesel produced at least equal to the pre-defined target set by the European Union for 2020. The paper provides a first glance at addressing optimal resource allocation and the design of biodiesel imports in the EU regulation context, contributing to reducing the water footprint, without ignoring the economic aspects. The study represents an original contribution for the identification of potential environmental policy drivers in the context of an economic sector characterized by potential growth, serving as a guide for the resolution of the trade-offs between biodiesel demand, import costs of feedstocks and water impact
A Multicriteria Approach for the Evaluation of the Sustainability of Re-use of Historic Buildings in Venice
No full textThe paper presents a multiple criteria model for the evaluation of the sustainability of projects for the economic reuse
of historical buildings in Venice. The model utilizes the relevant parameters for the appraisal of sustainability,
aggregated into three macro-indicators: intrinsic sustainability, context sustainability and economic-financial
feasibility. The model has been calibrated by a panel of experts and tested on two reuse hypothesis of the Old
Arsenal in Venice
Identifying the factors influencing the total external hydraulic loads to the dese-zero watershed
No full textSome watersheds are heavily influenced by human factors that affect their overall water balance and dynamics. This is the case of the Dese-Zero watershed, part of the Venice Lagoon watershed - VLW, located in North-East Italy. Such watershed is characterised by a highly modified environment, with the presence of several hydraulic works and devices, which, ultimately, ensure optimal flow and water availability conditions for different water needs. In addition to this artificial-hydraulic influence, the VLW is also heavily affected by groundwater contributions coming from a mainly external aquifer located in the Venetian high plains. Hydrological modelling under these circumstances is particularly challenging and requires detailed quantified information regarding the total external contributions (i.e. groundwater and deviated surface water from/to bordering watersheds). In order to cope with such complex dynamics, this study proposes a framework contemplating a coupled mechanistic-empirical modelling approach. Under such framework, the physically-based model simulates the internal processes of the studied watershed while the empirical model accounts for the total external hydraulic influences. Data pre-processing is performed with Principal Component Analysis - PCA aiming at the identification of the main factors contributing to the total external hydraulic contribution. The SWAT model is used as the mechanistic component while two alternative modelling techniques are tested for the empirical counterpart, namely: i) Multiple Linear Regression - MLR, and ii) Artificial Neural Networks - ANN. The results suggest that, among the studied weather variables, precipitation plays a major role in the estimation of the total external hydraulic loads. Moreover, both temporal (e.g. season of the year) and stream flow (e.g. SWAT simulated output) information is also relevant for the estimation of the studied process. Finally, it is concluded that the studied coupled mechanistic-empirical model is capable of simulating the hydrology of the Dese-Zero watershed while the non-liner neural networks model is the best option for estimating the total external hydraulic loads
La valutazione di compatibilità ambientale: un primo contributo in ambito universitario
No full textSDOWA: A New OWA Operator for Decision Making
No full textOrdered Weighted Aggregation operators (OWA) are widely
analyzed and applied to real world problems, given their appealing char-
acteristic to re
ect human reasoning, but are enable in the basic de -
nition to include importance weights for the criteria. To obviate, some
extensions were introduced, but we show how none of them can satisfy
completely a set of required properties. Thus we introduce a new pro-
posal, the Standard Deviation OWA (SDOWA) which conversely satisfy
all the listed properties and seems to be more convincing then other ones
A New Proposal of Parametric Similarity Measures with Application in Decision Making
No full textWe introduce a general equality index for two fuzzy values, proposing a parametric family of similarity measures between two fuzzy vectors, and investigating the mathematical properties. Subsequently we construct a class of parametric similarity measures, showing how the proposed approach extends and generalizes previously proposed framework in the context of decision making problem. The proposed approach can support decision maker under complex situations. An application of the proposed method is also given
A non-additive multiple criteria approach for the evaluation of international climate think tanks
No full textThis paper outlines the application of non-additive measures and Choquet integral in the construction of a composite indicator to assess the performance of international climate think tanks and evaluate their influence in shaping climate policies and raising awareness among the general public. The composite index consists of 15 carefully selected indicators according to the feedback provided by Experts within the field and structured into three main pillars: Activities, Publications and Dissemination. In order compare Think Tanks of different size and hence to measure their efficiency, the standardized ranking is also computed dividing the Think Tank outcome in each criterion by the number of its researchers. The application of fuzzy measures and Choquet integral, allowing to take into account potential interactions existing among criteria, increases substantially the model capability both in eliciting effectively Experts’ preferences and in aggregating indicators. Moreover, we present a novel technique for the aggregation of Experts’ preferences where Decision Makers’ weights have been set proportionally to their consistency in evaluating the specific questionnaire
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