1,177 research outputs found
Active mobility in historical districts: towards an accessible and competitive city. The case study of Pizzofalcone in Naples.
No full textActive mobility, in the form of walking and cycling, is one of the most affordable and practical ways to promote sustainable modes of transport in urban areas, creating walkable, safe, healthy and livable environments. Given its multiple beneficial effects, the scientific community frequently considers it as a driver of urban regeneration, highlighting its role in the enhancement of accessibility and competitiveness. This study aims to deepen the role of active mobility in the redevelopment of historical districts characterized by economic and social marginality, as well as consider the resulting improvement of connectivity, attractiveness, and quality of life. To this end, we identify and classify strategies and best practices of active mobility provided by recent papers and international reports. In addition, we propose the application to a significant case study, Pizzofalcone, in the City of Naples. The area, characterized by high historical, architectural, landscape and cultural value, is not integrated with the rest of the historic city center and currently suffers economic and social marginality. The project proposal, which suggests the redevelopment of the area by redesigning pedestrian and cyclist paths, could be an interesting and economical solution to make Pizzofalcone a fundamental hub for the city and a crossing point for a multitude of peopl
Le ageing cities tra passato e futuro. Strategie, metodi e proposte per migliorare l’accessibilità degli anziani ai servizi urbani
No full text[Italiano]: Il volume raccoglie le conclusioni di un lavoro di ricerca che costituisce il naturale quanto autonomo sviluppo dei risultati del progetto MOBILAGE – Mobility and ageing: daily life and welfare supportive networks at the neighborhood level, finanziato nel biennio 2018-2020 da Fondazione Cariplo (Gant N° 2017-0942) e concluso nel giugno 2020.
La questione ageing cities negli ultimi tempi ha assunto la connotazione di vera e propria emergenza soprattutto in ragione dei trend di crescita della popolazione anziana nelle città industrializzate. Il tema, di estrema rilevanza sia nel dibattito scientifico che nella prassi operativa nazionale e internazionale, si configura come una delle sfide/opportunità per ripensare/ridisegnare le città migliorando la qualità di vita degli anziani.
Il gruppo di ricerca impegnato in questo lavoro, sotto la guida di Carmela Gargiulo, è costituito da giovani ricercatori che afferiscono al laboratorio TeMALab del Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Edile e Ambientale (DICEA) dell’Università di Napoli Federico II
./[English]: The volume gathers the conclusions of a research work that constitutes the natural as well as autonomous development of the project MOBILAGE - Mobility and ageing: daily life and welfare supportive networks at the neighborhood level, funded by Fondazione Cariplo in the biennium 2018-2020 (Gant N° 2017-0942) and finished in June 2020.
The ageing cities have recently taken on the connotation of an absolute emergency due to the upward trends in the elderly population in industrialized cities. The issue, extremely significant both in the scientific debate and in national and international operational practice, is one of the challenges/opportunities to rethink/redesign cities, with a view to improving the quality of life of the elderly.
The research group consists of young researchers, under the guidance of Carmela Gargiulo, who belong to the TemaLab Laboratory of the Department of Civil, Building and Environmental Engineering (DICEA) of the University of Naples Federico II
Active mobility in historical centres: towards an accessible and competitive city
No full textThe state of abandonment which historical districts have experienced from the second post-war period is rooted in the inadequacy of urban services, the lower level of accessibility, the lack of green urban areas and the shift of economic activities in the suburbs. Urban regeneration, since the mid-1990s, has been promoted to enhance and improve these areas by considering their vocations and opportunities. It has the aim to protect and renew existing heritage, as well as intervene in multiple dimensions of urban systems. Given this multidimensional nature, we considered walkability as a driver of the quality and attractiveness of urban areas. Throughout the redevelopment of pedestrian paths, it is possible to enhance the connectivity among houses, services, public facilities and green spaces, valuing built heritage and promoting active and sustainable mobility, synonymous with wellbeing and social inclusion. Numerous studies demonstrated how active mobility measures improve health conditions, citizens’ and city users’ opportunities, and even safety perception and attractiveness of historic city centers. This study aims to deepen the role of active mobility measures in the definition of accessibility and the redevelopment of historical districts characterized by economic and social marginality, furthermore analyzing the competitive spill-over. To this end, we identified and classified in a matrix active mobility measures, resulting from the study and comparison of the latest strategies and best practices, related to physical, economic, social and functional features of historic districts. Finally, the study proposes the application to a material case, Pizzofalcone, a significant area of the city of Naples, due to the lack of integration with the rest of the historic city center, despite its centrality, and the economic and social marginality despite the historical and architectural value of urban fabric, landscape and cultural heritage
RESILIENCE, SMARTNESS AND SUSTAINABILITY. TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM?
No full textThe urbanization and the vulnerability of a city make challenging the ability of remaining along a sustainable development path. From a sustainability point of view, the smartness concept has been enlarged up to incorporate the definition of sustainable development with the so-called smart and sustainable cities. Another aspect is gaining importance in this debate: the growing challenges posed by climate change and by environmental issue at large. This issue has forced governments and in particular cities, which represent the main place for the prevention and the implementation of initiatives against negative environmental events, to develop flexible and resilient actions, initiatives and plans. In the near future, the majority of the population will be establishing in cities or urban context, so that the active actions will be based on the need to adopt solutions that address the principle of resilience. Since policies, plans and projects should succeed in considering together these three principles – sustainability, smartness and resilience – the aim of this paper consists in analyzing the common features of these concepts which may be at the basis of an integrated approach. Adapting the definition already accepted for buildings in terms of bright buildings, the relevance of brightness issue consists in developing a new paradigm of reference for a city
Sustainable Mobility as a Factor of Urban Competitiveness: The Scenario of Major Italian Cities
No full textAn increasing number of studies focus on how sustainable mobility may improve cities’ livability by providing safe, affordable, accessible, efficient and resilient services and infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods, minimising environmental impact. Among the benefits of sustainable mobility solutions are the enhancement of connectivity within houses, services, public facilities and green spaces, as well as promoting well-being and social inclusion. Promoting sustainable mobility can bring new resources and investments to a city and, as a consequence, a chance to boost its economic attractiveness. One of the most relevant opportunities to improve sustainable mobility in Italy is the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), which finances sustainable mobility projects and initiatives as key elements for the competitiveness of Italian cities.
This paper seeks to examine the weight of sustainable mobility features in shaping the competitiveness of 14 major Italian cities. To do so, we conducted a principal component analysis and regression analysis to determine the significance of sustainable mobility indicators in urban competitiveness within a framework of urban characteristics that refer to five fields of investment of the PNRR
Exposure-Tolerant Imaging Solution forCultural Heritage Monitoring
No full textThis paper describes a simple and cheap solution specifically designed for monitoring the degradation of thin coatings employed for metal protection. The proposed solution employs a commercial photocamera and a frequency-domain-based approach that is capable of highlighting the surface uniformity changes due to initial corrosion. Even though the proposed solution is specifically designed to monitor the long-time performance of protective coatings employed for the restoration of silver artifacts, it can be successfully used also for assessing the conservation state of other ancient metallic works of art. The proposed solution is made tolerant to exposure changes by using a procedure for sensor nonlinearity identification and correction, does not require a precise lighting control, and employs only free open-source software, so that its overall cost is very low and can be used also by not specifically trained operator
Spreading green infrastructure-related benefits: A study concerning Sardinia, Italy
No full textThe European Commission defines green infrastructure (GI) as a network having the Natura 2000 sites at its core, able of delivering numerous ecosystem services (ESs), and “strategically planned”, emphasizing the role of GI as regards the integration of ecological connectivity and protection of the environment, and ecosystems multifunctionality.
In this study we build upon a methodology applied in a previous study (Lai and Leone, 2017), where a Sardinian regional GI was identified based upon four factors: conservation value, natural value, recreation value and landscape value.
Once a regional GI is identified, we comparatively assess the eligibility of areas located inside and outside protected areas to be part of the regional GI on the basis of the four factors indicated above.
We find that patches located in protected areas are comparatively more eligible to be part of the regional GI than patches located outside only as far as conservation value’s spatial distribution is concerned. In the other three cases, the behavioral patterns of patches located inside and outside protected areas are less clear-cut. Policy recommendations coming from the outcomes entail the mitigation of land-taking processes, the enlargement of the Natura 2000 Network, the detailed and analytical identification of landscape goods, and the enhancement of the accessibility to attractive sites
The C-Section Epidemic: What's Tort Reform Got to Do With It?
No full textToday one in three babies in the United States comes into the world by cesarean section. The cesarean section has become the most commonly performed operating room procedure in the United States. Conventional wisdom holds that malpractice liability bears primary responsibility for the cesarean section epidemic and that tort reform, which caps physician liability, holds the key to its reduction. This article presents new aggregate empirical data that debunks this view. For the first time, it provides a national cesarean rate for births subject to damage caps and a national cesarean rate for births without damage caps. This data shows that a woman is not less likely to give birth by cesarean section in a state with damage caps than in one without. Thus, either damage caps are insufficient to address physicians’ concerns or other explanations better account for the overuse of the procedure. The empirical analysis will assist policy makers and advocates seeking to reduce the cesarean rate as well as contribute to consideration of the efficacy of medical malpractice reform as a means to reduce the broader problem of medical overtreatment.
The article then outlines three policy initiatives to reduce the cesarean section rate. First, it suggests upending the current payment practice for deliveries. Contrary to the present norm, it proposes that obstetricians receive more rather than less to deliver vaginally to compensate them for the extra time that vaginal delivery takes compared to cesarean delivery. Second, rather than looking to tort reform to reduce cesarean section rates, the article explores whether malpractice insurance providers themselves are contributing to the cesarean section epidemic and advocates two novel medical malpractice insurance reforms to address this problem. Third, it advocates public disclosure of hospital and physician cesarean section rates so that women can make informed decisions when selecting their health care providers and when determining whether to have a cesarean section
Measuring Urban Competitiveness Through the Lens of Sustainability: An Application at the Urban Districts Level in the City of Naples (Italy)
No full textUrban competitiveness, the study of which has broadened significantly in recent decades, is the ability of a city to attract investments, people and new activities. It depends on a multitude of closely interrelated factors that characterise urban areas. The multidimensional approach, which is typical of urban compet- itiveness studies, allows the attitude to sustainability to be considered as one of the possible measures of competitiveness. This work aims to evaluate, at the local level, the relationship between urban competitiveness and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted with Agenda 2030. The paper proposes a composite index structured in several dimensions that are useful to compare the competitive performance of cities’ districts in relation to social, economic and environmental sustainability features, providing a multidimensional ranking. The application phase focuses on the municipality of Naples, in Italy, chosen for the heterogeneity of its districts. The overall competitive performance of the city’s districts is highlighted, and their strengths and shortcomings in the different dimensions are considered. The results aim to emphasise the main components of competitiveness of the Neapolitan districts and support decision-makers in improving competitiveness in line with the Sustainable Development Goals
Bridging the Distance: Exploring Informal Communication and its Impact on Productivity, Well-Being, and Workplace Dynamics in Hybrid Work Environments
No full textAuthor Sabrina Schopf, BScMasterarbeit Johannes Kepler Universität Linz 202
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