1,720,990 research outputs found
The Rural World: a Lost Paradise between Technology and Intensive Exploitation
No full textThis study examines the ability of technology to "save" the world from hunger.
Technological progress in the last two centuries has increasingly become exogenous with
inventions and innovations introduced by productive fields unrelated to agriculture, such as
chemistry, mechanics and biotech. These innovations are all labor-saving and capital-using
and therefore out of the economic possibilities of small farmers whose revenues are
compressed upstream by input producers. The agricultural squeeze is a myth that needs to be
debunked due to the increase in agricultural productivity, while the most important is the
agricultural spread, a consequence of the elimination of agriculture from the downstream
phases of the food chain to the benefit of industrialists and traders. The most important
landscape-environmental impacts were the social and human desertification of the
countryside and the uniformization of the rural landscape. Despite the reference to the myth
of the rural world, the problem remains and it is not known where it will go with the
explosion of the population in 2050. What are the long-term strategies able to give results?
This is one of the questions this study has tried to answer
Proceedings of the 19th IPSAPA/ISPALEM - International Scientific Conference. The Turning Point of the Landscape-cultural Mosaic: Renaissance Revelation Resilience
No full textTurning Point is the provocative term geologist and (today) opinion leader Gregg Braden uses to encourage all of us to reflect on the ways that science and culture are traveling. In his work "he is known internationally as a pioneer in building a bridge between science and indigenous skills in view of real solutions for today's world." This is not the first laudator temporis acti (admirer of the past) but his characteristic is to challenge many stereotypes of the contemporary world from the inside, and not just as a confused outside observer as sometimes happens in nostalgic literature. For him the turning point is the obliged moment to bring back the world before it falls into a chaotic structure no longer controllable. Experts of complexity however tell us that progress can only be born in a world that hovers on the brink of chaos. Braden, after living as an expert in the world of complexity, casts doubts on this statement and sets limits beyond which the risk of uncontrollable fall becomes too high. Its wide reflection on resilience shows the need to maintain, while there is still time, a reserve capacity, unexpressed but accessible
Proceedings of the 20th IPSAPA/ISPALEM International Scientific Conference. The Erratic Behavior of the Landscape-cultural Mosaic: Emotion, Energy, Experience
No full textThe 20th IPSAPA conference was held in Reggio Calabria on July 7-8, 2016.
The call for papers was followed by the participants more faithfully than usual,
and the papers cover most of the foreseen items in a balanced way. The call for
papers therefore is also a good outline for the introduction to this book.
Since 2005 IPSAPA conference focuses on the successful keyword "landscapecultural
mosaic". Sometimes it prevailed realism, sometimes economic
sustainability, sometimes the evolutionary dynamics, sometimes the pursuit of
excellence. This time we went back to the domain of the imagination and to the
fascination of discovery, taking the line of the conferences of 2009 and 2010,
called respectively: "The backstage of the landscape-cultural mosaic: Invisible,
Inaccessible, Inexistent" and "The Wonderland in the landscape-cultural mosaic:
Idea, Image, Illusion". The fantastic invention was present in part also in the
2013 conference entitled "Utopias and dystopias in the landscape-cultural
mosaic: Visions, Values, Vulnerability"
Proceedings of the 21st IPSAPA/ISPALEM International Scientific Conference
No full textSince 2005 the IPSAPA conference focuses on the successful keyword
"landscape-cultural mosaic." Sometimes it prevailed realism, sometimes
economics, sometimes evolutionary dynamics, sometimes the pursuit of
excellence. This edition confirms the return to the domain of imagination and
fascination of discovery, taking the line of the conferences of 2009 and 2010,
named respectively "The backstage of the landscape-cultural mosaic . Invisible,
Inaccessible, Inexistent" and "Wonderland in the landscape-cultural mosaic.
Idea, Image, Illusion". The fantastic invention was present in part in the 2013
conference entitled "Utopias and dystopias in the landscape-cultural mosaic.
Visions, Values, Vulnerability". The unstructured reality was the subject of the
previous conference (2016) entitled "Erratic of the landscape-cultural mosaic.
Emotion, Energy, Experience
Analisi di scenario del mercato ittico con specifica attenzione per gli astici
No full textI più recenti documenti di programmazione e gestione
della pesca e dell’acquacoltura adottati in ambito
comunitario e nazionale fissano quale obiettivo fondamentale
da perseguire quello di garantire la sostenibilità
delle attività. Realizzare uno sviluppo del
settore della pesca che riesca “a soddisfare i bisogni
del presente senza compromettere la capacità delle
generazioni future di soddisfare i propri bisogni”1 significa
gestire la pesca in modo da mantenere inalterate
tutte quelle funzioni ambientali che, a loro volta,
contribuiscono al benessere umano e assicurano la
sopravvivenza dell’attività garantendo la salute degli
ecosistemi interessati. Il concetto informatore di questo
modello di sviluppo, compatibile con le esigenze
di tutela e salvaguardia delle risorse, ripropone una
visione nella quale il fine ultimo è rappresentato dal
raggiungimento di una migliore qualità della vita, dalla
diffusione di una prosperità crescente ed equa, dal
conseguimento di un livello ambientale non dannoso
per l’uomo e per le altre specie viventi e nel quale sia
possibile una più equa accessibilità alle risorse
Proceedings of the 18th IPSAPA/ISPALEM International Scientific Conference - The Usefulness of the Useless in the Landscapecultural Mosaic: Liveability, Typicality, Biodiversity
No full textThis year's IPSAPA/ISPALEM conference urged attendees, as usual, to critically reflect on certain fundamental concepts for the analysis of the landscape-cultural mosaic, by encouraging on the one hand, methodological analysis, and on the other, their application in the field. The fundamental concepts for this year were the true, the beautiful, the good and their counterpoints (false, ugly, bad) viewed in their relationship with the two ambiguous parameters of useful and useless. The last two conferences were decidedly oriented towards the '"useless", as they were titled Wonderland and Utopia, while in this edition the orientation was directed towards the equilibrium between the two worlds of the useful and the useless (first volume), with the operative corollaries of biodiversity and of typicality, in a frame of liveability (second volume)
The peak factor for gust loading: A review and some new proposals
No full textWind forces on structures that can be considered stiff are usually calculated by using the so-called gust factor G that magnifies the effects of the statical part of the wind speed U. In the expression of G a peak factor g is introduced to account for the maxima of the response dynamical displacement Xd(t), which is a zero mean stationary Gaussian process. The peak factor is derived by assuming that the upcrossings of a given level are a Poisson process, which is deemed very conservative by several authors. Thus, other ways for computing g are proposed herein preserving its classical definition. They are: (1) the use of the envelope of the response process; (2) the solution of the backward Kolmogorov equation; (3) the use of some approximate formulae such as those by Preumont, Lutes et al., and Vanmarcke. The theoretical models are applied to the response of a linear SDOF oscillator for two values of the ratio of critical damping. In the last part of the paper a nonlinear response, that of a Duffing oscillator, is considered and the problem of the peak factor for this nonlinear case is attacked by using the stochastic averaging of energy envelope. The results of the various approaches are compared with those obtained by numerical simulation
A Multi-‐Criteria Decision approach for the sustainable dairy farm management
No full textThe profit maximization strategy still pursued by most of the farmers is largely responsible of the intensification of the production processes, natural resources’ depletion and climate change. To curb the impact of the negative externalities, new strategies have been tempted based on the corporate social responsibility to make the economic objective compatible with the environmental and social ones in the sustainable agriculture. The aim of this research is to present an application of the Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approach to the dairy farming to generate sustainable solutions inclusive of the economic, environment and social objectives to satisfy the preferences of different stakeholder groups involved in the dairy farm management. This approach converts the profit maximization objective in sustainable goals to be achieved simultaneously at some predefined target levels. The optimal solution consists in finding a goals’ combination by minimizing the deviations between goals and corresponding target values, weighted according with the stakeholders’ preferences. Among the many possible solutions, the best one will satisfy the Pareto optimal criteria. The results suggest that the compromise solutions obtained with MCDM in the weighted goal programming (WGP) version is different from profit maximization due to the achievement of the many dimensions of sustainability reflecting the stakeholders’ preferences for economic environment and social goals. Sensitive and trade off analysis contribute to improve the sustainable solution in whole farm planning. This approach contributes also to formulate policy measures to address the objectives of farmers versus goals of social and public interest
Innovative Local Development Initiatives in the Eastern Alps: Forest Therapy, Land Consolidation Associations and Mountaineering Villages
Full text linkPerception of protected areas: Evidence from an italian alpine area
No full textThe objective of the study was to investigate perception of Alpine protected areas (APAs), which play a crucial role in protecting local natural, social and economic values. We proposed a research model in which the positive behavioral intention towards APAs was assumed to be affected by environmental awareness, awareness of wildlife, and perception of ecological connectivity and its functions. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test causalities. Our findings indicated that environmental awareness is not, per se, the determinant of a positive behavioral intention towards APAs: in fact, some specific and closely interlinked elements, such as awareness of wildlife and perception of ecological connectivity, heavily affected the behavioral intention towards a responsible fruition of APAs. The managerial implications of this work include some considerations: a) perception of protected areas has to be analyzed to bolster a positive behavioral intention towards responsible fruition of protected areas; b) awareness of wildlife and perception of ecological connectivity have a crucial role and could be used to strengthen responsible fruition of protected areas; c) these aspects could act as a lever to attract tourists, investors and other stakeholders. These findings should become the basis to plan effective policies, including communication and marketing activities, aimed at bolstering responsible fruition of protected areas as well as of the Alps as a whole
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