1,720,976 research outputs found
Accessibility and rurality indicators for regional development
No full textThe development of a region is affected, inter alia, by concepts linked to the ability to displace and reach
other locations (accessibility) efficiently and to lagging economic conditions connected to contemporary
countryside activities (rurality). These topics and their relationships have attracted the interest of scholars
who have scrutinized the implications of accessibility and rurality for policy making and planning.
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical modeling of accessibility and rurality and to
develop an empirical study of their spatial patterns, with reference to the municipalities of the region
of Sardinia, Italy. We study accessibility through an indicator constructed using a doubly constrained spatial
interaction model and propose the Composite Index of Rurality that aims to evaluate rurality in a
regional setting employing multivariate analysis. We investigate the spatial dependence of these indicators
through general and local spatial autocorrelation analysis to verify the hypothesis that scarcely
accessible spatial units are classifiable as rural areas. The results show that, for the case study of Sardinia,
this hypothesis is not always true, as some urban areas are not always highly accessible
Spatial organization and accessibility: a study of US counties
No full textCommuting is a phenomenon that widely affects contemporary societies confronted with the opportunity to work in places that are sometimes located at a considerable distance from residential districts. The areas in which we live are organized to allow for the daily movement of workers and students, calling for efficient transportation systems in order to minimize costs. In regional science, accessibility is often used to evaluate, among other characteristics, the effectiveness and quality of transportation systems. This multifaceted concept encapsulates the ability of a certain category of people to reach a given location and clearly depends on the logistics of transportation infrastructures. In literature accessibility is assessed by means of several indicators, whose functional structure is generally related to two factors: job opportunities and the transport costs that people sustain to reach a location. Whatever accessibility measure is applied, the level of accessibility often depends on spatial location.
In this chapter we apply spatial autocorrelation analyses to investigate the spatial distribution of commuters’ accessibility across US counties. Commuting is a mushrooming phenomenon in the US: approximately 25 per cent of the total US labour force (about 32 million people) commute from a distance radius of 25 minutes, according to the dataset on commuting behaviour provided by the US Census Bureau (www.census.gov). This information refers to commuting trips in the counties of the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC). We consider inbound and outbound movements to and from each of the 3141 counties on the US mainland
Towards Spatial Composite Indicators: A Case Study on Sardinian Landscape
Full text linkComposite Indicators (CIs) recently earned popularity as decision-support tool in policy-making for their ability to give concise measures of complex phenomena. Despite growing diffusion of the use of CI in policy-making, current research has barely addressed the issue of the spatial dimension of input data and of final indicator scores. Nowadays the spatial dimension of data plays a crucial role in analysis, thanks to recent developments in spatial data infrastructures which has enabled seamless access to a large amount of geographic information. In addition, recent developments in spatial statistical techniques are facilitating the understanding of the presence of spatial effects among data, spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. These advances are improving our ability to understand the spatial dimension of information, which is crucial to obtain a more robust representation of the territorial reality and insights of territorial dynamics in order to inform decisions in spatial planning and policy-making. This paper proposes an original method for the integration of spatial multivariate analysis and the use of spatial data to extend existing state of the art methods for CIs, as a step towards the construction of Spatial Composite Indicators. The method was successfully tested on a landscape planning case study
Spatial statistics and composite indicators: a review of existing case studies and open research issues on spatial composite indicators
No full textRecent research advances in spatial statistic on spatial autocorrelation
help to better understand the spatial dependence between spatial units. Understanding
this kind of relationships helps to earn better insights on how
phenomena are distribute along space and why in a particular location they
feature a particular value.
In the last decade or so, spatial statistic techniques have been used by
several scholars to study the spatial distribution of composite indicators,
introducing a new point of view in the study of composite indicators that
allows to earn more knowledge with respect to the indicator’s value only;
in addition to this, spatial analysis was proven to show, for a particular location,
the dependency of the composite from one of its sub-factor.
This contribution presents a state of the art review of most recent advances
in spatial statistics applied to composite indicators as an early contribution
towards a more robust definition and application of spatial composite
indicators
On the role of wood and seagrass rests in coastal flooding events in Mediterranean microtidal beaches
No full textIn December 2019, following intense rainfall, the riverbeds of the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Cagliari
(Sardinia, Italy, western Mediterranean Sea) dumped a large quantity of river reeds attributed to the species
Arundo donax (Poaceae) into the sea. The concomitance of a sea storm event acting in the waters of the Gulf
of Cagliari transported and allowed the deposition and sedimentation of reeds and other seagrass rests (mostly
P. oceanica) on the Poetto beach (an urban microtidal beach located in the Gulf of Cagliari), for an estimated
mass of over 85 tonnes. The subsequent lock-down given by the Covid-19 pandemic, and thus the absence of
anthropogenic interferences, allowed the almost undisturbed interaction of beach processes with these wood
and seagrass rests.
This paper will describe the sedimentary structures formed on the berm, generated by the interaction
between reeds, Posidonia and sediment. Subsequently, it will be analysed how these sedimentary structures
protected the beach from coastal flooding during storm events which were characterised by wave parameters
(significant wave height and wave peak period) with greater values than those recorded during other storm
events that led to beach inundation. In detail, analyses were carried out comparing the wave data with images
acquired by a coastal video monitoring system. However, this storm event caused the reeds to redistribute
along the emerged beach, generating new sedimentary structures that, as a result of successive storm events
from different directions, became stratified in the beach increasing its permeability.
Although the beach cleaning operations often carried out with a removal of vegetal berms, the results of this
study highlighted that the non-removal strategies along the foreshore and the backshore can increase the whole
beach system resilience and protect the anthropic structures built in and behind the beach
Planning land-use change for biomass-fuelled energy-production plants: spatial analyses applied to the case of Sardinia, Italy
No full textLand-use change in Sardinia is a delicate problem. On the one hand, the Regional Landscape Plan, the main landscape-planning tool adopted on the island, pays great attention to landscape protection, using strict constraints and directives for land management. On the other hand, the Regional Energy Plan aims at the diversification of energy sources and, in particular, of renewable energy sources (RES). Actions directed to the development of RES-based energy production may lead to conflicts between the two plans, especially when the associated land-use changes affect landscapes. The aim of this study is to present a decision-support method for the development of a biomass supply chain that does not compromise landscape values in Sardinia
Accessibility, rurality and remoteness: an investigation on the Island of Sardinia, Italy
No full textThe dichotomy between rural and urban settings has been used by census
systems across the world in order to distinguish areas with high density
population from areas with low density and where the primary occupation
is connected to the agricultural sector. In this paper we study the level of
accessibility, remoteness and rurality for municipalities in Sardinia, Italy.
We apply a spatial analysis by means of indicators, such as accessibility for
commuters (De Montis, Caschili and Chessa, 2011), the index of relative
rurality, the metropolitan-rural interface levels (Waldorf, 2006) and the rurality-
remoteness combined classification (Dijkstra and Poelman, 2008).
We investigate whether accessibility shows a similar spatial pattern,
with respect to remoteness and rurality, and thus we provide an analysis of
the Sardinian setting that is of help for policy-makers and planners to understand
some of the relevant regional and urban factors that have driven
recent developments
70 Years of Shoreline Changes in Southern Sardinia (Italy): Retreat and Accretion on 79 Mediterranean Microtidal Beaches
Full text linkCoastal erosion and shoreline change represent major challenges for the sustainable management of coastal environments, with implications for infrastructure, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the socio-economic well-being of coastal communities. This study investigates the shoreline evolution of 79Mediterranean microtidal beaches located along the southern coast of Sardinia Island (Italy), using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS). Shorelines were manually digitised from high-resolution aerial orthophotos made available through the WMS service of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, covering the period 1954–2022. Shoreline changes were assessed through five statistical indicators: Shoreline Change Envelope (SCE), Net Shoreline Movement (NSM), End Point Rate (EPR), Weighted Linear Regression (WLR), and Linear Regression Rate (LRR). The results highlight marked spatial and temporal variability in shoreline retreat and accretion, revealing patterns that link shoreline dynamics to the degree of anthropisation or naturalness of each beach. In fact, coastal areas characterised by local anthropogenic factors showed higher rates of shoreline retreat and/or accretion, while natural beaches showed greater stability and resilience in the long term. The outcomes of this analysis provide valuable insights into local coastal dynamics and represent a critical knowledge base for developing targeted adaptation strategies, supporting spatial planning, and reducing coastal risks under future climate change scenarios
Ecogeomorphology and vulnerability in a Mediterranean ria-type coast (La Maddalena Archipelago, NE Sardinia, western Mediterranean)
Full text linkThis paper presents a map describing the main geomorphological and sedimentological features, hydrodynamics, benthic habitat distributions and human impact on the coastal and marine areas of the Archipelago of La Maddalena (NE Sardinia, western Mediterranean). This cartography is based on an interdisciplinary sea-land approach, with the aim being to support sustainable and successful beach management in the face of a changing climate and environment, thereby contributing to the achievement of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (13, 14 and 15). In the Main Map (1:14,000 scale), the static and dynamic features of the beach systems and adjacent inner shelf are divided into thematic sections that include the geomorphological elements, hydrodynamics, sedimentological distributions, benthic habitat (mainly Posidonia oceanica meadow) and anthropogenic impacts. The map establishes a fundamental, multidisciplinary benchmark that is able to provide substantial scientific support to policymakers in relation to future vulnerability-assessment activities and the definition of land-management strategies
Data on coastal dunes vulnerability of eleven microtidal wave-dominated beaches of Sardinia (Italy, western Mediterranean)
Full text linkThis article contains data about the values of the Dune Vulnerability Index (DVI) and the Partial Index Vulnerability (IVp) of eleven coastal dune systems located in Sardinia (Italy, western Mediterranean). Specifically, we present the values of 59 variables that summarize the condition of the studied dune systems, clustered in five groups: Geomorphological Condition (GCD), Marine Influence (MI), Aeolian Influence (AI), Vegetation Condition (VC), and Human Effects (HE). Data were collected during numerous field surveys and using aerial-photos. This dataset can be useful to evaluate the coastal dune vulnerability of several Sardinian beaches in order to drive local coastal managers towards an efficient management
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