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Land subsidence in urban environments is an increasingly prominent aspect in the monitoring and maintenance of urban infrastructures. In this study we update the subsidence information over Rome and its surroundings (already the subject of past research with other sensors) for the first time using Copernicus Sentinel-1 data and open source tools. With this aim, we have developed a fully automatic processing chain for land deformation monitoring using the European Space Agency (ESA) SentiNel Application Platform (SNAP) and Stanford Method for Persistent Scatterers (StaMPS). We have applied this automatic processing chain to more than 160 Sentinel-1A images over ascending and descending orbits to depict primarily the Line-Of-Sight ground deformation rates. Results of both geometries were then combined to compute the actual vertical motion component, which resulted in more than 2 million point targets, over their common area. Deformation measurements are in agreement with past studies over the city of Rome, identifying main subsidence areas in: (i) Fiumicino; (ii) along the Tiber River; (iii) Ostia and coastal area; (iv) Ostiense quarter; and (v) Tivoli area. Finally, post-processing of Persistent Scatterer Inteferometry (PSI) results, in a Geographical Information System (GIS) environment, for the extraction of ground displacements on urban infrastructures (including road networks, buildings and bridges) is considered.

Italy was the first, among all the European countries, to be strongly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2). The virus, proven to be very contagious, infected more than 9 million people worldwide (in June 2020). Nevertheless, it is not clear the role of air pollution and meteorological conditions on virus transmission. In this study, we quantitatively assessed how the meteorological and air quality parameters are correlated to the COVID-19 transmission in two large metropolitan areas in Northern Italy as Milan and Florence and in the autonomous province of Trento. Milan, capital of Lombardy region, it is considered the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Italy. Our main findings highlight that temperature and humidity related variables are negatively correlated to the virus transmission, whereas air pollution (PM 2.5 ) shows a positive correlation (at lesser degree). In other words, COVID-19 pandemic transmission prefers dry and cool environmental conditions, as well as polluted air. For those reasons, the virus might easier spread in unfiltered air-conditioned indoor environments. Those results will be supporting decision makers to contain new possible outbreaks.

The spatial mismatch between population growth and settlement expansion is at the base of current models of urban growth. Empirical evidence is increasingly required to inform planning measures promoting urban containment in the context of a stable (or declining) population. In these regards, per-capita indicators of land-use change can be adopted with the aim at evaluating long-term sustainability of urbanization processes. The present study assesses spatial variations in per-capita indicators of land-use change in Rome, Central Italy, at five years (1949, 1974, 1999, 2008, and 2016) with the final objective of quantifying the mismatch between urban expansion and population growth. Originally specialized in agricultural productions, Rome’s metropolitan area is a paradigmatic example of dispersed urban expansion in the Mediterranean basin. By considering multiple land-use dynamics, per-capita indicators of landscape change delineated three distinctive waves of growth corresponding with urbanization, suburbanization, and a more mixed stage with counter-urbanization and re-urbanization impulses. By reflecting different socioeconomic contexts on a local scale, urban fabric and forests were identified as the ‘winner’ classes, expanding homogeneously over time at the expense of cropland. Agricultural landscapes experienced a more heterogeneous trend with arable land and pastures declining systematically and more fragmented land classes (e.g., vineyards and olive groves) displaying stable (or slightly increasing) trends. The continuous reduction of per-capita surface area of cropland that’s supports a reduced production base, which is now insufficient to satisfy the rising demand for fresh food at the metropolitan scale, indicates the unsustainability of the current development in Rome and more generally in the whole Mediterranean basin, a region specialized traditionally in (proximity) agricultural productions.

The determination of seismic risk in urban settlements has received increasing attention in the scientific community during the last decades since it allows to identify the most vulnerable portions of urban areas and therefore to plan appropriate strategies for seismic risk reduction. In order to accurately evaluate the seismic risk of urban settlements it should be necessary to estimate in detail the seismic vulnerability of all the existing buildings in the considered area. This task could be very cumbersome due to both the great number of information needed to accurately characterize each building and the huge related computational effort. Several simplified methods for the assessment of the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings have been therefore presented in the literature. In order to estimate the occurrence of damage in buildings due to possible seismic phenomena, the published studies usually refer to response spectra evaluated according to seismic events expected in the territory with assumed probabilities. In the present paper seismic events are instead simulated using a modified Olami–Feder–Christensen (OFC) model, within the framework of self-organized criticality. The proposed methodology takes into account some geological parameters in the evaluation of the seismic intensities perceived by each single building, extending the approach presented in a previous study of some of the authors. Here, a large territory in the Sicilian oriental coast, the metropolitan area of Catania, which includes several urbanized zones with different features, has been considered as a new case study. Applications of the procedure are presented first with reference to seismic sequences of variable intensity, whose occurrence is rather frequent in seismic territories, showing that the damage can be progressively accumulated in the buildings and may lead to their collapse even when the intensities of each single event are moderate. Moreover, statistically significant simulations of single major seismic events, equivalent to a given sequence in terms of produced damages on buildings, are also performed. The latter match well with a novel a-priori risk index, introduced with the aim of characterizing the seismic risk of each single municipality in the considered metropolitan area. The proposed procedure can be applied to any large urbanized territory and, allowing to identify the most vulnerable areas, can represent a useful tool to prioritize the allocation of funds. This could be a novelty for risk policies in many countries in which public subsidies are currently assigned on a case-by-case basis, taking into account only hazard and vulnerability. The use of an a-priori risk index in the allocation process will allow to take into due account the relevant role of exposure.

Landscapes are becoming increasingly urbanized, causing loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, with potentially negative effects on biodiversity. Insects are among the organisms with the largest diversity in urbanized environments. Here, we sampled predator (Ampulicidae, Sphecidae and Crabronidae) and parasitoid (Tachinidae) flower-visiting insects in 36 sites in the city of Rome (Italy). Although the diversity of herbivorous insects in urban areas mostly depends on the availability of flowering plants and nesting sites, predators and parasitoids generally require a larger number of resources during their life cycle, and are expected to be particularly influenced by urbanization. As flower-visitors can easily move between habitat patches, the effect of urbanization was tested at multiple spatial scales (local, landscape and sub-regional). We found that urbanization influenced predator and parasitoid flower-visitors at all three spatial scales. At the local scale, streets and buildings negatively influenced evenness of predators and species richness and abundance of parasitoids probably acting as dispersal barrier. At the landscape scale, higher percentage of urban decreased predator abundance, while increasing their evenness, suggesting an increase in generalist and highly mobile species. Area and compactness (i.e. Contiguity index) of urban green interactively influenced predator communities, whereas evenness of parasitoids increased with increasing Contiguity index. At the sub-regional scale, species richness and abundance of predators increased with increasing distance from the city center. Compared to previous studies testing the effect of urbanization, we found little variation in species richness, abundance and evenness along our urbanization gradient. The current insect fauna has been probably selected for its tolerance to habitat loss and fragmentation, being the result of the intensive anthropogenic alteration occurred in the area in the last centuries. Conservation strategies aimed at predator and parasitoid flying insects have to take in account variables at multiple spatial-scales, as well as the complementarity of resources across the landscape.

Contemporary urban planning faces the ongoing challenge of developing Green Infrastructure capable of providing vital ecosystem services. Within this framework, the Barcelona metropolitan area has advanced a network of parks that, while serving local neighborhoods, also aim for metropolitan relevance. This study offers a forward-looking analysis of selected parks in the southern Llobregat River basin—an area shaped by historic villages and working-class settlements—to evaluate their contribution to both Green Infrastructure and the region’s polycentric structure. Building on previous landmark studies and multidisciplinary perspectives, the research examines eight parks through four spatial and scalar lenses, assessing their territorial role and accessibility, ecological connectivity, urban integration and permeability, and landscape design with both qualitative and quantitative data. Using a comparative framework alongside research-by-design methods tested in urban design studios, the research links analytical insights to design-based strategies. The outcome is a set of actionable guidelines aimed at enhancing local park performance, with broader implications for over 50 ‘Metropolitan Parks’ spread in more than 30 municipalities. These insights contribute to shaping a more integrated, livable, and resilient metropolitan region.

Land cover change (LCC) is the most important factor in causing ecosystems services (ES) loss. In Mediterranean basins, coastal areas historically suffer from great anthropic pressure. These changes influence runoff, and municipal authorities often cannot estimate the impact of complex land cover transitions. In such context, the great urban and industrial development of the towns surrounding the city of Rome (Italy) represents a paradigmatic case study. In this paper, land cover evolution in a watershed located in a peri-urban environment has been studied in terms of LCC and the consequential flood risk. The information concerning land cover transformations was analyzed in following time scenarios: 1954, 1967 and 2018. The identification of occurred rainfall events, and the application of a combined hydrological and hydraulic modelling, allowed the estimation of flooded areas and volumes. The obtained results allowed to quantify the increase in the flood risk, that was more pronounced in the part of the selected area that has been more extensively interested by the soil sealing. The increase in the flood risk was larger in the hypothesis of a rainfall occurring when the soil is dry, like it can happen for the common case of summer precipitations.

The One Health paradigm recognizes that information on infectious diseases, zoonosis and related predictors in animal populations is essential. Pets live in close contact with humans and interact with wild animals, but the lack of reliable information on pet population size, demography and ownership profiles is a constant worldwide. Reliable data must be made available in order to address proper public health policies regarding the design of surveillance plans, the management of canine welfare and stray dog phenomenon, the control of dog behaviour-related problems, and the livestock/wildlife endangerment. Dog identification & registration (I&R) have become mandatory in most European countries in recent years, but the process is far from being widely accomplished, thus resulting in an underestimation of the real canine population. To date, data on the completeness of Dog Registries is very limited. A cross-sectional survey through 630 face-to-face questionnaires was performed with the aim of investigating the dog population size, demography, ownership profiles, and the I&R rate in central Italy. Logistic regression models investigated risk factors with the following outcome variables: dog presence into the Dog Registry, veterinary care frequency, and dog ownership. The present study identified that the dog population is higher than previously reported in Italy and in Europe, whilst lower compared to countries with a poor Human Development Index (a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators used by United Nation). Almost half of the interviewed people (47%) owned at least one dog, totalling 315 dogs. The mean number of dogs per household was 0.7 and 1.5 per dog-owning household. The Bayesian model estimated 481,294 (95% CI: 470,860-491,978) dogs (90 dogs/km2; human:dog ratio 9.0, 95% CI: 8.8-9.2) suggesting that a high density of people does not limit the dog ownership. Dogs resulted predominant among pets. The majority of dogs were males, crossbred, acquires as a gift, lived in rural areas, outdoors and attended a veterinary visit 1-2 times per year. The percentage of neutered dogs were higher in females (55%) than in males (8%). Only 75.3% (95% CI: 73.6-76.9) of the dogs were correctly identified and registered. The Dog Registry completeness increased during the first decades after its establishment, but no improvement has been made afterwards. The dogs correctly identified and registered were more likely to be purebred, neutered, lived in urban areas and visited a veterinarian frequently. Several strategies are recommended to encourage I&R, including promoting responsible dog ownership, engaging private veterinarians and dog breeders, and establishing an effective control system. The present study identified also that the dog source and the kind of feeding were variables associated with the veterinary care frequency. Owning a dog was associated with living in rural areas and the presence of children. The present study reported the poor presence of reliable predictors for the dog ownership. This is the first study to provide an estimate of the canine population abundance, characteristics, and ownership profiles in a European large metropolitan area.

The spatial and temporal variability of air temperature, precipitation, actual evapotranspiration (AET) and their related water balance components, as well as their responses to anthropogenic climate change, provide fundamental information for an effective management of water resources and for a proactive involvement of users and stakeholders, in order to develop and apply adaptation and mitigation strategies at the local level. In this study, using an interdisciplinary research approach tailored to water management needs, we evaluate the past, present and future quantity of water potentially available for drinking supply in the water catchments feeding the about 2.3 million inhabitants of the Turin metropolitan area (the former Province of Turin, north-western Italy), considering climatologies at the quarterly and yearly timescales. Observed daily maximum surface air temperature and precipitation data from 1959 to 2017 were analysed to assess historical trends, their significance and the possible cross-correlations between the water balance components. Regional climate model (RCM) simulations from a small ensemble were analysed to provide mid-century projections of the difference between precipitation and AET for the area of interest in the future CMIP5 scenarios RCP4.5 (stabilization) and RCP8.5 (business as usual). Temporal and spatial variations in recharge were approximated with variations of drainage. The impact of irrigation, and of snowpack variability, on the latter was also assessed. The other terms of water balance were disregarded because they are affected by higher uncertainty. The analysis over the historical period indicated that the driest area of the study region displayed significant negative annual (and spring) trends of both precipitation and drainage. Results from field experiments were used to model irrigation, and we found that relatively wetter watersheds in the northern and in the southern parts behave differently, with a significant increase of AET due to irrigation. The analysis of future projections suggested almost stationary conditions for annual data. Regarding quarterly data, a slight decrease in summer drainage was found in three out of five models in both emission scenarios. The RCM ensemble exhibits a large spread in the representation of the future drainage trends. The large interannual variability of precipitation was also quantified and identified as a relevant risk factor for water management, expected to play a major role also in future decades.