• Energy Research
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Mesocosm experiments have become increasingly popular in climate change research as they bridge the gap between small-scale, less realistic, microcosm experiments, and large-scale, more complex, natural systems. Characteristics of aquatic mesocosm designs (e.g., mesocosm volume, study duration, and replication) vary widely, potentially affecting the magnitude and direction of effect sizes measured in experiments. In this global systematic review we aim to identify the type, direction and strength of climate warming effects on aquatic species, communities and ecosystems in mesocosm experiments. Furthermore, we will investigate the context-dependency of the observed effects on several a priori determined effect moderators (ecological and methodological). Our conclusions will provide recommendations for aquatic scientists designing mesocosm experiments, as well as guidelines for interpretation of experimental results by scientists, policy-makers and the general public. We will conduct a systematic search using multiple online databases to gather evidence from the scientific literature on the effects of warming experimentally tested in aquatic mesocosms. Data from relevant studies will be extracted and used in a random effects meta-analysis to estimate the overall effect sizes of warming experiments on species performance, biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Experimental characteristics (e.g., mesocosm size and shape, replication-level, experimental duration and design, biogeographic region, community type, crossed manipulation) will be further analysed using subgroup analyses.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always following a rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is a continuous update about emerging topics concerning relationships among urban planning, mobility and environment thanks to a collection of short scientific papers written by young researchers. The Review Notes are made up of five parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of the TeMA Journal. In particular: The Town Planning International Rules and Legislation Overview section aims at presenting the latest updates in the territorial and urban legislative sphere. The Covid-19 pandemic is causing a major impact on energy systems. Improving the energy efficiency of urban areas is now the cornerstone of scientific community and the European Commission discussions. Thus, the content of this review note aims at carrying out an analysis of the latest documents of the European Commission before and during the slow recovery from Covid-19 with the aim of identifying the priorities and areas on which to intervene to reduce energy consumption in different territorial contexts. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 14 No 1 (2021): The city challenges and external agents. Methods, tools and best practices

Prefigurare assetti urbani futuri nei quali le tecnologie consentano azioni e interazioni fra gli individui inimmaginabili solo pochi anni fa, ha da sempre rappresentato una delle tematiche di ricerca ed approfondimento più interessanti delle scienze della città anche se, probabilmente, non sufficientemente considerate nel dibattito urbanistico del nostro paese degli ultimi venti anni. L’accelerazione verso tali tematiche è stata consistente a partire dai recenti bandi della Comunità Europea e del Ministero dell’Istruzione e della Ricerca Italiano sulle: Smart City. In questa importante svolta, supportata dalle numerose aziende produttrici di tecnologie, dispositivi e media, sembra tuttavia verificarsi una discontinuità nell’ambito della definizione teorica dei processi connessi alla strutturazione ed alla gestione della Smart City. I numerosi approfondimenti sul tema sembrano svilupparsi lontano dalle scienze del governo delle trasformazioni della città e distanti dal principale ambito disciplinare di riferimento: l’urbanistica. Tale discrasia è probabilmente riconducibile a due fattori: da una parte la marginalizzazione del tema relativo a città ed innovazione tecnologica nel dibattito urbanistico nazionale concentratosi su altri, pur importanti, argomenti e, dall’altra l’approccio marcatamente aziendale che la recente accelerazione ha subito e che, in una logica di mercato, tende ad evitare possibili razionalizzazioni dei processi. All’interno del testo verranno proposti approcci, ipotesi e riflessioni probabilmente non strutturate per definire un ordinato sviluppo teorico ma, probabilmente in grado di aprire dimensioni del ragionamento ed indicare possibili scenari che possano essere successivamente ripresi, confutati e riarticolati dagli altri studiosi delle scienze urbane per definirne un nuovo modo di interpretare e tentare di orientare lo sviluppo urbano. Molte delle riflessioni presentate nel seguito rappresentano semplici spunti che necessitano di ulteriori approfondimenti e sviluppi maggiormente strutturati. Ma pare utile avviare un ragionamento che dimostri come la proposizione del modello “smart” per i moderni sistemi urbani non derivi unicamente da necessità tecnicisticamente aziendali, che spingono all’utilizzo di device di controllo urbano, ma possano essere visti come uno stadio evolutivo della città del quale già da tempo si erano prefigurati gli sviluppi. In altre parole obiettivo di questo paper è quello di tentare di ricondurre le dinamiche di sviluppo della SC nel loro naturale alveo di sviluppo teorico-operativo, anche recuperando approcci e riferimenti metodologici riconducibili allo studio del rapporto fra nuove tecnologie e trasformazioni del sistema urbano da tempo sviluppati in sede di ricerca ma mai concretamente adottati per la definizione di nuovi processi di governo della città. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 6, N° 1 (2013): Smart Cities: Researches, Projects and Good Practices for the City

One of the main problems that affects modern cities is connected to transport/mobility. Urban transport is currently based on car use; the transition to the use of more sustainable means of transport is happening slowly. Bicycles used as main way of transport, combined with walking, it’s a successful solution for many towns to really bring traffic and congestion down. For their high density and their short time travels, towns are the best places (in comparison to long time travels as merchandise transport) to reduce the green houses gasses emitted promoting walking, cycling and public transport. For this reason the European Union is directly founding different projects that boost urban cycling. Many examples presented in this paper where collected by an European project. This project sectioned best practices and excellences in cycling as the so called cycle cities: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Seville,…cities that have recognized the importance of cycling as a solution to traffic congestion. But how is it possible to transfer these experiences to others realities? The scope of this article is to show the sustainability of cycling according to socio-economic (social and economic sustainability) and environmental terms (environmental sustainability). For this reason is proposed a CBA (Cost and Benefits Analysis) methodology specific to evidence the advantages of investments in cycling made by public authorities or private companies both, to promote and realize ecological infrastructures. One of the main problems that affects modern cities is connected to transport/mobility. Urban transport is currently based on car use; the transition to the use of more sustainable means of transport is happening slowly. Bicycles used as main way of transport, combined with walking, it’s a successful solution for many towns to really bring traffic and congestion down. For their high density and their short time travels, towns are the best places (in comparison to long time travels as merchandise transport) to reduce the green houses gasses emitted promoting walking, cycling and public transport. For this reason the European Union is directly founding different projects that boost urban cycling. Many examples presented in this paper where collected by an European project. This project sectioned best practices and excellences in cycling as the so called cycle cities: Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Seville,…cities that have recognized the importance of cycling as a solution to traffic congestion. But how is it possible to transfer these experiences to others realities? The scope of this article is to show the sustainability of cycling according to socio-economic (social and economic sustainability) and environmental terms (environmental sustainability). For this reason is proposed a CBA (Cost and Benefits Analysis) methodology specific to evidence the advantages of investments in cycling made by public authorities or private companies both, to promote and realize ecological infrastructures. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 8, N° 1 (2015): Cities, Energy and Climate Change

Climate change is a current phenomenon: the temperatures rise, rainfall patterns are changing, glaciers melt and the average global sea level is rising. It is expected that these changes will continue and that the extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, will become more frequent and intense. The impact and vulnerability factors for nature, for the economy and for our health are different, depending on the territorial, social and economic aspects. The current scientific debate is focused on the need to formulate effective policies for adaptation and mitigation to climate change. The city plays an important role in this issue: it emits the most greenhouse gas emissions (more than 60% of the world population currently lives in urban areas) and the city is more exposed and vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Urban planning and territorial governance play a crucial role in this context: the international debate on the sustainability of urban areas is increasing. It’s necessary to adapt the tools of building regulations to increase the quality of energy - environment of the cities. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, 2014: INPUT 2014 - Smart City: planning for energy, transportation and sustainability of the urban system

The relationship between cities and energy consumption has been of great interest for the scientific community for over twenty years. Most of the energy consumption, indeed, occurs in cities because of the high concentration of human activities. Thus, cities are responsible for a big share of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). However, the debate on this topic is still open, mainly because of the heterogeneity of published studies in the selection, definition and measurement of the urban features influencing energy consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as in the choice of the energy sectors to be considered, in the territorial scale of analysis, and in the geographical distribution of the sample. Therefore, the goal of this research is to systematize and compare the approach, methodology and results of the relevant literature on the relationship between cities and energy consumption over the last twenty years. Furthermore, this critical review identifies the knowledge gap between what is known and what is still under debate and, based on that, it proposes a conceptual framework that will help to outline a new direction for future research and support local policy makers in the definition of strategies and actions that can effectively reduce urban energy use and CO2 emissions. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 10, No 3 (2017): Methods, tools and best practices to increase the capacity of urban systems to adapt to natural and man-made changes

Abstract Despite low energy and fuel consumption levels in the rail sector, further improvements are being pursued by manufacturers and operators. Their primary efforts aim to reduce traction energy demand, replace diesel, and limit the impact of electrified overhead infrastructures. From a system‐level perspective, the integration of alternative energy sources on board rail vehicles has become a popular solution among rolling stock manufacturers. Surveys are made of many recent realizations of multimodal rail vehicles with onboard electrochemical batteries, supercapacitors, and hydrogen fuel cell systems. The ratings, technical features, and operating data of onboard sources are gathered for each application, and a comparison among different technologies is presented. Traction system architectures and energy‐control strategies of actual multimodal units are explored and compared with literature research. Moreover, the maturity and potential of recent technologies and alternative topologies of power converters for multimodal traction systems are discussed. Ultimately, onboard storage systems are compared with other solutions for energy‐saving and catenary‐free operation, with particular focus on their current techno‐economic attractiveness as an alternative to diesel propulsion.

AbstractEnvironmental histories that span the last full glacial cycle and are representative of regional change in Australia are scarce, hampering assessment of environmental change preceding and concurrent with human dispersal on the continent ca. 47,000 years ago. Here we present a continuous 150,000-year record offshore south-western Australia and identify the timing of two critical late Pleistocene events: wide-scale ecosystem change and regional megafaunal population collapse. We establish that substantial changes in vegetation and fire regime occurred ∼70,000 years ago under a climate much drier than today. We record high levels of the dung fungus Sporormiella, a proxy for herbivore biomass, from 150,000 to 45,000 years ago, then a marked decline indicating megafaunal population collapse, from 45,000 to 43,100 years ago, placing the extinctions within 4,000 years of human dispersal across Australia. These findings rule out climate change, and implicate humans, as the primary extinction cause.