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An original methodology for the Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) of a Product for the wine-making industry sector is presented, with a particular focus on the evaluation procedure of the grey water. Results obtained with the proposed methodology are also presented for an Italian case study. The product was analyzed using a life-cycle approach, with the aim of studying the water volumes of each phase according to the newly-released ISO 14046 international standard. The functional unit chosen in this study is the common 0.75 liter wine bottle. An in-house software (V.I.V.A.) was implemented with the goal of accounting for all the contributions in a cradle-to-grave approach. At this stage, however, minor water volumes associated with some foreground and background processes are not assessed. The evaluation procedure was applied to a case study and green, blue, and grey water volumes were computed. Primary data were collected for a red wine produced by an Umbrian wine-making company. Results are in accordance with global average water footprint values from literature, showing a total WF of 632.2 L/bottle, with the major contribution (98.3%) given by green water, and minor contributions (1.2% and 0.5%) given by grey and blue water, respectively. A particular effort was dedicated to the definition of an improved methodology for the assessment of the virtual water volume required to dilute the load of pollutants on the environment below some reference level (Grey WF). The improved methodology was elaborated to assure the completeness of the water footprint assessment and to overcome some limitations of the reference approach. As a result, the overall WF can increase up to 3% in the most conservative hypotheses.

Local administrators and private investors rely on various urban redevelopment strategies, the choice of which depends on the economic expectations of property owners and investors. Some of these options foresee replacing obsolete buildings with new constructions; others prefer the reuse of existing assets. This study examines the conditions that make these different strategies feasible, bringing to light the aspects that favor demolition and reconstruction processes over interventions based on the redevelopment of existing assets. The analysis focuses on the variables that determine the choice between these two options. The model that has been developed highlights, on one hand, the role of urban planning tools and urban densification and, on the other, the relationship between the land market and the value of existing assets. The model has been tested on five cities in northern Italy, which fall into three territorial categories—large metropolitan cities, medium-sized cities, and cities of limited rank—to test how different social and economic contexts affect the feasibility of the strategies we evaluated. The results of the study underscore the extent to which the demolition and reconstruction of existing assets is only viable in certain limited areas and under particular market and settlement conditions. While large metropolitan areas seem to have the option of radically replacing existing real estate assets, medium-sized cities and especially small cities are constrained in redeveloping existing urban assets and must forego demolition and reconstruction projects, which do not prove to be economically feasible.

When designing a year-round home heating system that uses only solar radiation energy, the cooperation of an architect and an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) designer is necessary. These systems occupy a large area in relation to a building’s floor surface, especially when they are located in a climate like Central Europe or colder. The aim of the article was to create a balanced integration process by implementing the subsequent steps that are necessary to integrate a solar heating system within a building. In the first stage, a solar collector and a heat accumulator were selected. The innovation of the system involves the use of a solar concentrating collector as an air heater. Assessment criteria were then proposed in order to show the influence of the location of the solar heating system on the building’s architecture, functionality, and energy balance, while at the same time assuming its passive standard. System integrations concerning both an existing and new building were analyzed. The system’s basic components were selected for the three chosen solutions, taking into account the possibility of using heat losses resulting from the location of the installation.

Sustainable development requires ensuring the mobility of residents and must not cause deterioration of the quality of the environment in the selected area. The purpose of this study is to verify if the construction of a cross-regional highway through the city centre affected air quality in the neighbourhood of a newly built road. Air quality was assessed based on measurements of concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, which is considered to be typical for automotive sources air pollution. The spectrophotometric method with passive sampling was used in the 24 h NO2 measurements. The calculated mean NO2 concentrations in the periods before and after road construction were within the ranges of 23.2–31.9 μg/m3 and 22.3–28.9 μg/m3, respectively. The relative NO2 concentrations determined in the study for 10 out of 11 sampling points were lower than the unity, including 5 points markedly lower (0.82–0.89). The obtained results indicate that the construction of the new artery by the city centre, using appropriate technical solutions and traffic organization (tunnel, noise barriers, roundabouts, speed limit) likely contributed to an overall reduction in NO2 concentrations. The presented solution may serve as an example for other cities struggling with problems of low air quality associated with inefficient transportation systems.

The development of nanocomposite materials with multifunctional protective features is an urgent need in many fields. However, few works have studied the durability of these materials. Even though TiO2 nanoparticles have been extensively applied for self-cleaning effect, it displays a weak activity under visible light. Hence, in this study, pure and Gd-doped TiO2 nanoparticles (molar ratios of doping ions/Ti are 0.1 and 1) were synthesised, characterised, and then mixed with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), used as a binder, in order to produce a homogenised thin film on a very porous stone substrate. To our knowledge, Gd-doped TiO2/PDMS protective coatings are studied for the first time for application on historic structures. The protective coatings developed in this work are intended to reduce the surface wettability of the stone and protect the historic stones from dye pollution and microorganism colonisation. Moreover, in this study, the durability of the developed nanocomposite was deeply studied to evaluate the stability of the coatings. Results confirmed that samples treated with the lowest concentrations of Gd ions (0.1 mol%) showed acceptable chromatic variations, a good repellent feature, acceptable water vapour permeability, good durability, the highest self-cleaning activity, and good inhibitory behaviour against microbial colonisation.

Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies ensure the ongoing development of micro- and macro-economic entities by focusing on the principles of interconnectivity, digitalization, and automation. In this context, artificial intelligence is seen as one of the major enablers for Smart Logistics and Smart Production initiatives. This paper systematically analyzes the scientific literature on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning in the context of Smart Logistics management in industrial enterprises. Furthermore, based on the results of the systematic literature review, the authors present a conceptual framework, which provides fruitful implications based on recent research findings and insights to be used for directing and starting future research initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) in Smart Logistics.

Today, the global food security is one of the most pressing issues for humanity, and, according to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the increasing demand for food is likely to grow by 70% until 2050. In this current condition and future scenario, the agricultural production is a critical factor for global food security and for facing the food security challenge, with specific reference to many African countries, where a large quantities of rice are imported from other continents. According to FAO, to face the Africa’s inability to reach self-sufficiency in rice, it is urgent “to redress to stem the trend of over-reliance on imports and to satisfy the increasing demand for rice in areas where the potential of local production resources is exploited at very low levels” The present study was undertaken to design a new method for land evaluation based on soil quality indicators and remote sensing data, to assess and map soil suitability for rice crop. Results from the investigations, performed in some areas in the northern part of the Nile Delta, were compared with the most common approaches, two parametric (the square root, Storie methods) and two qualitative (ALES and MicrioLEIS) methods. From the qualitative point of view, the results showed that: (i) all the models provided partly similar outputs related to the soil quality assessments, so that the distinction using the crop productivity played an important role, and (ii) outputs from the soil suitability models were consistent with both the satellite Sentinel-2 Normalize Difference Vegetation Indices (NDVI) during the crop growth and the yield production. From the quantitative point of view, the comparison of the results from the diverse approaches well fit each other, and the model, herein proposed, provided the highest performance. As a whole, a significant increasing in R2 values was provided by the model herein proposed, with R2 equal to 0.92, followed by MicroLES, Storie, ALES and Root as R2 with value equal to 0.87, 0.86, 0.84 and 0.84, respectively, with increasing percentage in R2 equal to 5%, 6% and 8%, respectively. Furthermore, the proposed model illustrated that around (i) 44.44% of the total soils of the study area are highly suitable, (ii) 44% are moderately suitable, and (iii) approximately 11.56% are unsuitable for rice due to their adverse physical and chemical soil properties. The approach herein presented can be promptly re-applied in arid region and the quantitative results obtained can be used by decision makers and regional governments.