• Energy Research

The extreme events that the planet is experiencing are indisputable proof of climate change. Effective strategies are required to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of cities to such risks. This work aims to contribute to the cultural and technical debate on the governance of urban transformations for limiting the impacts related to global warming, focusing on the cities of the Mediterranean Sea. The research shows how social and economic characteristics influence the response of cities to climate change-related hazards. This consideration reinforces the idea of seeking integrated solutions to improve the resilience of coastal urban areas within the entire basin.

The extreme events that the planet is experiencing are indisputable proof of climate change. Effective strategies are required to reduce the exposure and vulnerability of cities to such risks. This work aims to contribute to the cultural and technical debate on the governance of urban transformations for limiting the impacts related to global warming, focusing on the cities of the Mediterranean Sea. The research shows how social and economic characteristics influence the response of cities to climate change-related hazards. This consideration reinforces the idea of seeking integrated solutions to improve the resilience of coastal urban areas within the entire basin.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships between urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers written by young researchers. The Review Notes are made of four parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal. In particular, the Urban planning literature review section aims at presenting recent books and journals, within global scientific panorama, on selected topics and issues. This contribution aims at delving into the most severe effects due to heat waves and presenting three interesting and significant scientific books and journal that present effective adaptation strategies to limit climate crisis and improve Mediterranean resilience towards more frequent and severe storm surges and draughts. The third contribution of the Review Notes for TeMA vo. 15 highlights the need for integrated action to address the climate crisis in the Mediterranean region, bringing together the strengths and weaknesses of its shores, despite social, economic and political differences. Moreover, the extreme weather events that are occurring throughout Europe, from the south to the north, show how the Mediterranean area is particularly sensitive to climate change-related events.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships between urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers written by young researchers. The Review Notes are made of four parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal. In particular, the Urban planning literature review section aims at presenting recent books and journals, within global scientific panorama, on selected topics and issues. This contribution aims at delving into the most severe effects due to heat waves and presenting three interesting and significant scientific books and journal that present effective adaptation strategies to limit climate crisis and improve Mediterranean resilience towards more frequent and severe storm surges and draughts. The third contribution of the Review Notes for TeMA vo. 15 highlights the need for integrated action to address the climate crisis in the Mediterranean region, bringing together the strengths and weaknesses of its shores, despite social, economic and political differences. Moreover, the extreme weather events that are occurring throughout Europe, from the south to the north, show how the Mediterranean area is particularly sensitive to climate change-related events.

In Europe, the share of people aged 65 years and above is expected to increase exponentially, and in 2050, for the first time in human history, the number of older people will be larger than the number of children under the age of 15. Aging is associated with increased vulnerability and dependence on medical care services. For these reasons, providing access to health services to people aged 65 years and over is crucial. From the perspective of social equity, everyone should have the opportunity to access healthcare services equally, but due to economic and geographical issues, achieving this level of equity is challenging. The aim of this study was to fill the gap between scientific and actual practices using an accessibility measure to evaluate urban accessibility to primary healthcare services and to support decision-makers to better allocate resources in local restructuring of welfare policies. The accessibility measure was designed considering both the land use and the transportation components, the local healthcare supply system, and a multimodal transportation network. The methodology was applied to the city of Naples considering Local Health Agency (ASL) healthcare services to the elderly. The ASL is the largest health agency in Europe, consisting of 17 buildings serving nearly 200,000 elderly. The results show that the entire elderly neighborhood population suffers from poor accessibility to primary health services, especially in the city suburbs, and that the methodology could be effectively applied to urban planning strategies to achieve a high quality of life for elderly people. Due to poor dialogue between the authorities, this could help to improve the decision-making process through the lens of social equity.

In Europe, the share of people aged 65 years and above is expected to increase exponentially, and in 2050, for the first time in human history, the number of older people will be larger than the number of children under the age of 15. Aging is associated with increased vulnerability and dependence on medical care services. For these reasons, providing access to health services to people aged 65 years and over is crucial. From the perspective of social equity, everyone should have the opportunity to access healthcare services equally, but due to economic and geographical issues, achieving this level of equity is challenging. The aim of this study was to fill the gap between scientific and actual practices using an accessibility measure to evaluate urban accessibility to primary healthcare services and to support decision-makers to better allocate resources in local restructuring of welfare policies. The accessibility measure was designed considering both the land use and the transportation components, the local healthcare supply system, and a multimodal transportation network. The methodology was applied to the city of Naples considering Local Health Agency (ASL) healthcare services to the elderly. The ASL is the largest health agency in Europe, consisting of 17 buildings serving nearly 200,000 elderly. The results show that the entire elderly neighborhood population suffers from poor accessibility to primary health services, especially in the city suburbs, and that the methodology could be effectively applied to urban planning strategies to achieve a high quality of life for elderly people. Due to poor dialogue between the authorities, this could help to improve the decision-making process through the lens of social equity.

This work focuses on examining the possible advantages for the urban sustainability, derived from the integration of transport, land use and energy systems. The main aim is to develop a GIS-based method that can help decision makers, either public or private, improving the economic, social and environmental sustainability of urban areas through an integrated transformation approach. As a result, it was possible to provide a spatial analysis technique based on seven synthetic variables and on the application of a cluster method able to identify the portions of urban areas where investments and urban integrated transformation processes can be more suitable, according to the dynamic relationships among transport, land use and energy systems. The methodology was applied to the Great London Area and lead to significant results: the cluster classes follow the transport railway network evolution within the study area boundary. The paper is organized as follow: in section 1 the integration of transport, land use and energy planning is investigated; following the introduction, in section 2, the GIS-based method is presented, followed by a description of the application to the Great London Area; in section 4, findings of the methodology are explained. In the last section, results and future developments are discussed.