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The objective of Meglio Muoversi [Better Moving] is the pursuing of the sustainable mobility in its variations of social, economic and environmental sustainability, through the realization of a process of planning, integrated management and monitoring, of advanced mobility services, aimed at thickening tangible and intangible networks of connection (accessibility), changing the travel behaviours of users to discourage the use of private cars and foster the integration between various modes of transport (safety and environmental impacts, efficiency and efficacy). Two services of advanced mobility flexible in space and time have been activated: Chiamabus and C’Entro. Chiamabus is a service on demand, C'Entro is a Car-sharing service and provides for the promotion of the Car-pooling.

Assuming that waterfront have always been special places “where land and water meet”[1] nowadays they are mostly places for urban renewal, where conflicts and debates about what their role should be within the urban context emerge. The “interface” [2] where port and city communicate is often a ground of competition but also of possibilities for both city and port. This paper aims at highlight the factor of success involved into urban regeneration initiatives in those place of transition from urban to port areas related functions. The case studies analysis shows as the common ground of interaction, from the spatial, institutional and economic points of view, could provide innovation[1, 3] and sustainability of regeneration attempts in those peculiar places, providing added value for the whole urban system.

This experimental work is focused on a small solar cogeneration system of about 1 kW of electric power and up to 3 kW of thermal power, designed for the decentralised and diffuse production of heat and power with high conversion efficiencies at low power scale. The presented solar system makes use as microcogenerator of an industrial Stirling engine of small size, with an electrical efficiency up to 32%, originally designed for domestic combined heat-power applications in gas boilers. The heat acceptor of the Stirling head has been completely re-engineered for the solar application, together with a solar dish concentrator moved by a suitable two axis tracking system. In one year the average electricity produced is about 185 kWh/m2 and the average thermal energy is around 858 kWh/m2. The resulting annual electrical efficiency is about 9%, but can be improved, and the annual thermal efficiency is about 46%. The collecting surface of the solar dish measures approximately 9.6 m2, about the 50% of the collecting surface for an equivalent non-cogenerative system.

The paper synthesises and compares the results of a research carried out on the energy potential of the provinces of Enna and Syracuse from the perspective of wind energy production. The study highlighted some remarkable differences between the two provinces due to the different wind dynamics and the presence of the landscape characteristics. We propose a wide land planning tool including a section devoted to the calculation of the energy that can be produced by plants located in the permitted areas, an evaluative section devoted to the financial sustainability of the investments, and a section devoted to the landscape assessment due to the different intervisibility of the allowed plants, and a section devoted to the formalization of the decision making process. A set of GIS tools supports the mentioned sections in defining the pattern for the localization of the wind farms, and in measuring and featuring the visual impact.

The current growth of urbanization rate indicates that this trend is not going to stop, and therefore, it stresses the necessity of actions for mitigating the local and global pollution. Moreover, most of the actual stock is characterized by low energy performances since it pre-dates the energy regulation. The paper aims at addressing this issue by proposing the integration of Building Simulation (BS) approach, Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) methods and Geographic Information System (GIS) tool for developing a new Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) in urban context. The BS of relevant building archetypes allows to identify different resolutions of energy data: hour-by-hour data can be useful for demand-side management or renewable integration while aggregated data can be used for load forecasting and retrofit simulations. The MCA permits choosing between different building renovation alternatives by considering both qualitative and quantitative criteria. Moreover, the GIS support the method by creating geo-referenced databases. The method purposes in giving a comprehensive view to address the complexity of urban building energy planning; due to its flexibility, it can be applied to several urban areas. Three main phases characterize the study: i. overview of relevant existing techniques; ii. description of the integrated proposed method; iii. discussion and future application. The method can provide relevant feedbacks for ranking complex design energy options.

The underlying thesis of this study is that the biomass for energy purposes, coming from farms, forestry, timber industry and Short Rotation Forestry (SRF) for energy, can provide various environmental and socio-economic benefits. First of all, the production of forest biomass for energy involves the reduction of CO2 emissions and the improvement of forest functions, such as hydrogeological and biodiversity conservation. Moreover, forest biomass consumption could contribute to the socio-economic development of rural areas, through the restoration of agro-forest activities and technological advances in the bio-energy field. In the last ten years in Italy several companies of the bioenergy industry, attracted by Government subsidies planned to build dedicated power that use biomass as their main fuel. The primary goal of this study is to analyse the local forest wood supply chain. Therefore, field surveys have been done in order to classify the management and the characteristics of the woodchips supply chain (wood sub-product availability, forest enterprises, working systems, forest woodchips quality).

The paper shows a multicriteria evaluation model in order to rank different development scenario if an historical district in Turin (Italy). The scenarios aim to a reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions allowing a more efficient use of the energy resources. The simulation assessment provided refers to an European project named DIMMER (District Information Modelling and Management for Energy Reduction) and starts assuming that the highest energy consumption of buildings comes from the operative phase (80%). The methodology applied for the assessment of the scenarios is MACBETH (Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique). MACBETH is an Additive Value Model method requiring a non numerical approach in order to build a quantitative values model. The methodology is here applied from a public decision-maker’s point of view with the aim of finding the most probable energy development scenario. The simulation of decision-making process is divided into three phases: 1) analysis of the decision problem and structuring the MACBETH model; 2) weighting of the elements at stake following the pair-wise comparison required by the methodology; 3) analysis for the results.

Issues about the protection, enhancement, promotion of environmental resources have been for a long time the basis of a method of approach to a 'form' of territorial project based on strategies for local development focused on fruition of tourist in historical, cultural, heritage places and landscape. But if on the one hand tourism is a possible device to revitalize local economies in crisis, at the same time in many cases it tends to accentuate the degradation and the loss of identity of these places during the last years. Arises, therefore, the need to reverse this process and to overcome the idea of cultural heritage and landscape conceived as a commodity, and reaffirm the right to the city territories-landscapes to be areas of social life. You need to identify new design procedures able to impact on local systems and at the same time to enter into relationships with global networks, transforming specific values in local values recognizable and globally recognized using local significances to express global meanings.

Nowadays energy transition is a recurring topic, which describes the process of an energy system moving from fossil-based sources towards renewables. The transition can unfold at different levels, from the single initiative of a local com-munity to a complex cross-border agreement. The latter type is well represented by EUSALP, the European macro-regional strategy for the Alpine region. One of its aims is to transform its territory into a model region for energy efficiency and renewable energy. To support a well-informed decision making process, this study provides the first insight about the status quo of energy balances in EUSALP, at local as well as aggregated level. Moreover, it offers an overview on the various energy targets defined by the territorial units that constitute the EUSALP region. Data has been retrieved via a bottom-up quality-oriented process consisting of (i) a survey targeted at responsible person in local energy departments; and (ii) data control and harmonization. We found that the EUSALP region is actually a model region only in clean power production, whereas starting point as well as energy targets of territories are highly heterogeneous. We al-so identified the need of more harmonized data collection methodologies. We conclude that this bottom-up process can support and legitimate policy makers in cross-border cooperation activities under a smart macro-regional energy strategy, which pursues an increment in energy savings, renewable energy production and a broad engagement of relevant stakeholders.

The biomass for energy purposes, coming from agricultural firms and forestry industry for energy, can provide various environmental and socio-economic benefits. Among all renewable energy sources, agro-forestry biomass represents both an important alternative source to fossil fuels and an opportunity for the socio-economic development of various marginal mountain areas. This survey aims at estimating the potential revenue in province of Reggio Calabria, which is showing a great interest in biomass production.