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Earth observation (EO) data are useful tools to analyse geomorphological processes, among which slow-moving landslides triggered by rainfall. EO data are also used to evaluate climate change and to assess its impact on geomorphological processes and geo-hydrological phenomena. The latter is the topic of the Project OT4Clima (Innovative Earth Observation technologies to study Climate Change and its impact on the environment) joined by CNR-IRPI within a consortium that includes other CNR institutes, universities and private companies. The OT4CLIMA project moves from the awareness that the impacts of climate change on the environment need to be better observed, understood, and modelled, especially at a regional scale, in order to put in place appropriate and effective risk mitigation strategies. Within the project, the CNR-IRPI group works on the development of rigorous methods and procedures for evaluating the impact of climate and its change on landslides, in particular on those characterized by a slow cinematic, at a regional scale. The test site is represented by four catchments located in the Basilicata region, southern Italy, namely the basins of the Bradano, Basento, Agri, and Sinni rivers. Long-term rainfall series gathered from 22 rain gauges located in the four catchments are analysed to evaluate the presence of temporal trends. To this aim, non-parametric and statistical tests are applied to the series. Historical landslide information is gathered from the analysis of the IFFI (Inventario dei Fenomeni Franosi in Italia) database, the Idrogeo platform (https://idrogeo.isprambiente.it/app/) and the AVI (Aree Vulnerate in Italia) catalogue. Only some types of landslide movements are considered, namely rotational-translational slides, slow slides/flows, complex movements. Moreover, Copernicus Sentinel-1 images are employed to detect the spatial and temporal distribution of slow earth surface deformations. The obtained results are used for checking the completeness of the landslide inventories. More in detail, the deformation maps of the test site are obtained by means of the application of the SBAS (Small BAseline Subset) technique to three datasets of Sentinel-1 images: t146 ascending orbit and t51 and t124 descending orbits, for the period 2015-2020. Then, a comparative analysis of rainfall data with displacement series is carried out with the aim of identifying clusters of satellite measurements with homogeneous behaviour likely correlated to variations in the rainfall regime. In particular, only the points with a mean velocity in the observation higher than 0.1 cm/year are considered to be moving. Moreover, only the displacement series of points located in areas mapped as landslides - as for the historical inventories - and sited within the influence regions of each rain gauge in the study area are analysed. A 10-km circular buffer centred in the stations are used to define the influence region of each station. The displacement series are analysed and compared to the rainfall series to search for correlations and to evaluate the effects of climate drivers on slow moving landslides.

Why are small islands more vulnerable to the global and major ordeal of climate change? How do they face this huge challenge and what can we learn from their experience? These are among the crucial questions examined by Carola Klöck and Michael Fink in their recently coedited volume entitled Dealing with Climate Change on Small Islands: Toward Effective and Sustainable Adaptation, published by Universitätsverlag Göttingen. Interview by Miriam Périer, CERI.

The aim of the joint activity between CNR ITAE and University of Malta, funded in the framework of a bilateral agreement is the preliminary study of the possible application of thermally-activated technologies for the refrigeration of fish on-board of fishing vessels, with particular attention to the Mediterranean area. In such a context, the two partners, given their expertise in the adsorption and absorption cooling technologies, dedicated the first year of the joint project on several activities needed to define possible integration solutions on-board. The following report is then organized as follows: - Section 3 reports an analysis of the state-of-the-art concerning existing refrigeration systems currently employed in the fishing vessels' application as well as innovative activities recently performed on the possible integration of thermally-driven technologies for the refrigeration. - Section 4 focuses on the definition of possible integration between the waste heat recovered from the engines of the fishing vessel and the sorption technology for refrigeration. This analysis takes into account different possible applications, in terms of refrigeration temperatures as well as capacities. Furthermore, different possible waste heat streams at different temperature levels are investigated. - Section 5 identifies the typical working boundary conditions under which the fishing vessel operates, in terms of cooling demand, also considering different climatic zones (i.e. different geographical areas in which the vessel operates) and vessels' typology. - Section 6 investigates possible working pairs, both for adsorption and absorption technologies, which are promising for the given boundary conditions in Section 5. This activity is needed to set the operational limits that each technology and working pair cannot overcome. - Section 7 reports the calculations performed for each working pair and operating conditions, both taking into account thermodynamic constraints as well as analysing literature results on different prototypes realized and tested. - Section 8 introduces a dynamic model, implemented in TRNSYS environment, of an absorption refrigerator, which was validated and will be used in the following activities to investigate the defined schematics in Section 4. - Section 9 defines the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will be used in the following activities to compare the achievable results of the different configurations.

The current fashion design, production, and consumption system, known as ‘fast fashion’, is characterized by the manufacturing of low-quality garments in a short period of time carried out in developing countries. In parallel with the deficits in social responsibility and human rights, the prevailing ‘take-make-dispose’ system in the fashion industry is one of the main causes of environmental pollution that concerns the climate change, scarcity of natural resources and health problems for the living beings. Due to these facts, discussions on Circular Design strategies – for waste reduction, components recycling, and materials reuse – became increasingly relevant throughout the globe. This paper’s aspiration is to outline a perspective towards a Circular Fashion. The concept of the Design for Sustainability requires a holistic view throughout de-signing strategies as well as the establishment of cyclical systems for the production site. Notwithstanding, the efficient integration of social and cultural dimensions are vital for Sustainable Fashion’s triumph. This work is supported by FEDER funds through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Engineered cementitious composites (ECCs) are special types of fibre-reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC) with higher strain capacity which can be achieved with low fibre volume as low as 2% and total elimination of coarse aggregates. Due to the outstanding performance of ECCs, they are suitable for various construction and repair applications. However, in order for ECCs to achieve their properties; a high amount of binder which is primarily composed of Portland cement (PC) is used alongside a special type of ultrafine silica sand (USS) which is different from the conventional natural fine aggregates. The production of PC is known to be detrimental to the environment due to its high carbon dioxide emissions coupled with the high consumption of natural resources. Thus, the high use of PC content in ECCs posed a sustainability threat. Similarly, the USS used in ECCs are not readily available everywhere and are expensive. The processing of the USS coupled with its transportation over long distances would also increase the cost and embodied carbon of ECCs. Hence, in order to promote more development and applications of ECCs for various applications; this dissertation aims to provide innovative ways to improve the sustainability of ECCs and their performances. This dissertation offers four solutions to improve the sustainability of ECCs which are (i) use of unconventional industrial by-products as partial replacement of PC (ii) total replacement of PC in ECCs with alternative sustainable binders (iii) replacement of USS in ECCs with recycled materials and (iv) the use of supplementary cementitious materials to replace a high volume of PC. The findings from this study revealed sustainable ECCs with acceptable mechanical and durability performance can be achieved with the use of alternative binders or replacement of the conventional USS used in ECC mixtures. The sustainability and cost assessment of the ECCs indicated that the incorporation of industrial by-products such as blast furnace slag (BFS) especially at higher content is beneficial to reducing the negative environmental impact and economic burden associated with ECCs compared to the conventional ECC. The sustainability index and cost index of the ECCs further showed that the use of BFS is more beneficial when the sustainability and cost of the ECCs are compared with the corresponding performance. Similarly, the use of recycled materials as an alternative to USS was found to result in a significant reduction in the embodied carbon and cost of ECCs. The use of recycled materials such as expanded glass (EG) as aggregates in ECCs was also found to improve the thermal insulation properties of ECCs making such ECC suitable for the production of building envelope elements.

Marine mammals accumulate alarming amounts of environmental pollutants and are thus the most contaminated group of animals in the world. Elevated pollutant exposure is of concern to marine mammals because of potential adverse effects on reproduction, endocrine disruption and immunity. In vitro techniques can be used to assess effects on specific health endpoints. To date, however, most studies focus on single compound exposures, rather than realistic complex mixtures, and little has been done to extrapolate molecular effects to higher levels of biological organization. The aim of my PhD was to use a unique combination of approaches, namely statistical meta-analyses, in vitro experimentation, analytical chemistry, and ecological modeling, to gain further insight into pollutant accumulation and effects at molecular and organism levels in North-Atlantic top predators.

The high level of emissions and pollution caused by diesel engines increases the importance of developing low-emission and high-efficiency fuel technologies. Implementing various modifications in engines has the potential to reduce emissions, however, these adjustments can lead to technical difficulties and inefficiencies in terms of cost. In this case, as an alternative solution, the use of diesel fuel (DF), biodiesel (B100), nanoparticle and light or heavy alcohol mixtures can be considered; these fuels can help engines produce less polluting emissions. As it is known, the main reason why internal combustion engines emit emissions such as particulate matter, hydrocarbon (HC), and carbon monoxide (CO) into the atmosphere is incomplete combustion of the fuel. The high oxygen content of fuels such as biodiesel and alcohol can solve these combustion problems. The focus of this study is a detailed investigation of the effect on emissions of mixtures of DF, B100 derived from safflower seed oil with a low Free Fatty Acid (%FFAs) value, and n-decanol. Emission values obtained for DF, B100, 50%/50% volume ratio diesel/biodiesel (DF50B50), 50%/50% volume ratio diesel/n-decanol (DF50DE50), 50%/25%/25% volume ratio diesel/biodiesel/n-decanol (DF50B25DE25), Emission values of 50%/35%/15% diesel/biodiesel/n-decanol (DF50B35DE15) and 50%/45%/5% diesel/biodiesel/n-decanol (DF50B45DE5) blends were compared. Among these blends, compared to DF at maximum load, DF50B50, DF50DE50, DF50B25DE25, DF50B35DE15, and DF50B45DE5 fuels reduced smoke opacity (SO) by 80.17%, 86.78%, 54.55%, 21.49%, and increased it by 15.70%, respectively. Under the same load conditions, compared to DF, NOx emissions were reduced by 19.18%, 21.38%, 17.30%, increased by 34.91%, and reduced by 15.72% respectively with DF50B50, DF50DE50, DF50B25DE25, DF50B35DE15, and DF50B45DE5 fuels. Under the same load conditions, CO emissions were also reduced by 23.08%, 15.38%, 16.15%, increased by 40%, and reduced by 16.92% respectively with DF50B50, DF50DE50, DF50B25DE25, DF50B35DE15, and DF50B45DE5 fuels.

The new challenges posed at the European level, with the Next Generation EU, and at the national level, with the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, increase the priority of measuring spatial transformation through specific indicators. For this purpose, it is crucial to measure the effect of the transformations provided by current planning with respect to the goals of 2030 Agenda to assess their sustainability/unsustainability and, if necessary, propose improvements in the field of territorial planning. The work presented describes a research experience developed in collaboration with the Abruzzo Region, in Southern Italy, to support regional activities for the drafting of the Regional Sustainable Development Strategy (RSDS). The proposed methodology consists of a dynamic analysis through which it is possible to assess the positioning of regional planning in relation to the National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Such position can be evaluated by carrying out a coherence analysis between the objectives of the Abruzzo Region's Plans and those of 2030 Agenda together with the selection of a set of indicators useful for monitoring the sustainability of territorial transformations expected by regional planning. In particular, the first recognition of the sustainability indicators was carried out from the ones proposed by the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) and the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design, Vol 6 No 1: Contemporary Urbanism

The Paris Agreement, in force since 2016, stipulates the new multilateral foundations for climate actions under the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. This Agreement incorporated Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and Markets for Environmental Services (MES) among its strategies to combat climate change. However, abundant literature has outlined economic, social and environmental equity concerns regarding the implementation of PES and MES under the Kyoto Protocol. How have these concerns been taken into account in the establishment of PES and MES in the Paris Agreement? How can equity considerations be comprehensively assessed in this regard? Through the triangulation of methodologies including literature review, participant observation and interviews with key informants, this thesis explains the consideration of equity in the newly established PES and MES in the Paris Agreement.