Case Study Of Rome Research Articles

Courier assignment in meal delivery via integer programming: A case study in Rome

We present an optimization model for assigning orders to couriers developed for an Italian meal delivery firm focusing on Rome. The firm focuses on top-end restaurants and customers and pursues high Quality of Service through careful management of delays. Our model reflects that in the firm’s business, the majority of orders are placed in advance. This took us to design a sequential decision process implementing a rolling horizon approach where we do not try to anticipate future demands. We, therefore, iterate the solution of a fully deterministic optimization problem, the Offline Couriers Assignment Problem (ocap), where we assume full knowledge of the orders and aim at minimizing delays and rejections. We solve ocap through integer linear programming and in particular by a “flow-like” formulation on a suitable network whose size is kept as small as possible. We validate both the quality of this formulation and the sequential decision process through some computational tests on real instances collected on the ground. We make these instances available to the scientific community.

Harnessing Stadium Roofs for Community Electrical Power: A Case Study of Rome’s Olympic Stadium Title

Within a city, there is a lack of space for the installation of photovoltaic panels, especially in cities with significant artistic heritage. Hence, there is a need to identify new spaces for the installation of renewable energy systems capable of supplying part of the city’s energy demand. Large infrastructures for public use such as stadiums, because of their characteristics, can become an essential resource for surrounding communities by installing photovoltaic panels on their roofs. This innovative approach can supply renewable electricity to the local community, aligning with the concept of renewable energy communities (RECs). This study focuses on the Olympic Stadium in Rome, exploring a new way to produce and share the electricity generated. An energy simulation of the photovoltaic plant was carried out by means of a transient calculation tool System Advisor Model (SAM). Then, the energy output from photovoltaics was correlated with the stadium, streetlight, and household electrical energy demands. The results highlight the suitability of the photovoltaic plant and the energy, economic, and environmental advantages derived from its exploitation.

Optimal Network Design for Municipal Waste Management: Application to the Metropolitan City of Rome

This work is part of the regional research project PIPER—Intelligent Platform for the Optimization of Recycling Operations, which aims to develop a network design model for waste collection in the metropolitan city of Rome, Italy. The goal is to enhance the strategic planning of treatment and disposal facilities by incorporating transshipment locations to improve the efficiency of waste collection. The motivation for this study stems from the stringent targets set by the European Green Deal to achieve near-zero emissions and the critical role of waste management in realizing circular economy practices. Methods: The problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear program (MILP) that includes constraints on vehicle allocation to shifts and driver requirements. An additional feature of the model is its ability to account for vehicle maintenance issues when deployed on consecutive shifts. Results: The model was tested against a real-world case study in Rome and demonstrated significant potential savings, with a reduction in total traveled distance exceeding 10%. The mathematical model was also used for evaluating strategic scenarios in a “what-if” analysis, allowing the municipal collection company to assess location options for depots, waste treatment facilities, and transshipment points, as well as to optimize the fleet composition and driver allocation during work shifts. Conclusions: This study presents a robust tool for strategic planning in waste collection operations, highlighting the benefits of using transshipment locations to improve efficiency. The findings indicate substantial potential for cost savings and operational improvements, making the model a valuable asset for municipal waste management planning.

Green infrastructure design for the containment of biological invasions. Insights from a peri-urban case study in Rome, Italy

Secondary shrublands and transitional woodland/shrub formations are recognised to be particularly susceptible to plant invasions, one of the main global threats to biodiversity, especially in dynamic peri-urban landscapes. Urban fringes are in fact often the place for the sprawl of artificial surfaces, fragmentation of habitats, and complex land transitions (including both agriculture intensification and abandonment), which in turn increase propagule pressure of exotic species over residual semi-natural ecosystems. Within this framework, the present study was aimed at analysing i) how landscape composition and configuration affect the richness of woody exotic species in shrubland and transitional woodland/shrub patches, and ii) how this threat can be addressed by means of green infrastructure design in a peri-urban case study (Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy). Accordingly, the occurrence of exotic plants was recorded with field surveys and then integrated with landscape analyses, both at patch level and over a 250 m buffer area around each patch. Thus, the effect of landscape features on exotic plant richness was investigated with Generalised Linear Models, and the best model identified (pseudo R-square = 0.62) for inferring invasibility of shrublands throughout the study area. Finally, a Green Infrastructure (GI) to contain biological invasion was planned, based on inferred priority sites for intervention and respective, site-tailored, actions. The latter included not only the removal of invasive woody alien plants, but also reforestation and planting of native trees for containment of dispersal and subsequent establishment. Even though specifically developed for the study site, and consistent with local government needs, the proposed approach represents a pilot planning process that might be applied to other peri-urban regions for the combined containment of biological invasions and sustainable development of peripheral complex landscapes.

Exploring potential futures: Evaluating the influence of deep uncertainties in urban planning through scenario planning: A case study in Rome, Italy

Cities play a critical role in developing adaptable strategies to address the challenges posed by climate change. However, the inherent complexity of urban environments and their uncertain future conditions necessitate exploring innovative approaches and tools to assist the current planning practices. This paper presents a workflow rooted in model-based scenario planning for long-term adaptation planning given uncertain futures. To demonstrate the workflow’s effectiveness, a pertinent case study was conducted in a flood-prone area of Rome. The study employed a land-use change model to examine potential urban growth patterns, considering the uncertain implementation of new poles of attraction. This interdisciplinary study constitutes an initial stride toward implementing uncertainty within urban planning frameworks. Future prospects encompass the integration of multiple models for cross-scale analysis, embracing further critical environmental and social aspects. This research contributes to advancing urban resilience strategies. It enhances the understanding of adapting to an uncertain future in the face of climate change, as urban areas must embrace comprehensive planning to ensure flexible adaptation when faced with climate-driven uncertainties in long-term planning. In conclusion, the study underscores that embracing uncertainty is a challenge and a pivotal opportunity to shape resilient and adaptable urban futures.

Variability of airborne microbiome at different urban sites across seasons: a case study in Rome

Introduction: Biogenic fraction of airborne PM10 dominated by bacteria and fungi, has been recognized as serious environmental and human health issues in cities.Methods: In the present study, we combined a high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and the fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region, with elemental analysis of airborne particulate matter (PM10) to investigate the community compositions and structures of PM10-associated bacteria and fungi across four different seasons in three urban sites of Rome with differential pollution rate.Results: In this study, а clear seasonal shift of bacterial and fungal community structure driven by PM10 mass concentrations and environmental factors, such as temperature and precipitations, has been identified. In addition, the seasonal impact of local sources and long-range transported air masses on the community structures of the microbes has been also postulated. Our data revealed that the lack of precipitation and the subsequent resuspension of dust produced by vehicular traffic might contribute to the maximum abundance of soil-associated microbes in winter and summer. However, the increase of PM10 concentrations favoured also by climatic conditions, domestic heating and dust advection event from African desert further shaped the community structure of winter. Across three seasons, the pollutant removal-hydrogen oxidation bacteria and the opportunist-human pathogenic fungi progressively increased with pollution levels, in the sequence from green to residential and/or polluted area close to the traffic roads, with highest fraction during winter.Discussion: Hence, our results highlight a close interrelationship between pollution, climatic factors and abundance of certain bacterial and fungal predicted functional groups also with potential implications for human health.

Exergoeconomic and Environmental Evaluation of a Ground Source Heat Pump System for Reducing the Fossil Fuel Dependence: A Case Study in Rome

By 2050, the European Commission aims to achieve a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions within the construction sector due to new targets set for greenhouse gases by the Commission. One of the most effective solutions for mitigating the environmental impact of buildings is to integrate renewable-energy systems such as air-to-water heat pumps or geothermal heat pumps. Several works in the literature investigated the advantages of heat pumps, particularly ground source heat pumps, for specific contexts. Furthermore, the evaluation can encompass not only energy considerations but also exergetic aspects, and this paper makes a significant contribution to the latter. The study presented here applies exergy analysis to a geothermal heat pump system that is interconnected with photo-voltaic and solar collector systems in a building located in Rome. Feasibility and environmental assessments were also conducted. It is evident that the exergy efficiency obtained is much lower than the energy efficiency. The heat pump demonstrates higher exergy efficiency by producing high-temperature thermal power compared to a constant dead state at relatively low temperatures. Following the heat pump, the adiabatic mixer exhibits the second highest exergy efficiency, trailed by two heat exchangers. Compared to a conventional plant case, the money saved is EUR 16,772 per year, translating to a Payback Period of 23 years. Furthermore, the average annual reduction in fossil fuel emissions is estimated at 26.2 metric tons of CO2.

Drinking Water Quality Assessment Using a Fuzzy Inference System Method: A Case Study of Rome (Italy).

Drinking water quality assessment is a major issue today, as it is crucial to supply safe drinking water to ensure the well-being of society. Predicting drinking water quality helps strengthen water management and fight water pollution; technologies and practices for drinking water quality assessment are continuously improving; artificial intelligence methods prove their efficiency in this domain. This research effort seeks a hierarchical fuzzy model for predicting drinking water quality in Rome (Italy). The Mamdani fuzzy inference system is applied with different defuzzification methods. The proposed model includes three fuzzy intermediate models and one fuzzy final model. Each model consists of three input parameters and 27 fuzzy rules. A water quality assessment model is developed with a dataset that considers nine parameters (alkalinity, hardness, pH, Ca, Mg, fluoride, sulphate, nitrates, and iron). These nine parameters of drinking water are anticipated to be within the acceptable limits set to protect human health. Fuzzy-logic-based methods have been demonstrated to be appropriate to address uncertainty and subjectivity in drinking water quality assessment; they are an effective method for managing complicated, uncertain water systems and predicting drinking water quality. The proposed method can provide an effective solution for complex systems; this method can be modified easily to improve performance.

A multi-temporal DInSAR-based method for the assessment of the 3D rigid motion of buildings and corresponding uncertainties

This paper investigates the performances of the multi-temporal DInSAR technique for the structural monitoring of single buildings. The application of the multi-temporal DInSAR technique at building or infrastructure scale is enabled by the high imaging capability of the current generation of SAR constellations. Within this framework, the paper proposes an analytical procedure for the reconstruction of the 3D rigid motion of single buildings based on SAR measurements. To successfully reconstruct the structural displacement, measurements from dual orbits are required by the method. The proposed procedure is tested through numerical analyses accounting for uncertainties affecting SAR data, both in the displacement measurements and in the positioning of the main persistent scatterers. Numerical simulation results allow for the quantification of uncertainties in the estimation of the motion parameters. An analytical model is also proposed to estimate the motion parameter uncertainties depending only on the building geometry, the satellite orbit inclinations and the number of persistent scatterers, with no need to know their exact positions. The main benefit of the proposed analytical model is that it can be adopted in real applications to a priori evaluate the precision by which the motion components can be estimated in order to assess the reliability of the structural monitoring based on SAR interferometry. A very good match between numerical and analytical motion parameter uncertainties is achieved. Finally, the proposed method to reconstruct the 3D rigid motion and assess the corresponding uncertainties is applied to a real case study in Rome (Italy).

Land Cover Mapping with Convolutional Neural Networks Using Sentinel-2 Images: Case Study of Rome

Land cover monitoring is crucial to understand land transformations at a global, regional and local level, and the development of innovative methodologies is necessary in order to define appropriate policies and land management practices. Deep learning techniques have recently been demonstrated as a useful method for land cover mapping through the classification of remote sensing imagery. This research aims to test and compare the predictive models created using the convolutional neural networks (CNNs) VGG16, DenseNet121 and ResNet50 on multitemporal and single-date Sentinel-2 satellite data. The most promising model was the VGG16 both with single-date and multi-temporal images, which reach an overall accuracy of 71% and which was used to produce an automatically generated EAGLE-compliant land cover map of Rome for 2019. The methodology is part of the land mapping activities of ISPRA and exploits its main products as input and support data. In this sense, it is a first attempt to develop a high-update-frequency land cover classification tool for dynamic areas to be integrated in the framework of the ISPRA monitoring activities for the Italian territory.

Comparing Eye-tracking System Effectiveness in Field and Driving Simulator Studies

Background: Several studies have been conducted by combining the benefits of eye-tracking systems with driving simulators to simultaneously investigate driving behavior and the potential source of distraction. However, little effort has been made in terms of eye-tracking validation in the driving simulator environment. Objective: The overall aim of this study is to validate an eye-tracking system within the context of a driving simulation environment by considering a specific urban context application. Methods: A field survey and a driving simulation experiment were conducted for a case study in Rome, Italy. The selected real road sections and events were reproduced on the driving simulator system. An eye-tracking system was used to record eye movements both on a real vehicle and the simulator. The eye movements of 14 participants in the field survey and 18 participants in the driving simulation tests, as well as their driving performances, were collected while approaching an urban intersection in relation to two specific road events: i) the presence of a speed limit sign and ii) the presence of a crossing pedestrian. Results: Eye tracker parameters and driving performances were compared between the real driving tests and driving simulator experiments in order to validate the eye-tracking system. It was validated for both events in terms of duration and distance of the eye fixation. Conclusion: The results demonstrated that an eye-tracking system is an effective tool for studies and applications in a virtual reality environment.

Monitoring Displacements and Damage Detection through Satellite MT-InSAR Techniques: A New Methodology and Application to a Case Study in Rome (Italy)

Satellite interferometry has recently developed as a powerful tool for monitoring displacements on structures for structural health monitoring (SHM), as it allows obtaining information on past deformation and performing back analysis on structural behavior. Despite the increasing literature on this subject, the lack of protocols for applying and interpreting interferometric data for structural assessment prevents these techniques from being employed alongside conventional SHM. This paper proposes a methodology for exploiting satellite interferometric data aiming at remotely detecting displacements and buildings’ criticalities at different levels of analysis, i.e., urban scale and single-building scale. Moreover, this research exploits the capability of satellite monitoring for damage diagnosis, comparing the millimeter scale displacements to information derived from on-site inspections. Different data-driven algorithms were applied to detect seasonal and irreversible components of displacements, such as statistical models for damage identification derived from traditional on-site monitoring. Thus, the proposed methodology was applied to a XVI-century case study located in the city center of Rome (Italy), Palazzo Primoli, and two stocks of COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) images processed through the Small BAseline Subset Differential Interferometry (SBAS-DInSAR) technique were used to assess displacements for an eight-year-long (between 2011 and 2019) monitoring period.

Acceptance Evaluation of Automated Logistics Services: Case Study in Rome

EU member states face significantly higher sustainability awareness regarding safety, environmental and efficient mobility concerns of citizens. The paper aims to assess how to access the acceptance of automated logistics technology that is developed as a case study at the main campus of the Sapienza University of Rome, considering safety and service efficiency questions, willingness to use the service also in an urban environment. To achieve this, a user needs analysis was conducted to determine the target groups, followed by an acceptance questionnaire. The result is that the proposed automated service is expected to be used more by the younger age groups, although older respondents have also expressed an interest and do be accepted by transport sector employees and students. Regression analysis indicates a significant value for acceptance and automated logistics scenarios.

Retrofit Analysis of a Historical Building in an Architectural Constrained Area: A Case Study in Rome, Italy

A significant portion of Europe’s historical buildings have significant potential for energy efficiency. Social policy is typically opposed to energy retrofits because it is concerned about damaging historical or cultural sites. Contrarily, there are several approaches to energy efficiency that may be used with historic structures while also retaining the region’s architectural constraints. The findings of this study demonstrate that historical structures, which are typically not targets of energy efficiency technology because of architectural constraints on the building or in the neighbourhood, may also achieve a meaningful decrease in energy usage and GHG emissions. The significant energy-saving capability of this type of building is emphasized in the historical structure taken into consideration. The historical building object of the present study was built in the beginning of the 1900s and it was selected by the Ministry of Culture for energy efficiency improvements.

Airports as Sensitive Areas to Mitigate Air Pollution: Evidence from a Case Study in Rome

The environmental concerns are behind urban and regional mobility plans, with one of the goals being to manage surface traffic to reduce emissions. Yet, in sensitive areas such as those around airports, the contribution to the emissions generated by air traffic are commonly not considered. The research goal of this paper is to quantify and compare the magnitude of the emissions generated by both air and surface traffic, taking the second airport in Rome as an example, in the awareness that a proper knowledge of the emission phenomena might help steer local transport policies towards more appropriate and sustainable solutions. The paper describes the case study’s regulatory and land use frameworks both affecting the current traffic patterns around the airport and the emission generation, along with the methodology adopted to quantify the emission magnitude of both air and surface modes; as a result, air traffic emissions are not even comparable in magnitude to those from surface modes. In light of that, implications for surface transport policies are presented, leading to a revision of current mobility plans, and solutions to minimize emissions during land and take-off operations suggested, although problems for their implementations are acknowledged in the conclusions. All within the additional goal to advance the research further afield.

Food Policy Processes in the City of Rome: A Perspective on Policy Integration and Governance Innovation

In the food policy arena, the topic of governance and how to create a governance system that would deal with cross-cutting issues, including new ways of perceiving the public sphere, the policymaking, and the involvement of the population, has become an important field of study. The research presented in this article focuses on the case study of Rome, comparing different paths that various groups of actors have taken toward the definition of urban food policy processes: the Agrifood Plan, Food Policy for Rome, and Community Gardens Movement. The aim of the research is to understand the state of the art about different paths toward food strategies and policies that are currently active in the Roman territory while investigating the relationship between policy integration and governance innovation structures. Indeed, this paper dives into the governance structure of the three food policy processes, the actors and sectors involved, and the goals and instruments selected to achieve a more sustainable food system for the city. In this context, their characteristics are analyzed according to an innovative conceptual framework, which, by crossing two recognized theoretical systems, on policy integration and governance innovation frameworks, allows to identify the capacity of policy integration and governance innovation. The analysis shows that every process performs a different form of governance, implemented according to the actor and backgrounds that compose the process itself. The study demonstrates that governance innovation and policy integration are strongly linked and that the conception and application of policy integration changes according to the governance vision that a process has.

What Happens in the City When Long-Term Urban Expansion and (Un)Sustainable Fringe Development Occur: The Case Study of Rome

This study investigates long-term landscape transformations (1949–2016) in urban Rome, Central Italy, through a spatial distribution of seven metrics (core, islet, perforation, edge, loop, bridge, branch) derived from a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) analyzed separately for seven land-use classes (built-up areas, arable land, crop mosaic, vineyards, olive groves, forests, pastures). A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has been finally adopted to characterize landscape structure at 1949 and 2016. Results of the MSPA demonstrate how both natural and agricultural land-uses have decreased following urban expansion. Moreover, the percent ‘core’ area of each class declined substantially, although with different intensity. These results clearly indicate ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ after long-term landscape transformations: urban settlements and forests belong to the former category, the remaining land-use classes (mostly agricultural) belong to the latter category. Descriptive statistics and multivariate exploratory techniques finally documented the intrinsic complexity characteristic of actual landscapes. The findings of this study also demonstrate how settlements have expanded chaotically over the study area, reflecting a progressive ‘fractalization’ and inhomogeneity of fringe landscapes, with negative implications for metropolitan sustainability at large. These transformations were unable to leverage processes of settlement and economic re-agglomeration around sub-centers typical of polycentric development in the most advanced socioeconomic contexts.

High density European Rail Traffic Management System (HD-ERTMS) for urban railway nodes: The case study of Rome

The ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) system has been created to standardize the European railway signals and to improve the performance of the railway network. Nowadays the growing rail traffic demand has carried to the congestion of the railway nodes, which turn out to be the bottle necks of the railway infrastructure. The High-Density European Traffic Management System (HD-ERTMS) has been developed as a solution to resolve this problem because, being perfectly superimposable to the Italian national signalling system, it can be applied without changing the current infrastructure. This paper describes the benefit that it will possible to reach by introducing this new signalling system analyzing the case study of the railway node of Rome.

Aerogel insulation in building energy retrofit. Performance testing and cost analysis on a case study in Rome

Green Houses Gases (GHG) are negatively influencing the climate, increasing the Global Warming (GW) of the planet. Improving the energy performance of buildings is one of the main strategies that have to be adopted as soon as possible. In this contest, “Super Insulation Materials” (SIM) have been recently developed. The paper fits into this framework and investigates the aerogel applications in architecture to enhance energy retrofitting processes, evaluating its performances and economic feasibility. The study identifies different technological scenarios and analyzes their performance and cost application, highlighting the potential (i.e. saving of usable area inside up to 500% comparing with traditional insulators) and the limits of the aerogel (mean global cost that is 45% higher) application as a technological system for the reduction of energy consumption.

Methodology and evidence from a case study in Rome to increase pedestrian safety along home-to-school routes

Abstract Home-to-school routes are very sensitive areas: they represent, for children, a learning tool for their everyday activities, but if poorly designed, maintained and equipped they can expose them to traffic risks. Sidewalks' inappropriate level of service and poor maintenance, especially, are main factors contributing to walking unsuitability, thus to poor comfort and safety levels for young pedestrians, and more in general for all the vulnerable non-motorized road users. This paper deals with a methodology specifically developed to highlight the quality of the urban environment where the home-to-school routes are located, according to four main criteria: wellbeing, usage, appearance, and safety and security. Each criterion is associated with a checklist including the most relevant features to assess, with a focus on maintenance as a key parameter to create safe and comfortable routes to school. An application, a case study in Rome, where the lack of regular maintenance results into a network of unsafe sidewalks, is also presented, analyzing three different areas where a number of schools are located. Detours when approaching school premises were surveyed, due to the levels of distresses and linked to the poor comfort and safety levels. As the mutual influence of built environment over road safety and maintenance requirements for home-to-school paths is not largely investigated thus far, the paper's goal is to provide advanced knowledge for studies and applications further afield.