City Of Florence Research Articles

Predicting and Understanding Landslide Events With Explainable AI

Rainfall induced landslide is one of the main geological hazard in Italy and in the world. Each year it causes fatalities, casualties and economic and social losses on large populated areas. Accurate short-term predictions of landslides can be extremely important and useful, in order to both provide local authorities with efficient prediction/early warning and increase the resilience to manage emergencies. There is an extensive literature addressing the problem of computing landslide susceptibility maps (which is a classification problem exploiting a large range of static features) and only few on actual short terms predictions (spatial and temporal). The short-term prediction models are still empirical and obtain unsatisfactory results, also in the identification of the predictors. The new aspects addressed in this paper are: (i) a short-term prediction model (1 day in advance) of landslide based on machine learning, (ii) real time features as good predictors. The introduction of explainable artificial intelligence techniques allowed to understand global and local feature relevance. In order to find the best prediction model, some machine learning solutions have been implemented and assessed. The obtained models overcome the ones available in literature. The validation has been performed in the context of the Metropolitan City of Florence, data from 2013 to 2019. The method based on XGBoost achieved best results, demonstrating that it is the most reliable and robust against false alarms. Finally, we applied explainable artificial intelligence techniques locally and globally to derive a deep understanding of the predictive model’s outputs and features’ relevance, and relationships. The analysis allowed us to identify the best feature for short term predictions and their impact in local cases and global prediction model. Solutions have been implemented on Snap4City.org infrastructure.

The Assessment of Density Bonus in Building Renovation Interventions. The Case of the City of Florence in Italy

The European Green Deal indicates the renovation of both public and private buildings as a key element for the improvement of energy efficiency in the building stock, in order to reach the goals of the document itself. New incentives, also including density bonus, can significantly contribute to foster diffuse actions. In Italy, the density bonus is under testing: the current framework has produced profitability for regeneration in some areas and unprofitability in others. This has led to a non-diffuse renewal, widening differences in richness and quality throughout territories subjected to the same reward measure. A territory is characterized by a high degree of typological and qualitative fragmentation and dissimilarity. Thus, the aim of the present work is the construction of a model that allows for identifying the entity of the reward measure in terms of density bonus. Density bonus can determine the feasibility of renovation interventions—in economic-financial terms and in relation to urban impact—taking into account the characteristics of the context (or micro-context) where they are performed. The research model is based on a Balance Sheet Model and is applied to the city of Florence. The model suggests an innovative approach where urban, landscape and environmental impacts produced by the density bonus are evaluated according to the economic amount needed for their mitigation. The expected results in the application of the model consist in the definition of an iso-bonus map organized by areas.

Da Vienna a Firenze, una complessa vicenda di solidarietà internazionale

The article traces the journey from Wien to Florence made by the Museo Galileo copy of the Instrumentarium chirurgicum, a book on surgical instruments by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla (1782). It replaced the Lorraine copy preserved by the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (now Museo Galileo) that was severely damaged by the flood that took place on the 4th of November 1966. It was a gift by the Institut fur Geschichte der Medizin and it was part of the international donations that came from all over the world to help the city of Florence in general and the museum in particular to get up after the disaster.

Exploring Performances of Electric Micro-Mobility Vehicles and Behavioural Patterns of Riders for In-Depth Accident Analysis

(1) Background: Electric micro-mobility vehicles (i.e., e-bikes and e-scooters) represent a fast-growing portion of the circulating fleet, leading to a multiplication of accident cases also attributable to risky behaviours adopted by the riders. Still, data on vehicle performance and rider behaviour are sparse and difficult to interpret (if not unavailable). Information regarding the overall accident dynamics can, however, aid in identifying users’ risky riding behaviour that actually led to a harmful event, allowing one to propose efficient strategies and policies to reduce the occurrence of road criticalities. (2) Methods: Speed and acceleration data of six cyclists of traditional and electric bikes were extracted from six closed-circuit experiments and real road tests performed in the city of Florence (Italy) to derive their behavioural patterns in diverse road contexts. (3) Results: The application of analysis of variance and linear regression procedures to such data highlights differences between men and women in terms of performance/behaviour in standing start; additionally, the use of e-bikes favours a higher speed ride in correspondence to roundabouts and roads with/without the right of way. To thoroughly assess the rider’s responsibilities in an eventual accident, an ancillary procedure was highlighted to evaluate whether a micro-mobility vehicle complies with the applicable regulations. (4) Conclusion: With these results, the prospective recognition of rider behaviour was facilitated during the investigation process, and the abilities to extract such relevant information from in-depth accident data wereconsequently enhanced.

Design of a solar district heating system with seasonal storage in Italy

The residential sector is responsible for 26% of final energy consumption in the European Union. A key strategy to reduce household fossil fuel use is solar district heating with seasonal thermal energy storage. Although this technology has been widely applied in Northern Europe (Sweden, Denmark, and Germany), it has not been implemented in Italy. This research presents a new numerical tool, and applies it to the REPLICATE project in the Italian city of Florence, which is financed under the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities and Communities initiative. Our novel tool, which is based on a dynamic model coupled with the finite element method, has been developed to guide the design of the district heating plant and obtain a reliable estimation of performance, notably storage heat losses. The overall aim is to reduce the prediction inaccuracies that have characterized past projects. The final dynamic model is implemented in TRNSYS, and makes it possible to select the main plant parameters and define control strategies. It is linked to a detailed heat transfer model developed in COMSOL Multiphysics®, which can calculate storage heat losses and determine the optimal thickness of insulation material. Our in-depth parametric study determined the optimal volume of the hot water tank to be 3800 m3, and the size of the solar field to be 1000 m2. We also evaluated the effectiveness of the addition of a water–water heat pump. This analysis found that it is a crucial component as it can increase storage capacity and improve the performance of solar collectors by up to 124 MWh. Our results indicate that with an optimized configuration, the solar fraction of the system can reach up to 44%.

Plague and Literature in Western Europe, from Giovanni Boccaccio to Albert Camus

In medieval times the plague hit Europe between 1330 and 1350. The Italian novelist Giovanni Boccaccio, one of the exponents of the cultural movement of Humanism, in the introduction (proem) of his “Decameron” described the devastating effects of the ‘black plague’ on the inhabitants of the city of Florence. The pestilence returned to Western Europe in several waves, between the 16th and 17th centuries. William Shakespeare in “Romeo and Juliet” and other tragedies, and Ben Jonson in “The Alchemist” made several references to the plague, but they did not offer any realistic description of that infective disease. Some decennials later Daniel Defoe, in his “A Journal of the Plague Year” (1719), gave a detailed report about the ‘Great Plague’ which hit England in 1660, based on documents of the epoch. In more recent times, Thomas S. Eliot, composing his poem “The Waste Land” was undoubtedly influenced by the spreading of another infective disease, the so-called “Spanish flu”, which affected him and his wife in December 1918. Some decennials later, the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus, in his novel “The Plague”, symbolized with a plague epidemic the war which devastated Europe, North Africa and the Far East from 1937 to 1945, extolling a death toll of over 50 million victims. Those literary works offered a sort of solace to the lovers of literature. To recall them is the purpose of the present paper, in these years afflicted by the spreading of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

La doppia natura dei suicidi del canto XIII dell’Inferno: un parallelismo con la dualità onda-particella nella fisica quantistica

The hybrid nature of the human–plant suicidal souls explored through the character of Pier delle Vigne in Inferno XIII exhibits unique characteristics in the Comedy’s first cantica. For centuries the Wood of the Suicides has demanded the attention of readers and scholars alike and yet the interplay and structure of their coexisting identities remain subject to lively debate. As an analytical tool, Dante’s encounter with Pier delle Vigne is compared to the wave–particle duality of light, a peculiar phenomenon of quantum physics. Indeed just as the suicides are at once true human and true plant, light behaves simultaneously as wave and particle depending on the experiment performed. The two complementary descriptions of light are mirrored in the duality of Pier delle Vigne, allowing a schematic restating of the canto emphasizing the multisensory interaction between Dante and the sinner. The hybrid nature of the damned soul thus becomes an expression of the contrasting judgments of Dante–theologian and Dante–poet on this character. Furthermore, the analogy shows how the anonymous suicide from Florence introduced at the end of the canto embodies the ambivalent perspective of Dante on the city of Florence itself.

Communication aspect of museum activities (experience and innovation of museums of florence)

The aim of the research presented in the article is to study the directions and mechanisms of action of museums in innovative practice. The modern museum as a cultural center is more focused on the individual, takes on the functions of organizing the leisure of citizens, responding to the social order, lifestyle. The study of the experience of museums in this context is focused on considering innovation at the local level - the museums of the city of Florence (center of Tuscany), which are a vivid example of the communicative model of the museum. This model of the museum is especially in demand today against the background of the problem of attracting (and retaining) visitors existing in museums around the world and in Kazakhstan. The study of valuable experience and innovative approaches in the communication activities of the best museums in the world can give impetus to the development of museums in Kazakhstan. The situation with the COVID–19 Pandemic has made its own adjustments in the relationship between visitors and museums. Both Florentine and Kazakhstani museums reacted to the situation with interesting projects. It is concluded that the introduction and development of information systems in museums in Italy made it possible to significantly optimize their work, and this, in turn, allowed them to reach a qualitatively new level of presentation of their services and collections. There are ample opportunities for the world museum community to access the Italian heritage.A great help in this study was the master's thesis by Irene di Pietro, which was written in the city of Bologna in 2017. An important source was the personal observations of E.I. Kubasheva in direct acquaintance with the museums of Florence. The research was carried out using narrative and historical-genetic methods.

Educational inclusion also involves language: Romané between identity, status and curricula

While considering the developments in valorising multilingualism and promoting interculturality in Europe, the present work converses with Romane, the language of Roma, in the form of a pedagogical reflection that focuses on its use in education. By retracing the gradations of its vitality and recognition, the discussion comes to the efforts to include this minority language – not always recognised as a such – in teaching materials, curricular activities and educational extracurricular programmes. This brings us to the Italian case: given the importance of local experiences, part of the contents, emerged from an empirical study, is dedicated to what has been achieved in the city of Florence in terms of cultural-linguistic promotion of Romane in an intercultural perspective. Thereby, the purpose of the paper is to both document the experience, and contribute to the pedagogical production of operational models responsive to diversity, hence capable of enhancing educational inclusion of minorities, with particular reference to Roma groups, by drawing on their language tool.

The effect of urban green areas on pollen concentrations at ground level: a study in the city of Florence (Italy)

Urban green areas can improve people’s quality of life, although airborne pollen may provoke allergic disease. The record of the pollen rain in different sites within a city can be useful to understand the distance reached by the pollen of different plants and its amount. Moss cushions are natural gravimetric pollen traps and represent a useful and economic tool for this kind of survey. Moss samples were collected from 16 sites in Florence at the distance of a decade. To test the effects of urban green areas on pollen records, the land cover was analyzed in buffers drawn around each sampling site. Pollen frequencies were correlated with the extension of the green spaces and with the number of trees inside the buffers. Pollen concentration maps were drawn to plot the pollen deposition at the different sites of the city center.The pollen records at ground level displayed an uneven concentration across the city and a strong prevalence of arboreal pollen. The greatest statistical correlation between pollen frequencies and arboreal land cover was shown for the larger buffers. The influence of Cupressaceae and Quercus was noteworthy at great distances. Some of the common ornamental trees growing along the main roads, such as Celtis and Tilia, showed a strictly local influence on pollen rain.The results of the study highlight the utility of a network of records inside cities for evaluating the actual contributions of the plants to pollen accumulation at the height where people walk. They may provide a useful indication for the planning of urban green areas in order to reduce health risks for citizens.

John Freccero (1931–2021)

John Freccero (1931–2021) Danielle Callegari John Freccero, Professor Emeritus of Italian and Comparative Literature at New York University, died on November 22, 2021 in Santa Cruz, California in the company of his family. He was ninety years old. He was predeceased by his wife Diane; he is survived by his first wife Yvonne, his children Carla, Stephen, Francesca, and Paola, and his grandchildren Isabella, Daniela, and Elijah. He is remembered as one of the greatest Dante scholars of his or any generation and a brilliant, inspiring teacher. His many publications and accolades hardly manage to capture the sweeping influence he had on the academic world and especially on his students, many of whom went on to become beloved teachers and prominent scholars themselves. Freccero was born on July 25, 1931 in New York City. His upbringing in an Italian-American family in Manhattan shaped him deeply even as he followed a trajectory very different from that of his immigrant parents, eventually receiving an academic scholarship to attend Johns Hopkins University, where he completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After pausing to serve in the military, he went on to pursue a Ph.D. from the same institution supported by the G.I. bill, and completed his dissertation in 1958 guided by the renowned Dantista Charles Singleton. His graduate and postdoctoral studies in Florence put him into contact with the important schools of philological and literary thought in the Italian and especially Florentine context, establishing his relationship with that city and the poet it had exiled. He recalled escaping to the hills of Florence during the flood of 1966 with his family in tow, and became a recognizable feature of Piazza Santo Spirito when he later regularly led the graduate program at New York University’s seat in Florence. [End Page 217] His first major essay, “Dante's Firm Foot and the Journey without a Guide” (The Harvard Theological Review, 1959), unraveled a long-contested crux in Dante studies and anchored Freccero as a dominant new voice in the field. It was later incorporated with his other contributions on Dante into a monograph edited by his student Rachel Jacoff, Dante: The Poetics of Conversion, published by Harvard in 1986. Emphasizing the Augustinian framework that undergirds the Commedia and introducing theoretical constructs that had rarely if ever been applied to the poet, The Poetics of Conversion became essential reading not only for all students of Dante but also for any student of critical literary studies. Freccero had an uncanny ability to comment on large-scale phenomena through close reading, a talent that also came through in his work on subjects other than Dante. That his essays on John Donne, Italo Svevo, and Michelangelo Antonioni remain points of reference for students of those authors marks him as a rare example of a scholar whose work might be better defined as a practice unto itself rather than an exercise of a given methodology. In addition to his critically acclaimed Dante: The Poetics of Conversion, his published works include the edited anthology Dante: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice Hall, 1965), and a second collection of essays, In Dante’s Wake: Reading from Medieval to Modern in the Augustinian Tradition (Fordham University Press, 2015), co-edited by Danielle Callegari and Melissa Swain. He composed the introductions for a number of notable American translations of Dante’s work, among them John Ciardi’s 1970 translation of Dante’s Paradiso and US poet laureate Robert Pinsky’s 1994 popular translation of Inferno. These publications are a reflection of how active he was in the field, as are the numerous awards and honors he received, beginning with two Fulbright fellowships for postdoctoral work, followed by a Guggenheim fellowship. The Dante Society of America bestowed him with a lifetime achievement award, and in 2015 he was among the elite group of scholars elected into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in the category of Humanities and the Arts. Importantly, his awards reflect his far-reaching influence, not only in the US but also in Italy, where he was honored with the Fiorino d’Oro from the city of Florence and the Premio Presidente della Repubblica for...

Mobile phone data and tourism statistics: a broken promise?

Mobile phone data represents an original source of information about the movements of individuals across territories and, in particular, of visitors. The systematic use of this data for statistical purposes is expected to provide several advantages: timeliness, deeper geographical and time granularity, and reduction of the statistical burden of respondents. To check whether that expectation is well placed, this paper reports a bibliometric analysis and a subsequent literature review of the recent contributions to the use of mobile phone data in quantifying the volume of tourist flows. The main findings show that the systematic exploitation of mobile phone data for producing tourism statistics is still limited in terms of countries (Estonia, Indonesia) and domain (international flows). Furthermore, the basic definitions of visitors stated by the EU Regulation 692/2011 are rarely applied on mobile phone data, and the population of visitors/tourists is often derived as a residual group after having identified the other people movements (residents, commuters). Both the literature review and a brief case study of the Metropolitan City of Florence show the main weaknesses of mobile phone data, which include costs, privacy restrictions, statistical issues of representativeness, among others. Finally, it is clear that mobile phone data cannot completely substitute current surveys on tourism flows because they do not include some noteworthy information concerning a tourist's motivations and a trip's characteristics.

Revisiting the Plague in the Age of Galileo

Revisiting the Plague in the Age of Galileo

Intergenerational Mobility in the Very Long Run: Florence 1427–2011

Abstract We examine intergenerational mobility in the very long run, across generations that are six centuries apart. We exploit a unique dataset containing detailed information at the individual level for all people living in the Italian city of Florence in 1427. These individuals have been associated, using their surnames, with their pseudo-descendants living in Florence in 2011. We find that long-run earnings elasticity is about 0.04; we also find an even stronger role for real wealth inheritance and evidence of persistence in belonging to certain elite occupations. Our results are confirmed when we account for the quality of the pseudo-links and when we address the potential selectivity bias behind the matching process. Finally, we frame our results within the existing evidence and argue that the quasi-immobility of preindustrial society and the existence of multigenerational effects might explain the long-lasting effects of ancestors’ socioeconomic status.

Cancer cluster and citizen alarms: epidemiological and statistical approaches

Abstract Background Respond to alarms for possible cancer cluster is a public health problem, but the management of these alarms is difficult and sometime conflictual. Methods We reviewed the guidelines on the management of disease clusters developed in various countries and the approaches used in previous disease cluster episodes in Tuscany. Statistical approaches for cluster detection were also reviewed. We performed a clustering analysis (spatio or spatio-temporal when appropriate) on childhood leukemia using data from Tuscany Cancer Registry (RTT). We used spatial hierarchical Bayesian model on aggregate data at municipality level. We performed test for general clustering and cluster detection on individual data. Results More than 100 tests for clustering analysis has been identified in the literature. Bayesian analysis on aggregate data did not show areas at higher risk with the exception of the city of Florence for childhood cancer among males. We did not found clusters for leukemia. In previous studies on disease clusters in Tuscany, most investigations have been started from community concerns and in the majority of situations a multidisciplinary approach was used. In some case an increase of incidence rate was observed, but rarely specific cluster cancer tests were used. Conclusions Hierarchical Bayesian models to aggregate data provided useful to identify long range geographical patterns while clustering analysis on individual data is a useful tool for small scale patterns. Both represent important tools for epidemiological surveillance studies particularly on childhood cancer. The best test for all situations doesn't exist, but the choice is determined by the type of question being asked from the data, by different situations and by different approaches. The Tuscany cancer clusters survey and the review of the guidelines on the management of clusters developed in different countries, give us the opportunity to formulate some suggestions for the health agencies. Key messages Respond to alarms for cluster of cancer and suggest recommendations for epidemiological and statistical standardized approaches is a public health issue. Tuscany cancer clusters survey and the review of the guidelines on the management of clusters developed in different countries, give the opportunity to formulate some suggestions for health agencies.

UTCI field measurements in an urban park in Florence (Italy)

Abstract The aim of this study is to evaluate human thermal comfort in different green area settings in the city of Florence by using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI). Field measurements of air temperature, solar radiation, relative humidity, wind speed and black globe thermometer were collected during hot summer days in various parts of Cascine Park, the biggest urban park in Florence (Italy). UTCI was evaluated over different surfaces (asphalt, gravel and grass) completely exposed to the sun or shaded by a large lime tree (Tilia × europaea). The results showed strong differences in UTCI values depending on the exposure to tree shade, while no significant difference was found among ground-cover materials when all surfaces were equally exposed to solar radiation. Future studies are needed to investigate the microclimatic effects of different tree species on UTCI.

THE CITY WALLS OF FLORENCE, A METHOD TO MANAGE INFORMATIONS OF A COMPLEX SYSTEM

Abstract. The city walls of Florence constitute a complex system: six circles and at least nine distinct phases of use and transformation, from the foundation of Florentia to Florence Capital, to contemporary adjustments. The DIDA, Department of Architecture of the University of Florence with the Municipality of Florence, has been carrying out since 2012 the FIMU project with the study of the various walls circuits and diachronic surveys of the surviving wall sections. The aim is to combine and harmonize the historical data with technical-scientific innovation, expressing its own vision of the relationship between the history of the city of Florence and the correct valorization of one of its important Landmark. Every citizen must be able to recognize in the traces of the past his belonging to a community, the results expected from this research are the realization of an informative-didactic and informative apparatus that will emphasize this important historical testimony of Florence and its transformations occurred over the centuries. Data acquisition, processing and visualization methods define this research as ‘experimental’ for the knowledge and evolution of a historic city that would contribute to elevating services for the technical scientific community and the citizen, to which data would become available currently ‘raw’ with the preparation of an apparatus based on a database through the ‘Open Data’ platform of the Municipality of Florence.

Characterization and Geotechnical Investigations of a Riverbank Failure in Florence, Italy, UNESCO World Heritage Site

AbstractOn May 25, 2016, an artificial riverbank of the Arno River collapsed just upstream from the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge in the city of Florence, Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. An anal...

Política, história e instituições republicanas no primeiro Quattrocento: a Florença de Leonardo Bruni

Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444), chanceler e historiador, é autor de um dos principais elogios da cidade de Florença deste período. Ao escrever a Laudatio florentinae urbis (1403-1404), o humanista descreve Florença e seu governo como uma cidade bem ordenada, bela, salubre, livre e participativa. O artigo analisa este texto não apenas como peça retórica, mas ressalta os ideais republicanos de liberdade, autogoverno e cidadania. De um ponto de vista institucional, a Laudatio oferece as bases do governo misto, que se tornaria um aspecto central do republicanismo renascentista. Dos antigos, Bruni retira a ideia de divisão dos poderes a partir da clássica tríade monarquia, aristocracia e democracia, com a separação de funções em cada uma destas formas puras. Bruni ressalta que ambos os aspectos da Antiguidade podem ser encontrados nas instituições florentinas de seu tempo, de tal modo que ele observa no fato histórico a realização de uma teoria política antiga, complementando, pois, a idealização da cidade.

Comparing pollen data from moss cushions and a volumetric sampler: the study in the city of Florence (Italy)

In Italy, aerobiological monitoring is usually carried out by the regional agencies for environmental protection (ARPA [Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione Ambientale]) using volumetric samplers. Another widespread method for the study of airborne pollen is the analysis of moss cushions, generally used to relate pollen rain to flora and vegetation. In this study, we compare the data coming from these two pollen monitoring methods: volumetric samplers and moss cushions. The study was carried out in the city of Florence (Italy) and took into consideration two different spans of time. The two pollen monitoring methods show quantitative and qualitative differences. The main discrepancy seems to be the direct consequence of the different preservation time of the grains in the moss cushions depending on the features of the pollen grains. The study also provides an estimate of the period of pollen accumulation and preservation in moss cushions, which turned out to be more than five years. The two sampling methods furnish complementary information; volumetric samplers especially suited for aerobiological studies and moss cushions for environmental and palaeobotanical research.