Insular Contexts Research Articles

A distributive environmental justice index to support green space planning in cities

Environmental justice (EJ) raises concerns about just allocating environmental harms and goods. It has been mainly analysed from a distributive lens through indicators and screening tools that have underlined communities' proximity to pollution and risk sources. However, for urban areas, existing gaps relate to the need for more comprehensive assessments of green space benefits distribution (e.g., flood mitigation, air pollution control and recreation, etc.) as well as aligning EJ indicators to local planning and policy efforts for simultaneously addressing planning issues and reinforce the evaluation of existing unjust realities.To address these issues, we developed a composite distributive environmental justice index (DEJI) structured into three sub-indices that reflect locally relevant patterns of environmental risks, disadvantaged communities, and the provision of green space benefits. The construction of this index also relies on a qualitative content analysis of planning and policy documents to contextualise EJ priorities relevant to the planning administration, and a detailed methodological rationale for composite indicator building. Applying the DEJI in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) at the census tract level, we identified a complex city-wide pattern of distributive injustices driven by the historical segregation patterns of insular contexts. Based on our results, we discuss how using the DEJI could help planning and policymakers reach specific goals, including those related to enhancing greening interventions in urban areas. Moreover, we argue that EJ composite indicators are needed to support environmentally just trajectories in cities with realities and planning patterns different from those found in mainland territories.

Evidence-Based Exploration as the Ground for Heritage-Led Pathways in Insular Territories: Case Study Greek Islands

Global key drivers—e.g., climate change, COVID-19 outbreak—have initiated critical debates as to the sustainable future pathways of many regions around the globe. Among these fall islands, as distinct types of regions that are marked by insularity drawbacks and a mono-sectoral economic profile, grounded in mass tourism. Having as a case study area all Greek islands, this work addresses: sustainability concerns that are due to the mass tourism repercussions in these heritage-endowed territories; and efforts undertaken by the Greek insular municipalities to deploy, in a collaborative manner, strategic cultural tourism plans in support of the transition from a resource-intensive mass tourism pattern to natural and cultural heritage-led future developmental trails. Towards this end, a two-stream methodological approach is used that relies on: quantitative, spatially-defined data elaboration/interpretation and visualization, highlighting the dynamics of tourism development in island territories; and qualitative data on issues related to the aforementioned plans from all insular municipalities, gathered through a web-based questionnaire. Research results unveil the unsustainable spatial and developmental patterns of Greek insular contexts and the shortage of mainstream planning expertise for collaboratively establishing attractive cultural-tourism ensembles. These factors restrain sustainability achievements and the repositioning of Greek islands in the global scenery as authentic heritage-led destinations.

From Island Biogeography to Conservation: A Multi-Taxon and Multi-Taxonomic Rank Approach in the Tuscan Archipelago

Investigating the drivers that support species richness (S) in insular contexts can give insights for the conservation of insular biodiversity. Our aim was to decouple the effect of drivers (island area, distance from mainland and habitat diversity) accounted in three hypotheses or a combination of them in explaining S in seven islands of the Tuscan Archipelago: Area (species–area relationship, SAR), area and distance from mainland (equilibrium hypothesis, EQH) and habitat (habitat diversity hypothesis, HDH). We used published and original datasets to assess S (except aliens) for 42 taxa (14 animal and 28 plant taxa) in each island, and we used S as the dependent variable and the drivers as covariates in regression models. In 31 taxa, the data supported one of the tested hypotheses or a combination of them, and the most commonly supported hypotheses were SAR (12 taxa) and EQH (10 taxa). The effect of the area was also evident in SAR + HDH (five taxa) and EQH + HDH (one taxon), making it the prevailing driver in explaining S. Since distances are relatively short, and three out of four islands are land-bridge islands, the effect of distance was significant for 12 taxa. The effects of habitat diversity were evident for just nine taxa. The multi-taxon approach allowed us to understand the differential effect of drivers among taxa in influencing S in a single archipelago. Moreover, the multi-taxonomic rank approach highlighted how the information contained within higher taxonomic ranks (e.g., Division) can be substantially different from that derived from lower ranks (e.g., Family). These insights are of particular importance from a conservation perspective of the archipelago’s biodiversity, and this approach can be transferred to mainland fragmented systems.

Recommendations for coastal planning and beach management in Caribbean insular states during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has implications for coastal planning and management. Rules for isolation and physical distancing, among other measures for human life protection, have led to the closure of most beaches around the world. The present critical situation has raised the following question: How can some recommendations be designed in sun, sea, and sand tourism-dependent-insular countries to face “the COVID-19 new normality?” We used the content analysis technique to analyze representative publications on a global level to ascertain information on best management practices. A survey of 58 experts provided additional information. We used inferential statistics for sample selection and produced a list of 43 practices and beach planning and management actions to face the COVID-19 pandemic. This led to 27 new recommendations designed for beach planning and management within insular contexts, some of which were tested in the Republic of Cuba. Recommendations aim to guarantee a culture of safety and improvement within the field of beach or coastal planning and management. These recommendations should prove useful for other insular countries, during the COVID-19 period, in the new normality that follows, and in other post-pandemic scenarios.

Territorial cohesion in insular contexts: assessing external attractiveness and internal strength of major Mediterranean islands

ABSTRACT In recent years, the concept of cohesion goes beyond the economic and social concern, focusing also on alleviating territorial imbalances and rendering sectorial policies of countries belonging to the European Union (EU) coherent and unified. Territorial imbalances are particularly evident in island regions which, constrained by their geographical position, are confronted with greater difficulties, compared to mainland ones. This work explores the potential for territorial cohesion derived from the study of both an internal state indicator (I is ), highlighting inner inadequacies of an island; and an attractiveness indicator (IA), illuminating its external linkages and interactions. Interpretation of these two indicators demonstrates how the internal state of an island forms the ground for implementing integration and cohesion policies that are capable of alleviating territorial cohesion imbalances not only within EU countries but, above all, within other islands’ realities. Both indicators are integrated into an index (composite indicator) of territorial cohesion (ITC), experimented in major Mediterranean islands. An analytical approach is proposed in this respect, stressing the originality and value of this research for strengthening territorial cohesion among island regions through the improvement of their internal state as well as the attractiveness these can develop towards the external world.

A review on energy storage and demand side management solutions in smart energy islands

European Union has definitely identified the priorities towards sustainable and low-carbon energy systems recognizing a key role to islands that have been described as ideal sites to develop and test innovative strategies and solutions that will then boost the transition on the mainland. Nevertheless, the integration of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (vRES) into the electricity grid are already causing technical problems to island grids thus making grid flexibility a key topic. In the past, since power plants were completely manageable while the load was unpredictable, the grid flexibility was supplied by traditional power plants; but now, due to vRES, the variability and unpredictability has moved to the generation side and the opposite shift has happened to flexibility agents. This paper deals with solutions that improve the ability of the grid to cope with vRES unpredictability such as energy storage technologies and all the solutions offered by sector coupling strategies. Particularly, this research focus on solutions that deals with such solutions in the insular contexts. Several solutions have been presented concluding that battery energy systems and pumped hydro energy storage are the most used technologies in islands. As regard sector coupling and Demand Side Management solutions, all the analysed solutions showed relevant results in terms of i) reduction of excess electricity production and ii) increased grid ability of hosting vRES. Nevertheless, some of the current gaps in literature have been pinpointed and future research challenge and opportunities have been suggested.

Seasonal demography of different black rat (Rattus rattus) populations under contrasting natural habitats in Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles, Caribbean)

The black rat (Rattus rattus) is one of the most widespread rodents on islands worldwide, introduced over the last five centuries. However, reliable information concerning how biotic or abiotic factors influence key parameters of black rat population biology in insular contexts is currently unavailable. Here we aim to document the relative abundance of rat populations and evaluate how the age structure and the body mass of adult individual vary seasonally in different forest environments under contrasting climatic conditions. Rats were captured during wet and dry seasons in 2017–2018 at one or two sites in each of the four natural forested environments of Guadeloupe, all of which experience widely different annual rainfall (semi-deciduous dry forest, seasonal evergreen forest, mountain rainforest and Pterocarpus officinalis swamp forest). A total of 171 black rats were captured during a 1018 trap-night effort. Overall capture results confirm this species to thrive in all the natural forested environments we investigated. With the exception of the P. officinalis swamp forest, black rat populations reach higher relative abundances during the wet season due to juvenile and sub-adult recruitment at the end of the dry season. In contrast, in the P. officinalis swamp forest, breeding activity continues during both seasons and relative rat abundance appears to fluctuate less seasonally. The relative abundance of adult black rats is also higher in the seasonal semi-evergreen and rainforests that experience little or no water stress. These contexts therefore appear the most favourable for sustaining black rat populations, a pattern that is most likely connected to a combination of climatic and/or edaphic parameters that condition the year-round availability and abundance of food resources.

Routes of North African Impact on Book Production in the British Isles before ca. 800

Generations of scholars have noted the links between North African art and manuscripts and Insular book cultures. However, until recently, most manuscript scholars have been cautious when considering how Egyptian and Carthaginian exemplars reached the British Isles. Even in the case of a surviving North African manuscript known to have been owned in an Insular context, scholars have tended to assume that Abbot Hadrian the African brought it with him to Canterbury. Such a limited view of North African-Insular interactions has been challenged in the past few decades by a number of archeological excavations. These have expanded our knowledge of exchanges of goods between North Africa and the post-Roman British Isles. Drawing together recent work in manuscript and material culture, I argue that there were a number of routes by which a Carthaginian manuscript-and indeed, other Carthaginian and Egyptian influences-could have reached Insular contexts.

The role of tourism in island economic growth and resilience

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to verifying the economic resilience of islands and, in particular, the role of the tourism sector in the reaction to the most recent economic crisis. The analysis concerns insular contexts, such as the greater island regions in the Mediterranean basin.Design/methodology/approachStatic and dynamic panel data techniques are used for a sample of 13 island economies over a period of 16 years.FindingsResults show that the growth factors for regional islands are similar to the ones usually considered for other regions, but the tourism-led growth hypothesis is highly supported. Tourism demand more than supply plays a role together with accessibility. The crisis has reduced the importance of tourism supply, while tourism demand and accessibility have remained crucial for growth together with other traditional engines of growth.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, none of the current works has considered territorial determinants and tourism indicators inside the same framework analyzing growth in island economies by considering the changes occurred during the crisis explicitly.

Fire as a motor of rapid environmental degradation during the earliest peopling of Malta 7500 years ago

The Holocene colonisation of islands by humans has invariably led to deep-seated changes in landscape dynamics and ecology. In particular, burning was a management tool commonly used by prehistoric societies and it acted as a major driver of environmental change, particularly from the Neolithic onwards. To assess the role of early human impacts (e.g. livestock grazing, forest clearance and the cultivation of marginal land) in shaping “pristine” island landscapes, we here present a 350-year record of fire history and erosion from Malta, straddling the earliest peopling of the island. We show that recurrent anthropogenic burning related to Neolithic agro-pastoral practices began ∼7500 years ago, with well-defined fire-return intervals (FRI) of 15–20 years that engendered erosion and rapid environmental degradation. As early as the Neolithic, this study implies that, in sensitive insular contexts, just a few generations of human activities could rapidly degrade natural islandscapes.

The first metallurgy in the Pityusic Islands (Balearic archipelago, Mediterranean Sea)

The islands of Ibiza and Formentera (the Pityusic Islands in the Balearic archipelago, Spain) were one of the last insular contexts to be colonised in the Mediterranean. The first settlement occurred during the second millennium cal BCE, probably by continental Bronze Age communities. During the first centuries of occupation (ca. 2100–1400 cal BCE), local material culture is defined in terms of the Bell-Beaker/Dolmenic and First Naviform periods. The Pityusic Islands have no mineral resources for producing copper or bronze objects locally, so the presence of metal objects dated to these periods necessarily indicates exogenous contact. Seven metal objects have been found in five archaeological sites located in both islands. Archaeometallurgical research conducted on these objects reveals the economic behaviour of these first settlers in acquiring these resources. In this respect, aspects of this behaviour, such as technological patterns and trade dynamics, are analysed.

The photovoltaic installation process and the behaviour of photovoltaic producers in insular contexts: the French island example (Corsica, Reunion Island, Guadeloupe)

This article presents and discusses the results of a study of small photovoltaic (PV) producers in the context of energy production on non-interconnected French islands (Corsica, Guadeloupe, Reunion Island). We analyse the propensity of islanders to install photovoltaic panels and to change their energy-consumption habits, i.e. to reduce their use of energy or to allow the electricity grid to manage their batteries. This meant interviewing them about their willingness to shift from the role of consumer to that of “prosumer”. The analysis is part of the sociotechnical approach which suggests that decentralised production encourages people to change their attitudes towards energy when they produce it themselves. It is based on interviews (47) and on questionnaires (142) submitted to PV producers who sell their entire production (full sale) or their surplus after self-consumption to Electricite de France (EDF) and who own a storage battery. We find that the interviewees’ representations of the electricity grid and locally used energies were marked by the insular nature of their land. Due to the power cuts and the voltage variations that they endure on a daily basis, the interviewees are fully aware of their island’s limited production capacity. The producers we met aspire to a level of comfort that conflicts with their awareness of the limits of the local production system. Our findings indicate that the fact of becoming a PV electricity producer is a response to a common desire for energy autonomy (in relation to fossil fuels, power cuts or electricity bills). This reaching for autonomy is not the same as a desire to break away from the electricity grid. It provides the opportunity to redefine the role of PV producers in tomorrow’s electricity system. This observation calls for comparative studies in order to determine whether these results are tied to insular contexts or if they can be extended elsewhere.

Mobility of men versus mobility of goods: archaeometric characterization of Middle Bronze Age pottery in Malta and Sicily (15th-13th century BC)

The aim of this paper is to offer the first petrographic and chemical characterization of Middle Bronze Age pottery of Malta (Borġ in-Nadur, half of 15th – early 12th century BC) to discriminate, in the multitude of Borġ in-Nadurvessels found in coeval sites of south-eastern and central-western Sicily, between imports and imitations and to precisely define their provenance.The present research may provide new data in order to shed light on the long standing issue about ‘mobility of men’ and ‘mobility of goods’ between the two insular contexts. A significant amount of Borġ in-Nadurpottery from Malta and Sicily have been sampled and subjected to petrographic exam on thin sections; moreover, chemical analyses of major and trace elements were performed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry.The research is part of an interdisciplinary project, aimed to create a database of petrographic and chemical data of Borġ in-Nadurtype pottery found in Sicily and in the Maltese archipelago, launched by the University of Catania and Arcadia University in partnership with Heritage Malta and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Malta.

Surviving on the isle of Formentera (Balearic Islands): Adaptation of economic behaviour by Bronze Age first settlers to an extreme insular environment

The isle of Formentera (Balearic Archipelago, Spain) was one of the latest insular contexts to be colonized in the Mediterranean. The first settlement occurred during the second millennium cal BCE, and this late human occupation is associated with insularity factors, including an extreme environment. Cap de Barbaria II is one of the biggest open-air naviform villages occupied during the first prehistoric settlement and for an extended period (ca. 1600–850calBCE). Multidisciplinary archaeological research conducted within the site reveals adaptation of the economic behaviour of these first settlers to an environment poor in resources. In this sense, aspects such as innovation, diversification, and intensification in the use of resources characterized the subsistence and technological patterns developed by the prehistoric inhabitants of Formentera. New data from different archaeological and paleoenvironmental studies, such as archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, or technological and functional, have been analyzed. In this sense, the assessed subsistence patterns, reveal adaptive strategies that encompass different local and exogenous resources and differ from those observed in the rest of the Balearic Islands.

From medieval Dar al-Islam to contemporary Malta: raḥl toponymy in a wider western Mediterranean context.

The diffusion of raḥl placenames in Andalus and the islands of Majorca, Sicily and Malta in the High Middle Ages has long been noted, studied, and served as the subject of scholarly debate. With the transition of these western Mediterranean lands from Islam to Christianity in the wake of the Iberian Reconquista and the establishment of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, the raḥl did not disappear, but rather became a staple of Christian colonization records in Majorca and Sicily. The same cross-cultural process extends to the example of Malta, where the survival of an Arabic dialect arguably assisted the retention of the raḥl as a living model for placenaming. The paper argues that the raḥl toponym, originally representing a small-scale and individual unit, lent itself particularly well in the insular contexts of the medieval Christian expansion, fitting flexibly in the wider framework of cultural hybridization.

Mortality in a Predator-free Insular Environment: the Dwarf Deer of Crete

Age-graded fossils of Pleistocene endemic Cretan deer (Candiacervus spp.) reveal unexpectedly high juvenile mortality similar to that reported for extant mainland ruminants, despite the fact that these deer lived in a predator-free environment and became extinct before any plausible date for human arrival. Age profiles show that deer surviving past the fawn stage were relatively long-lived for ruminants, indicating that high juvenile mortality was not an expression of their living a “fast” life. Although the effects on survivorship of such variables as fatal accidents, starvation, and disease are difficult to gauge in extinct taxa, the presence of extreme morphological variability within nominal species/ecomorphs of Candiacervus is consistent with the view that high juvenile mortality can function as a key innovation permitting rapid adaptation in insular contexts.

BODY SIZE REDUCTION AND TOOTH AGENESIS IN LATE PLEISTOCENE MELES MELES (CARNIVORA, MAMMALIA) FROM INGARANO (SOUTHERN ITALY)

In mammals combined factors such as body size reduction and loss of peripheral teeth are often associated with endemism phenomena. This condition is particularly evident in insular contexts where is a complete geographic isolation. During the Pleistocene there have been several stages, which changed the physiognomy of the Italian peninsula strongly influencing the distribution and morphology of mammalian faunas. Several genetic studies have shown that some Southern Italian areas have particular endemic species of small and medium size mammals. During Pleistocene these areas have been characterized by particular climatic/environmental conditions, and are generally called glacial refugia. They represent geographically isolated areas over time, where the origin of faunas with peculiar features is favoured. In this study, the occurrence of Meles meles from the Late Pleistocene site of Ingarano (Apulia, Southern Italy) is documented for the first time. This taxon is represented only by a partial skull (splancnocranum) that, despite the relative completeness, includes peculiar and well-preserved dental features that could be related to a partial endemic condition. The fossil shows a reduced body size and the agenesis of peripheral teeth, both conditions that are typical of the extant badgers from Crete, Rhodes and Japan. To test this hypothesis, tomographic analysis have been provided to establish the dental agenesis, and, in order to understand the magnitude of the body size reduction, biometric analyses have been carried on. The obtained data have been compared to measures of the extant Eurasian badgers. SHORT NOTE

The dodo was not so slim: leg dimensions and scaling to body mass

Recently Angst et al. (2011) proposed a new mean bodymass estimate for the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), ofMauritius Island, 10.2 kg, which is at the lower end ofprevious estimated intervals such as Kitchener's (1993). Wequestion both their methods and results and propose arevised estimated interval.Angst et al. (2011) used the lengths of the hindlimb threelong bones and regression equations, based on a sample ofliving birds, between these lengths and body mass (Zefferet al. 2003). But contra Angst et al. (2011), tibiotarsus andtarsometatarsus lengths cannot be used to estimate bodymass. This is because different bird species of the sameweight can show considerable differences in the lengths ofthese two bones, hence in leg length, across families andorders, generally in adaptation to particular locomotoryhabits (terrestriality, running, perching, aeriality, swimming,wading …), mode of predation (e.g. ornithophagy) andothers, with particular causes in insular contexts (e.g.Campbell and Marcus 1992; Zeffer et al. 2003; Louchart2005 and references therein). This is visible in the relativelylow R

Diversity and biogeographical remarks on "Symphyta" of Sicily (Hymenoptera)

Biogeographia vol. )OO( - 2011 (Pubblicato il 23 dicembre 2011) La Biogeografia de//a Sicilia Diversity and biogeographical remarks on “Symphyta” of Sicily (Hymenoptera) GIUSEPPE FABRIZIO TURRISI University of Ccztnnirz, C U TGANA, Section of Nature Reserve: Management, via Yerzorzz 8, 95027 San Gregorio di Crztnnin, Cntnnin (lzfizly); e—mni[: turrisifn/7rizio @yaboo. it Key words: Hymenoptera, “Symphyta”, Sicily, Mediterranean basin, diversity, zoogeography. SUMMARY The present contribution deals with a zoogeographic analysis of the sawfly-fauna of Sicily in a wider Mediter- ranean insular context. The sawfly-fauna of Sicily currently includes 119 species (6 of which doubtfully present) comprised within nine families (number of species in brackets): Xyelidae (2), Xiphydriidae (1), Siricidae (2), Orus- sidae (4), Cephidae (12), Argidae (10), Cimbicidae (5), Diprionidae (2) and Tenthredinidae (75). The analysis of chorotypes shows a higher percentage of species having a wide distribution (49% in total, specifically: Holoarctic 8%; Palaearctic 4%; \X7est—palaearctic 5%; Eurasian 32%). A high percentage of species has an European distribu- tion (44%, of which 7% extended to Maghreb). Very low is the percentage ofWest-mediterranean species (2%) and the endemic one of Italy (only 1%), whereas the Sicilian endemic species is more conspicuous (4%). The com- parison of the sawfly-fauna of Sicily with other insular contexts of Mediterranean basin, based on a linear regres- sion of species number vs. insular area and multivariate analyses (cluster analysis and neighbour—joining), shows that it is the most diversified and rich-species. INTRODUCTION The “Symphyta” include more than 8300 described species (Taeger and Blank, 2008; Taeger et al., 2010) within 15 families, mostly belonging to Ten- thredinidae. The “Symphyta”, also called sawflies, are traditionally considered as suborder of Hymenoptera mainly on the basis of a unique morphological feature, namely the configuration of the abdomen without the so called “Wasp waist”, which reperesents an autapomorphy of the Apocrita. Thus, the unique commonly shared morphological character is clearly a plesiomorphism and sawflies are currently considered as a paraphiletic assemblage (a grade) and not a true clade (see Vilhelmsen, 2006). The “Symphyta” are mostly phytophagous during the larval stages, includ- ing a strict mycetophagy and Xylophagy, while imagos are pollinophagous and nectariphagous, although a few Tenthredinidae are also predators. However, among the wide assemblage of Symphyta the small family Orussidae includes

The impact of IT on the growth and development of insular firms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show if the use of information technology (IT) strengthens the growth and development of insular firms. It investigates IT usage in an ultra‐peripheral territory of the Economic Union and aims to gain a better understand between the use of the IT and the growth and development of insular firms.Design/methodology/approachThis research examines 118 of the largest Réunionese firms and several interesting factors are identified. Certain characteristics such as size, age, diversification of activities or lack of diversification, status as a subsidiary of a larger firm, degree of computerization and if electronic communications influence IT use were specifically examined. Also looked at were certain factors that could illustrate the relationship between IT use and firm growth and development.FindingsThis paper presents findings and discusses these in terms of the degree of utilization of IT by insular firms, the development of external relationships and the importance of developing IT investment to reduce transaction costs within Réunionese enterprises. From this research, there is an assumption that the use of IT may have an impact on the growth and development of insular firms.Research limitations/implicationsThis research reported in this paper focused only on Réunion Island and not on other insular contexts. Further European ultra peripheral regions must be investigated to support the findings.Practical implicationsThe findings can help governments, public and private actors to increase the ICT investments of insular firms in order to reduce costs and improve the growth and development of local firms.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is the focus on the role of IT on the growth and development of insular firms.