Sustainability

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15 pages, 4726 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Organizational Aspects of Sustainable Infrastructure Safety Planning by Means of Alert Maps

by Roberta Troisi and Livia Arena

Sustainability 2022, 14(4), 2335; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042335 - 18 Feb 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 1492

Road infrastructure safety is a key issue in urban planning for numerous agencies, authorities, central and local administrations, road operators and contractors, in addition to researchers and technology experts. The present study describes a theoretical framework and examines coordination models highlighting how the [...] Read more.

Road infrastructure safety is a key issue in urban planning for numerous agencies, authorities, central and local administrations, road operators and contractors, in addition to researchers and technology experts. The present study describes a theoretical framework and examines coordination models highlighting how the integration between agencies can be developed with a supporting methodology. By means of alert maps derived from the elaboration of DInSAR (differential interferometry synthetic aperture radar) data, the study defines the actors involved, the alert level for each road infrastructure and the rationale for centralized or flexible coordination models. The potential applications of the approach are tested on a case study in Italy, in an area with about 1600 km of roads in Rome. The study aims to promote synergy between the various agencies for more sustainable infrastructure safety planning and governance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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22 pages, 4428 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Interpretative Matrix for an Adaptive Design Approach. Italian School Infrastructure: Safety and Social Restoration

by Roberta Ingaramo and Luca Pascale

Sustainability 2020, 12(20), 8354; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12208354 - 11 Oct 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3572

Abstract

The Italian school infrastructure has suffered in recent decades from an immobility that has generated critical issues and shortcomings in the management of structures, safety adjustments, and innovations in the architectural and pedagogical model. This type of stasis, due to the scarcity of [...] Read more.

The Italian school infrastructure has suffered in recent decades from an immobility that has generated critical issues and shortcomings in the management of structures, safety adjustments, and innovations in the architectural and pedagogical model. This type of stasis, due to the scarcity of resources on a national scale and the decrease in the birth rate of the country, has meant that the buildings are largely inadequate from both a regulatory and socio/pedagogical point of view, with a level of degradation that is leading to a progressive abandonment of several structures, generating further insecurity at the urban level. In Italy, the current health emergency (SARS-CoV-2), with the necessity of wider spaces for social distancing and less numerous classes, has further highlighted the strongly problematic nature of an extensive and often obsolete school building heritage, raising the need to reevaluate heritage in terms of safety, accessibility, economic impact, and, last but not least, social cohesion. The paper proposes an approach that starts from the analysis of regulations and data on a national scale related to the structural and formal conditions of school buildings, interpreting and evaluating their safety with a holistic approach, to then proceed to the definition of a design survey matrix able to classify the selected cases and give an interpretative reading that includes the vastest number of characterizing factors. The Italian territory (between Abruzzo, Lazio, and Umbria) affected by the 2016 and 2017 earthquakes has been selected as a significant case study due to its obvious conditions of further criticality for the formulation of an evaluation methodology through an extensive field survey, cross-referenced with available data on the resilience of school structures and their role in the urban fabric, with the ultimate aim of identifying functional methods for their adaptation to a contemporary, safe, flexible, and shared school model with local communities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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19 pages, 4619 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Peripheralization Risk Mitigation: A Decision Support Model to Evaluate Urban Regeneration Programs Effectiveness

by Roberto Gerundo, Antonio Nesticò, Alessandra Marra and Maria Carotenuto

Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 8024; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198024 - 28 Sep 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2520

Abstract

The term peripheralization indicates a process that can generate social, physical, and environmental degradation in urban areas. In the light of the new urban geography and the socio-economic trends taking place globally, there is a risk that the typical decay of a peripheral [...] Read more.

The term peripheralization indicates a process that can generate social, physical, and environmental degradation in urban areas. In the light of the new urban geography and the socio-economic trends taking place globally, there is a risk that the typical decay of a peripheral condition may affect city in their entirety, regardless of spatial proximity to its centre. Then, regeneration interventions should be targeted primarily at areas with a significant peripheralization risk, understood as a combination of potential degradation factors. Consequently, the decision-makers’ choice of the best design alternative should be informed by the knowledge of pre-existing vulnerability levels, and oriented towards the solution that maximizes their reduction. This is possible when the planning of interventions in the most vulnerable areas, through Urban Regeneration Programs, is able to take into account the results of the project alternatives economic evaluation. Such an approach constitutes the main novelty of the study. So, the aim of the work is to provide a decision support model for the evaluation of urban regeneration interventions effectiveness in areas of high peripheralization risk. To this end, the contribution defines a set of mitigation indicators and the assessment of the most effective design alternative through analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The proposed model was applied to an area of Marcianise Municipality, in Campania Region (Italy). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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21 pages, 457 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Enhancement of Small Towns in Inland Areas. A Novel Indicators Dataset to Evaluate Sustainable Plans

by Antonio Nesticò, Pierfrancesco Fiore and Emanuela D’Andria

Sustainability 2020, 12(16), 6359; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166359 - 07 Aug 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2138

Abstract

In response to the abandonment and depopulation of small towns in inland areas, it is necessary to provide analysis and technical-economic evaluation tools with the aim of selecting effective recovery and valorization strategies. In the light of what criteria and indicators should this [...] Read more.

In response to the abandonment and depopulation of small towns in inland areas, it is necessary to provide analysis and technical-economic evaluation tools with the aim of selecting effective recovery and valorization strategies. In the light of what criteria and indicators should this selection be carried out? The principles of sustainability guide us to a new definition of social, economic, environmental, and historical-architectural criteria. The intention is to outline a new way of classifying the judgment criteria, exclusively referring to the peculiarities of small towns. In turn, the criteria are specifically defined in sixteen sub-criteria, again able to represent the salient features of small municipalities: Local traditions, genius loci, urbanization levels, but also prevailing economy, environmental (flora and fauna, water, soil, air, etc.), and historical-architectural components (relations between the small town and the immediate context, formal relationship between building and urban core, etc.). This is followed by the drafting of a novel dataset of evaluation indicators, capable of expressing the project actions’ capacity to pursue the objectives expressed by the criteria. These are datasets that give back 24 indicators for the social sub-criteria, 42 for the economic sub-criteria, 34 for the environmental ones, and 38 for the historical-architectural ones. The goal-criteria-subcriteria-indicators structure outlined in this paper opens up research perspectives on the characterization of a hierarchical model of multi-criteria analysis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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15 pages, 3179 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Collecting Built Environment Information Using UAVs: Time and Applicability in Building Inspection Activities

by Rachele Grosso, Umberto Mecca, Giuseppe Moglia, Francesco Prizzon and Manuela Rebaudengo

Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4731; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114731 - 10 Jun 2020

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 2530

Abstract

The Italian way of thinking about maintenance is too often one-sided. Indeed, it is considered not so much as a useful practice to prevent the occurrence of a fault (ex ante), but as an intervention to solve it (ex post). Analyzing the legislation [...] Read more.

The Italian way of thinking about maintenance is too often one-sided. Indeed, it is considered not so much as a useful practice to prevent the occurrence of a fault (ex ante), but as an intervention to solve it (ex post). Analyzing the legislation relating to the construction sector, it can be seen that it does not clearly define the responsibilities, timescales and methods in which maintenance interventions must be planned and carried out. For this reason, this practice is still very weak compared, for example, to the industrial sector, where it is an established practice. Currently, the complexity of reading the maintenance plans drawn up by designers and the considerable costs associated with maintenance operations discourage owners and managers from even carrying out preliminary inspection operations. This research aims to stimulate these stakeholders to carry out inspection operations regularly, highlighting their costs and benefits. In particular, working on a case study in Piedmont, the costs of visual inspections carried out in the traditional way are compared with those that would be incurred if unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were used. Finally, the collateral benefits of inspections carried out with UAVs are highlighted. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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14 pages, 1128 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Risk Index Method–A Tool for Sustainable, Holistic Building Fire Strategies

by Dorota Brzezińska and Paul Bryant

Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4469; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114469 - 01 Jun 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3044

Abstract

Modern fire safety engineering seeks to ensure buildings are safe from fire by applying optimum levels of fire safety and protection resources without the need to overprotect. Similarly, the principles of sustainability aim to ensure resources are suitably applied to meet social, [...] Read more.

Modern fire safety engineering seeks to ensure buildings are safe from fire by applying optimum levels of fire safety and protection resources without the need to overprotect. Similarly, the principles of sustainability aim to ensure resources are suitably applied to meet social, economic, and environmental objectives. However, there is a mismatch between the actual application of fire safety and the sustainability objectives for buildings, typically caused by the highly prescriptive historical approaches still largely adopted and legislated for in many countries. One solution that is increasingly adopted is the more flexible, “performance-based” fire engineering approach that bases fire safety and protection provisions on the development of key performance objectives, some of which could be influenced by sustainability engineering propositions for buildings, but very often this does not appear to be enough. The proposed new concept prompts separate assessment and scoring of the eight most important fire safety factors, allowing for calculation of the fire strategy risk index (FSRI). By comparing the FSRI of the actual submitted strategy against the baseline strategy, enforcement agencies or other interested stakeholders will have a methodology to determine optimal fire safety solutions for buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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23 pages, 13219 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Seismic Reliability-Based Design Approach for Base-Isolated Systems in Different Sites

by Paolo Castaldo and Tatiana Ferrentino

Sustainability 2020, 12(6), 2400; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062400 - 19 Mar 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2031

Abstract

This study employs the seismic reliability-based design approach for inelastic structures isolated by friction pendulum isolators, considering two different highly seismic Italian sites to provide useful design recommendations. Incremental dynamic analyses are carried out to estimate the seismic fragility of the superstructure and [...] Read more.

This study employs the seismic reliability-based design approach for inelastic structures isolated by friction pendulum isolators, considering two different highly seismic Italian sites to provide useful design recommendations. Incremental dynamic analyses are carried out to estimate the seismic fragility of the superstructure and of devices, assuming different structural properties and limit state thresholds. Finally, considering seismic hazard curves of the investigated sites, seismic reliability-based design curves are proposed to derive the dimensions in plan of devices and the ductility demand of the superstructure as a function of both the structural properties and the reliability level expected. The proposed results confirm the possibility of using seismic reliability-based design as a sustainable and applicable approach and represent a large data set to adopt this design methodology in any site with a similar seismic hazard. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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18 pages, 240 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towns as Safety Organizational Fields: An Institutional Framework in Times of Emergency

by Roberta Troisi and Gaetano Alfano

Sustainability 2019, 11(24), 7025; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11247025 - 09 Dec 2019

Cited by 47 | Viewed by 2213

Abstract

According to the idea of safety structures as systemic, we developed a framework that emphasizes how the engagement of all relevant social agents could play an active role in the whole safety performance. The hypothesis of this paper is that a systemic approach [...] Read more.

According to the idea of safety structures as systemic, we developed a framework that emphasizes how the engagement of all relevant social agents could play an active role in the whole safety performance. The hypothesis of this paper is that a systemic approach should imply a precise shift of perspective from a unit of analysis embedded in a general environment, with mutual effects on a given safety performance, to a general analysis of a system where interdependent agents affect system performance. Through the lens of organizational field theory, safety performance is intended as the sum of the activities of multi-agents oriented by normative and cultural principles set out at the societal level, specifically within the urban area boundaries. In doing so, the analysis describes the key agents and their activities according to four different safety stages: Prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Institutional logics, distinguished as formal and informal, help to explain the behaviors and connections among agents. With the idea that a locally placed, organizational field reflects its peculiarity, we used four Italian towns located in two different areas of Campania, which live under the constant risk of a volcanic eruption, as examples. The results show how safety structures systems are contextual, characterized by locally embedded formal and informal rules, but not necessarily mutually aimed at orienting key agents to improve the safety performance. This contribution aims to support empirical analyses, natural experiments as well as qualitative studies to compare urban areas designed as safety-organizational fields from a multidisciplinary perspective. At the same time, we indicate some policy suggestions by emphasizing differences among organizational fields. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From an Atomized to a Holistic Perspective for Safety Assessment of Structures and Infrastructures: Exploring Ecosystems)

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