Towards an integrated tourism model for Campania. Local tourism and the Cilento area. – The 2019 health emergency has produced severe impacts on the tourist economy. The first signs of a recovery in the sector came from short-range and short-term trips to uncrowded locations later defined as “proximity tourism”. In Campania, some of these small villages are distributed in the hinterland of geographical areas peripheral to the main relational circuits, such as the Cilento National Park district. This area has great attraction, as it is a short distance from the Salerno coast. Starting from this consideration, the contribution intends to focus attention on the current configuration and future prospects of the sea routes that connect the coastal capitals of Campania to the numerous coastal centers of Campania. Then, reflecting on the possible interactions between “proximity tourism” and “foreign tourism”, in development in the post-pandemic phase, the contribution pays attention to the phenomenon of the rediscovery of the attractiveness of smaller villages, to show how an intensification of maritime routes can contribute to sustainable tourism development, not only from a “proximity” perspective, but by intervening in the rebalancing of the regional tourist movement.

Climate Crisis and Tourism in the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys (Piedmont Alps). – This study examines the transformations driven by climate change in the alpine context, focussing on the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys in the Piedmont Alps, two areas marked by environmental vulnerability and significant exposure to ongoing climatic and socio-economic pressures. The research explores how rising temperatures and decreasing snowfall are significantly reshaping the local tourism supply, requiring a reorganisation of the sector.
Combining in-depth interviews with local stakeholders and quantitative analysis of tourism and climate data, the study reveals a growing awareness of the phenomenon and its socioeconomic impacts. The climate crisis has exposed the unsustainability of traditional ski-based tourism, prompting a shift toward more resilient models such as experiential, outdoor, and cul-tural tourism.
While the Maira Valley shows greater adaptability thanks to an already di-versified offer, the Vermenagna Valley, historically reliant on alpine skiing, struggles to transition. The findings highlight the urgent need for locally coordinated strategies that integrate sustainability, cultural identity, and innovation.

Mountain Villages and Resources for Sustainable Development: The Role of Traditional Water Systems in the Tourism-Cultural Ecosystem in Oman. – Prior to the advent of the Coronavirus pandemic, the Hajar Mountains, which are renowned for their distinctive peaked hills (Jebel Akhdar and Jebel Shams), were primarily frequented by the local community. However, recent years have seen a significant rise in international visitors, particularly to the mountain villages of northern Oman, known for their unique natural and cultural heritage. Key elements include the wadis, seasonal riverbeds, and the aflaj, ancient irrigation channels crucial for agriculture and daily life. Among the most significant aflaj are Falaj al-Khatmeen (Birkat Al Mouz) and Falaj Daris (Nizwa), both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Despite their cultural value, these sites experience short tourist stays, usually not exceeding two days. This study explores tourist flows, visitor motivations, and local tour guides’ perspectives, using archival research, field surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The findings highlight the need for a new tourism strategy, shifting from a transit-based model to a sustainable tourism approach. Proposed itineraries integrating Birkat Al Mouz and Nizwa aim to extend tourist stays, enhance engagement with the region’s cultural and natural assets, and generate lasting economic benefits for local communities. By promoting responsible tourism, this study advocates for the protection of UNESCO sites, cultural heritage preservation, and the active involvement of local populations in tourism development.

Ripensare i rifiuti agricoli per la bioenergia nelle aree rurali: un modello di applicazione per la provincia di Foggia (Puglia, Italia). – Studi recenti e agende politiche internazionali si concentrano sempre più sulle geografie dei rifiuti e sull’equilibrio degli obiettivi di sostenibilità nelle politiche energetiche, rivelando problemi soprattutto nell’implementazione su scala locale. Sebbene l’uso della biomassa residua proveniente dai rifiuti agricoli e zootecnici per la produzione di energia rappresenti attualmente una delle fonti alternative più promettenti per la produzione di energia e il raggiungimento degli obiettivi di sviluppo sostenibile, inclusa la riduzione dei rifiuti, delle emissioni inquinanti, la conservazione di beni preziosi, paesaggi e biodiversità, è scarsamente incentivato e sviluppato a causa di varie limitazioni. Questa ricerca mira a sviluppare un modello sostenibile per la produzione di energia dai rifiuti agricoli con la tecnologia appropriata, ancora poco considerata ma compatibile con le risorse, i valori e i vincoli locali. A tal fine, si considerano le specifiche caratteristiche e potenzialità locali, utilizzando una metodologia qualitativa-quantitativa applicata in un’area di particolare interesse nella regione Puglia.

Analysis and perspectives on water stress reduction: territorial implications and innovative approaches. – Ensuring water sustainability through technological innovation is crucial, especially for groundwater, a vital component linked to the hydrological cycle. It plays a pivotal role in supplying drinking water for various purposes, including agriculture and industry. Climate change pose significant threats to groundwater conservation, raising concerns about both quantity and quality with significant socio-economic implications. Effective preservation requires hydrogeological monitoring of underground basins, coupled with dynamic water balance modelling to provide predictive insights. These modern tools are essential for proper physical resource management. Implementing innovative technologies and strategic political and management planning for underground aquifers are imperative for initiating a robust program to mitigate risks and achieve a sustainable balance for this precious resource.

Proximity tourism in a peripheral area: the case of the Pistoia mountains. – The Pistoia mountains represented the traditional holiday destination for the towns of Pistoia, Florence and Prato that reached its peak in the Seventies and declined in the following decades. However, since the pandemic crisis a flow of tourists has been reborn.
How to transform a temporary event into a permanent new model of tourism? This is the research question of our study.
The paper describes the characteristics of tourist supply and demand, the decline of family-run hotels in favor of B&Bs and the role of proximity tourism.
The study also qualifies the tourism supply by interviewing local operators, managing two focus groups, defining a SWOT analysis. The results can be used for some policy proposals to exploit the strengths of the territory, reduce its weaknesses, seize the opportunities of the sustainable tourism and avoid the threats of the social scenario and climate change.

Territorial education through the rivers. The “Flowing with the rivers” public engagement project. – The contribution reflects on how the value of water resources in the ecological transition can be shared and strengthened through geo-graphical education. In particular, the Public Engagement project “Flow-ing with the rivers”, financed with 48,500 euros by the University of Turin, whose objective was the development of an educational model to sustainably reconstruct the relationships between human communities and territory around water as a resource and fundamental element in all relationships between natural and human systems. The project activities developed between 2021 and 2023, concentrating the action on the territory between Turin and Savigliano, in particular between the Po, Tanaro and Maira rivers, and involved universities, associations, schools with teachers, students and parents, citizens, media and local administrations. The involvement of local communities was considered a basis of geographical education, starting from the idea that through awareness of the ecological, cultural and economic value of rivers it is possible to arrive at a plan for life, care and sustainable development that produces a social and cultural change in the valorization and management of water resources. The interdisciplinary working group, scientifically directed by Cristiano Giorda, involved fifteen researchers from six different departments and scientific areas. The main methodology followed was that of territorial education through outdoor education and place and art based learning activities, ca-pable of territorialising the scientific and artistic dimensions with skills linked to territorial values, landscape, sustainable development -bile and active citizenship.

La ristrutturazione del qanatscape come infrastruttura verde-blu-culturale delle città storiche nella regione arida dell’Iran. – Un’infrastruttura rispettosa dell’ambiente ha creato la civiltà delle terre aride dell’Iran circa 3000 anni fa, il sistema idrico Qanat, una struttura creata dall’uomo che consiste in tunnel sotterranei che partono da falde acquifere alluvionali alla testa delle valli e che conducono l’acqua su lunghe distanze usando la gravità per irrigare le terre aride e piatte. Una visione olistica di un paesaggio basato sui qanat crea il termine “Qanatscape” per concettualizzare le caratteristiche paesag-gistiche uniche dei qanat, dalla scala del sito alla scala intermedia, il tutto nel contesto della scala regionale. Rivitalizzare il modello del Qanatscape significa scavare nell’ordine, nella gerarchia, nell’uso del suolo e nel ciclo ottimale dell’acqua e trovare un modo per migliorare lo sviluppo sostenibile e la qualità del paesaggio quotidiano.
Yazd è un caso di studio degno di nota in quanto si è evoluto dal modello del Qanatscape. Il paesaggio di Yazd è stato esaminato attraverso narrazioni orali e analisi/interpretazione di immagini di vecchie mappe, foto aeree e immagini satellitari periodiche per scoprire il modello. Infine, attraverso una ricostruzione critica, il Qanatscape viene proposto come infrastruttura “verde-blu-culturale” di città e villaggi storici aridi dell’Iran. Il modello può servire come modello per un uso più sostenibile dell’acqua in Iran, producendo cibo, qualità della vita e un senso di appartenenza e identità, soprattutto di fronte al cambiamento climatico.

Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Water Resources Management. Case Study: Gorgovivo, Ancona. – The urgent need to address challenges related to the sustainable management of water resources has prompted the scientific and technological community to explore innovative solutions that can make a significant contribution to achieving the goals and sustainability strategies of the UN’s 2030 Agenda. In this context, Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerges as a powerful ally, offering advanced tools for the collection, analysis, and management of water data efficiently and effectively. Using machine learning algorithms and neural networks, AI enables accurate prediction of water demand, facilitating optimal planning and allocation of resources. Moreover, the integration of smart sensors and monitoring systems allows real-time control of water resources, improving the response capacity to environmental variations and emergencies.
The purpose of the research is to examine how AI can optimize water treatment and distribution processes, reducing waste and enhancing the energy efficiency of water facilities; the use of predictive models based on historical data and environmental variables allows for proactive management of resources, thus contributing to their conservation and long-term sustainability. In this perspective, an AI-based system will be adopted to predict the groundwater levels of the Gorgovivo spring (AN), using historical data from the spring itself, the level of the Esino river, and rainfall stations. The proposed AI model is based on the Prophet predictive algorithm, specifically designed to manage time series forecasting applications; as adapted by us, the predictive model was evaluated using the mean absolute error (MAE), mean squared error (MSE), and correlation criteria.

Le rappresentazioni territoriali nei prodotti mediali di carattere finzionale riscuotono da tempo interesse da parte dei geografi. Ancora poco esplorato è, tuttavia, il mondo della canzone, analizzata prevalentemente come insieme di cartografie, elencazione di toponimi o riflessione intorno a pratiche sociali condivise, venendo considerata soltanto in poche occasioni come una macchina simulante della territorialità, secondo il modello proposto da Marcello Tanca.

Geospatial methodologies for the monitoring of eutrophication of water bodies. – As collective awareness of environmental issues increases, the debate on water pollution becomes more focused on all anthropogenic activities (industrial, agricultural and domestic discharges, waste management) that cause water eutrophication. This paper aims to highlight how the use of GIS makes it possible to examine soil erosion and to calculate the theoretical load re-located over time in watersheds by human activities. The USLE/RUSLE and CREAMS models, coupled with satellitary data, allow to examine the evolution of land and watersheds. In the first part of the paper, the focus was on the Mediterranean, one of the most polluted seas on the planet; in the second part, the watersheds of the Rio Santa Lucia, Rio San Girolamo and other minor ones in south-western Sardinia were investigated. The research highlighted the connection between spatial planning and environmental processes, underlining the importance of best practices of territory management, especially in contexts with water vulnerability. The objective is to set up an integrated methodology to monitor soil erosion and eutrophication of water resources, in order to identify strategies and actions to mitigate these phenomena.

Olimpiadi invernali e pianificazione spaziale: tra territorio locale e spazio regionale. – Nel corso della storia olimpica, l’edizione invernale ha subito trasformazioni significative nelle dimensioni spaziali, introducendo una nuova prospettiva critica sulla dimensione urbana. L’articolo analizza i diversi modelli spaziali delle Olimpiadi invernali attraverso indicatori statistici volti a un confronto quantitativo. Attraverso lo studio dei diversi modelli spaziali, verranno fornite nuove ipotesi sul rapporto tra le sedi olimpiche e il tessuto urbano, offrendo strumenti preziosi per valutare l’evento olimpico nell’area di riferimento. L’articolo esamina come la creazione di nuove strutture determinerà alcuni cambiamenti spaziali in grado di catalizzare nuovi impatti sulle connessioni interne della città e del territorio di riferimento.

Sardinia between transhumance and the Blue Zone. Socio-spatial dynamics, rural lifestyle and diet of a geographical area of exceptional longevity: Ogliastra. – The rural dimension of Sardinia is strongly represented by the historical and social role assumed by agricultural activities on the island, which have always been characterised by transhumance phenomena (in Sardinia Tramuda) that, at different scales from the rest of Italy, have characterised some Sardinian rural territories (Ortu, 1988; Lai, 1998). Ogliastra has long been one of the lands of transhumance in Sardinia (Schiavone, Schiavone, 2014), and is marked by a high number of long-lived individuals (Blue Zone), for which, the rural environment, lifestyle and local interrelation-ships and genetics have influenced the health status in this area (Pes and Poulain, 2014). The work aims to investigate the socio-spatial dimension of food production linked to the rural (transhumant) culture of Ogliastra, trying to understand the configurations of territoriality (Turco, 2010) and how this socio-spatial, rural and food model may have influenced the particular longevity of the area. The Blue Zone diet, in fact, typical of transhumant territories, can become a catalyst for the sustainable devel-opment not only of Sardinia but also of many small Mediterranean rural areas and, furthermore, can facilitate the re-appropriation by the younger generations of their ancient identity heritage.

Transhumance in Cilento region: between resistance and new social practices. – The article discusses the significance of transhumance beyond its traditional territories, exploring new social and residential models due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Transhumance practices offer opportunities to rethink territorial centrality, but tourism could lead to both potential and risks of commodification. The Cilento region serves as a case study, where trans-humance has historical roots, but tourism has reshaped the economy. Initiatives to revitalize transhumance and its symbolism are emerging. The study reflects on their role in promoting social values, yet cautions about their complex relationship with tourism in the long run.

Disseminating welcoming places in difficult urban contexts to “come out of the margins”. – As international literature highlights, the quality and density of the relationships network that characterizes the spaces of everyday life in urban peripheries and margins significantly affects the vulnerability of individuals. This paper aims to reflect on some examples of practices for constructing spaces and networks of relations implemented in Milan with the purpose of placing children and teenagers at the center of urban life to make an “educating community” out of the neighborhoods and the whole city, one that is able to propose more inclusive models of citizenship. Indeed, the wide range of Milan’s cultural and voluntary associations capable of solidarity and dialogue also with the “street cultures” has made it possible to create a widespread laboratory of experimentation sensitive to the forms and practices of living concerning the youngest citizens.

New mountain people, new activities, and new forms of transhumance: adapting traditional patterns in val Aupa, Friuli Venezia Giulia. – The study is part of the broader topic of the transition to modernity, and the passage to post-modernity, in the rural and mountain peripheries of the Eastern Alps. A passage, which took place starting from the mid-1900s, which often means a catastrophic impact on society and territories, in particular of certain areas, such as some valleys of Friuli, which involves the well-known phenomena of crisis and depopulation, to the point of creating situations of real human desertification, and the abandonment of entire valleys. It is therefore a question of understanding how the premises can be created for such re-conversions, and for the acceptation of changes, to take place without trauma, to create situations in which modernist and post-modernist innovation (today connected with globalization, and with the various digital transitions, ecological and of various kinds) can be usefully combined to avoid dramatic ruptures. It is the question, first, of rural economies, of agriculture and livestock, possibly connected to transhumance, in its various expressions, to be repurposed and adapted in appropriate way.

Beyond the metropolis. The employment trajectories of medium-sized cities in Lombardy, Lazio and Campania (2001-2019). – The importance of medium-sized cities for the cohesion of regional spaces and the promotion of more sustainable development models is often emphasised. However, their evolutionary trajectories are less investigated than those of the metropolises, considered the main hubs of innovation and the knowledge economy. This paper analyses the dynamics of jobs between 2001 and 2019 in a group of 175 medium-sized cities (20,000-200-000 inhabitants) located in Lombardy, Lazio and Campania. Significant differences in employment performance and sectoral specialisation profiles are found, concerning the different insertion of medium-sized cities in the settlement system (polarities and non-polarities of Local Labour Systems). Medium-sized cities have not always been as dynamic as metropolitan poles, which have grown stronger over the last two decades. Furthermore, greater difficulties emerge for cities with an economic base linked to the manufacturing industry, especially in Lombardy.

The Queen’s Bodies: Transcalarity, Transmedia storytelling, Media events. – On 8 September 2022, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also head of the British Commonwealth of Nations, passed away at the age of 96, after 70 years of reign. The funeral took place 11 days later, and constituted a mighty “media event”, involving some 4.5 / 5 billion spectators, for a ceremony lasting over 13 hours. In this context, the “queen’s bodies” are articulated in a composition that we can perhaps indicate as “binary duplicity”. On the one hand, following the classic path of Kantorowicz (1957), we observe the double body: physical and mystical. On the other hand, the corporal emblem rests on a double scalar reference: the nation and the empire. This essay, precisely, illustrates and interprets the model of the binary duplicity of the “queen’s body”, with the main purpose of: i) explore transcalarity as a geographical form of transmediality; ii) reflect on the role of the territorialization process in the constitution, development and outcome of media events.

Circular economy, institutions and enterprises in post-pandemic transition: two exam-ples in aerospace sector in Italy. – This paper aims to identify and illustrate some factors that have determined in recent years an acceleration of the transition process from the linear economy to the circular one in the European context. Among these factors: the change in attitude towards this issue by the business world, the greater impetus to carry out the transition provided by the institutions, and the advent of the Covid 19 pandemic, which, in addition to a health, economic and social crisis, has been seized, in Europe, as an opportunity for a post-pandemic recovery based on new models of organization of the economy and society. In particular, the latter aspect clearly emerges from the content of the European NextGenerationEU Program, implemented, in the Italian context, by the National Re-covery and Resilience Plan, Italy Tomorrow. The first part of the paper is dedicated to these issues, while the second part exemplifies these arguments with reference to the aerospace industry, in particular by illustrating the cases of two Italian SMEs in the sector that have strongly undertaken the transition process towards the circular economy. The paper concludes with some final considerations, which underline how institutions play a fundamental role in bridging the time gap between the short- and medium-term costs that must be incurred by companies in the transition process to the circular economy, and the long-term economic benefits that the realization of this path entails for the companies themselves.

The use of force in interstate relations: theory and evolutions in geo-political practice. – The use of force in relations between states and other players on the world stage: theory, practice and developments in political geography. Based on the experiences of the twentieth century (world wars, genocides, ideological-totalitarian degenerations, decolonization processes), the geopolitical thought of late modernity, starting from the 1960s, essentially develops in a “critical” sense. Then it assumes, among its favorite themes, the discussion on the essence of power (whether or not it is intrinsically “bad”), of the state and of politics (if they inevitably have to rely on the use of force); then it starts the development of a method targeted to regulation and prevention of conflicts, based on a process of deconstruction of alleged “false” ideas of power, to prevent the effects of escalation that have led the whole of humanity to the risk of destruction and self-destruction. These needs are translated operationally into the search for the so-called “insider” factors, that is, those that, in a certain scenario, beyond an immanent and self-evident “casus belli”, cause effects of permanent and out of control conflict, to the point of making war an element that justifies itself (an end, rather than a means). Effects that confuse any causal chain, which make it difficult to identify links and motivations, and therefore the search for a solution, and with it the pacification of crisis scenarios (which in fact tend to perpetuate themselves in areas of “endemic” conflictuality. All this proceeding on the basis of a neo-Enlightenment (possibly neo-liberal) assumption, which almost deterministically assumes the affirmation of an open society, refractory to violence, and the assimilation of “evil” to the mechanisms of democratization, to open market and capitalist prosperity. All this in a context of multilateral policy development, the establishment of international organizations, and the consolidation of a trans-national geo-economic apparatus, of civil society as an “answer to war”, with the aim of progressively limiting, up to cancel the same occasions of conflict; and this to the point that an idea of war as something obsolete spreads (perhaps in an illusory way). The latest events, however, and recent developments, seem to contradict this trend, re-proposing themes and tensions that ge-ographic-political theory seemed to have abandoned for some time. A fact made even more evident by the current invasion of Ukraine, which leaves you dismayed, like aggression to troglodytic times, when the invasion did not need to have a justification; it seems to cause deliberate violence and destruction on a large scale, so much so as to question the entire “critical” paradigm. Putin 24th February discourse deliberately denies the right of Ukraine to survive as a national human community. Evolutions that make it necessary to rethink the practices of limitation and regulation, of the intervention and prevention devices of war, and of the same method of study of the scenarios; perhaps a return to models that, just until a few months ago, were considered outdated.

Conflict mitigation goes (also) through ecological economy. – «It is foreseeable that, once certain resources have been depleted, the scene will be set for new wars, albeit under the guise of noble claims»: this recent quote by Pope Francis (Laudato Sì, p. 57) has once again drawn the attention of world public opinion to the issue of the limitation of available resources, which already is one of the main causes of war and violence, and it is likely to cause even more in the future. The more the depletion of non-renewable sources, the higher the number of the conflicts, as well as their seriousness. In 2022, the Earth Overshoot Day underlined that mankind has depleted all the resources annually available on July 28th (a day earlier than 2021); moreover, land grabbing is out of control due to hyper-connection at the basis of global production chains. These processes also continued during the pandemic that, on one hand, mitigated overexploits thanks to lock-downs but, on the other hand, it has not driven to a U-turn in attitudes towards the environment and access to resources. In this essay, after a preliminary analysis of global value chains and of the social consequences with regard to the increase of fear and violence indirectly provoked by the quest to sources, we discuss an in-depth study of an ecological and circular economic development model, based on the regionalization of exchanges for the exploitation of domestic resources.

Waste: the contribution of Zero Waste and geography to the implementation of the PNRR. – Waste is a central problem of global society, capable of deeply undermining the future of the planet. The consumerist mentality and practices are know for guaranteeing productions capable of responding to a growing demand that is ever more diversified. However, less concern has been given to the so-called final ring of the economic system, the one related to waste management. This lack of attention has ensured that a solution to the issue of waste cannot be longer postponed, but has to be considered the starting point for reconsidering the entire process, investing with energy and foresight on the cultural, even before economic, value of circularity, as an alternative to the short-sighted and no long-er sustainable linear model. And it is precisely within this framework, theoretical and practical at the same time, that the PNRR policies must depart and try to be effective, capable of taking up the challenge proposed by Zero Waste: overturn the metaphor of the pyramid and insert in the broad apex a new design of the entire production and consumption chain, at the corporate and domestic, collective and individual, local and global levels. This desirable renewed direction of thought will benefit from the help of geographical reflection, able to propose, thanks to its gaze capable of keeping together different elements and various plans, important concepts and functional criteria to undertake a definitive change of course, towards an effective sustainability.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict between Donbass and Crimea: spatial implications of a hybrid war – The Russian-Ukrainian conflict that began in February 2022 can be considered a peculiar model of «hybrid war»: it’s a conflict fought not only in a conventional way, but also with parallel activities, largely attributable to the world of communication, capable of use digital media strategically. These new modalities of war have particularly concerned Donbass and Crimea, two strategic regions in this conflict, highlighting the usefulness of geographical analysis in this regard. The purpose of this contribution is to illustrate and synthetically analyze the complex spatial roots of this conflict, then skilfully manipulated by the media systems of both sides.

Migrants, abandonment and reuse of historical centers. The case of Riace in Calabria. – Italy, a migratory crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, has always been affected by migratory movements that have affected its regions in different ways. In recent decades, they have assumed a synergistic demo-graphic dimension between population and depopulation, which modifies the structure and composition of the population, mitigating the unstop-pable demographic decline along with the depopulation of historic cen-ters. This is possible through urban redevelopment and socio-economic revitalization paths linked to the reception of migrants. The contribution analyzes possible causes and effects of migratory processes on the Cala-brian population, using the Riace case study as a model in which the “wel-come path” has had positive results and revitalized the historical center with the return of residents and the construction of a society with high values of cultural pluralism.

The role of policies for the activation of human capital and territorial mobility in con-trasting skilled youth emigration. – This study aims to investigate the role of local human capital activation policies and the value of territorial mobili-ty to contrast the phenomenon of qualified youth emigration. A phe-nomenon that has regained momentum in Italy in the last decade.
This study examines complex initiatives implemented by Italian regions and local authorities (especially Torno Subito by the Lazio Region and other programmes such as Ritorno al futuro by the Puglia Region and Master and Back by the Sardinia Region) that can serve as a model for national and European policy makers. Programmes that can help to counter skilled emigration and support the "right to stay" of a generation of skilled young people who, more than others, suffer from job insecuri-ty and a growing risk of marginalisation.

The Circular Economy Model in the City and the Territory

Crisi finanziaria ed economica in Russia durante la pandemia di Covid-19 e potenziali soluzioni. – La crisi finanziaria ed economica nella Federazione Russa causata dalla pandemia COVID-19 è stata caratterizzata da un impatto negativo sull’economia reale che ha portato a un deflusso di fondi di investimento in titoli e a una rapida svalutazione di azioni e obbligazioni. Questa crisi globale è unica nella sua natura, poiché non ha prerequisiti economici e inizialmente si è sviluppata principalmente attraverso linee non economiche. A causa degli squilibri del mercato causati dalla pandemia, il governo russo ha elaborato il modello di sostegno finanziario alle imprese, volto a stabilizzare la competitività delle imprese, delle imprese commerciali stra-tegicamente importanti e delle PMI, nonché a sviluppare nuovi settori di attività. Date le limitazioni delle sanzioni, è essenziale mantenere e aumen-tare la competitività delle tecnologie nazionali. Questo fornirà un’opportunità per facilitare l’indipendenza tecnologica dell’economia rus-sa e stimolare la crescita economica assicurando uno sviluppo avanzato dell’industria nazionale della costruzione di macchine. I piani di ripresa economica dovrebbero concentrarsi sul passaggio verso una società sostenibile e inclusiva, con investimenti statali che diano priorità al settore finanziario, all’economia reale, al commercio estero, al settore sociale, all’economia digitale e agli incentivi agli investimenti privati.

Thermal and SPA tourism in Italy: evolution, impacts and future perspectives. – Thermalism is a complex and articulated sector that in Italy over the years has changed its positioning. This study aims to identify the SPA tourism evolution and its contribution to the development of local economies, as well as how it can generates and increase a value proposition for the local sys-tems in the post pandemic. The data confirm the assumption of the importance of the SPA tourism in the sustainable development of the local economies that have specific resources. Furthermore, this contribution aims to state the objectives, which need to be achieved to reinvest, and regenerate territories devoted to SPA tourism in order to benefit from the possibility of reconstructing new models as a unique opportunity offered by the pandemic for this tourism sector, which represents an important resource in social and economic terms.

For a model of governance of Cultural Routes: Territorial Business Systems. The case study of the Via Francigena between Monti Prenestini ed Ernici. – Cultural routes and way are gradually assuming a leading role in territorial planning policies because on the one hand they are capable of responding to the criteria of environmental, social and economic sustainability and, on the other, of favoring an expansion of the tourist offer with a strong connotation identity. The study aims to support the hypothesis that a geographical approach by aggregates can represent the indispensable premise for the development of a governance model which, through the itinerary and the way, guarantees the implementation of actions aimed at enhancing and managing extended coherent territorial areas.

The experienced space between mobility and Covid-19 restrictions. – If it is true that lived space represents our becoming and our being individual in our society, any variation on it, it implicates for the human race a physical, mental and relational disturbance. Human being lives in his territory and territory is modeled, for better or for worse, by human being. Global events, such as pandemics, force human being to confront himself with an enemy more and more underhand, able to undermine his certainties, gained until today.
Daily mobility has to be reconsidered in a new way; principles, for example, as The Schengen Agreement, is put to the test, causing a block in every region, and calling into doubt the worth of the same principle.
Which scenarios shall we face at the end of this pandemic? How is human being going to take on global future events? And what restrictions are adaptable to our freedom and democracy? Are we ready to face them?

Redefine tourism model. Reflection: critical issues emerged during Covid-19. – The new emergency we are facing with current spread of coronavirus imposes restrictions in everyday life and mobility across different territories and countries; we are globally compelled to face mutual problems, regardless of unilateral positions and this is giving strength to globalization just when a crisis of the globalized world model seemed to be consolidat-ing. Even modern tourism in the pre-pandemic economic and political situation was building a path of progressive quantitative growth and showing positive signs even in the most difficult moments of the recent international economic crisis. However, global tourism is now displaying an overall weakness as never happened in the pasts and it is starting featuring negative data and forecasts showing how this emergency is affecting a substantial portion of the Italian economy, which has reached 13,2% of GDP in 2018 with subsequent significant meaning also in terms of employment. Although it is difficult to foresee future tourism developments, this paper wants to suggest a reflection on the possible scenarios that could be configured out in the medium term, starting from considerations on the role that the national corporate system in tourism has played within the Italian supply chain.

The tourist attractivity of Italy in post covid-19 scenario. – The current world scenario, with the declared pandemic by Covid-19, is characterized by unprecedented crisis in all economic activities and in particular in tour-ism. After the pandemic, when the science finds a medicine with which the contagion will not be so widespread – vaccine or other “medicine” that cures it –, travel will resume inevitably but slowly in different ways from those we all know. Imagining new scenarios of international tour-ism and redesigning the geography of tourist flows will not be easy, es-pecially in Italy where the reasons of beauty probably will not be the only ones to attract millions of tourists. Therefore, tourism activities must be reconsidered with respect to the “new normality” and the limitations to tourism by health authorities and the results of the economic crisis in-duced by social distancing measures. The paper, therefore, after a careful assessment of the forecasts already made by international organizations at different levels of scale post Covid-19, will verify how the Covid-19 phenomenon will affect per-ceived geographies, in relation to markets. To this end, the results of a survey will be used both to monitor the travel “sentiment” of Italians, in relation to the forecasts for the summer of 2020 and in the coming years, and to outline the future behavior of all travelers – Italian and foreign –. It is assumed, in fact, that the reputation of the Italian territory, due to the need to have new models related to health security in the different Italian locations, will change, requiring a very complex time.

What remains of the legacy of Matera 2019 after Covid-19. – The health crisis, which brought with it a consequent economic and socio-cultural crisis, dramatically revealed the vulnerability of our economic and production model, which is not very resilient to sudden and sudden changes. The coronavirus crisis requires, in fact, to take the lens of sustainable development and the 17 Sdgs grid to "inspire" the restart, proposing and taking better choices for the future, thus avoiding wasting resources and perpetrating in secular errors. Nothing will be like before for the sectors that have suffered and are experiencing the uncertainty of tomorrow: first of all, tourism. Tourism and, more generally, the entire hospitality, catering and culture sector are among the sectors most affected by the Coronavirus crisis. Some particularly critical situations are above all in cities that add culture, business and congresses. The case of Matera, ready to manage and reap the legacy of the extraordinary year from ECoC, clearly poses the urgency of the convinced turn towards the 2030 Agenda, to make our territories more sustainable, resilient and inclusive.

Geographies of Covid-19. – A first analysis of the scenario occurred as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic puts in evidence the changes in the way people deal with the spatial-time dimension, in the human rela-tions and in the consequent socio-territorial configurations.
Since the first moments of the pandemic geography gave an important contribution in the study of the phenomenon and in the analysis of its territorial consequences, useful to elaborate solutions from the global to the local scales.
In this path, the reflections made in the field of geography, and in partic-ular in this issue, regard on one side the global modifications on interna-tional assets, travels and mobility, globalization and borders, on the other side the changes in the daily way of living, furnishing tools useful to con-trast the pandemic and models for a sustainable development.

Covid-19 and Tourism. Sardinia: opportunities and tourist development perspectives. – The global emergency due to the spread of Covid-19 has resulted in restrictive measures for the movement of goods and people and in the stop of large production sectors, including tourism. The crisis that has affected the tourism industry worldwide also has negative consequences in regions such as Sardinia, already suffering from structural problems, among which there are seasonality and the prevailing incidence of the seaside model. In the Italian regional scenario, the island is among the least affected by the spread of the virus and, in view of a remodeling of its offer system starting from the implementation of organizational and governance structures and the strengthening of other identity tourism products capable of integrating different territories and sectors, could exploit this element to reposition itself as a smart and safe destination.

“Cronache Lucane”: Adaptability of the Basilicata in the times of Covid-19. – The Resilience Alliance has developed a methodological scheme for assessing disturbances in a socio-urban system: Resilience Thinking. This model analyzes the characteristics of the perturbing system in relation to the perturbed one. This work, through Adaptability and Transformability, pillars of Resilience, intends to evaluate the performance of these two variables in the geographical context of Basilicata, to add an additional piece to risk studies in the face of emergencies of this magnitude. By means of local sources of information and disclosure, the aim of this pa-per is to evaluate the impact of Covid-19 on Basilicata region and the ef-fectiveness of the active mitigation policies.

Geographies of Pandemia in the Chile of Social Riots. New appraisals of urban-rural inequalities. – The global spread of the Covid-19 virus, its speed and mode of propagation, the implications on morbidity, social relations and local and state economic dynamics, redefine the social construction processes of the territories. We propose a reading of the Chilean case, in an attempt to relate the structural, economic and territorial conditions, with the evolution of the health measures adopted, read through the perspective offered by social questions at the center of the protests that have animated the country since 18 October 2019. The structural political framework is the hyperliberist economic model, imposed during the dictatorship of General Pinochet, preserved and enlarged by the center-left governments in the last twenty years, which has among its elements characterizing the maximum opening and dependence on markets international, a production sector flattened on the export of raw materials, the privatization of fundamental services (such as health). At a time when, due to the virus, individual states restore a generalized closure of borders, the Chilean model aims to perpetuate itself by depriving special economic interests of collective well-being, further accentuating internal inequalities between groups social and between territories. The objective of the contribution is to analyze how much the geographical peculiarities of rural areas (low settlement density, relative isolation in terms of connectivity, ecc.) can limit the spread of the virus and, at the same time, how the limited presence of essential services (such as specialized medical centers) may give rise to greater negative effects than in metropolitan centers. The adopted methodology foresees: – a quantitative analysis of the dynamics of the spatial diffusion of virus – a diachronic and micro-territorial analysis of the containment measures adopted by the central government, supplemented by an analysis of the discursive constructions of the main social actors - a discussion of the interrelationship between political actions, social and economic factors.

Financial Systems between conflictuality and territorial coexistence. Islamic Finance and the United Kingdom case. – Recent years are characterized by the increasing spread of Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) in the Western countries. This could be explained, on the one hand, because the Islamic communities are even more numerous, becoming an important interlocutor and an opportunity for the western economies. On the other hand, Islamic finance Islamic finance has several ethical characteristics that could identify them as a more stable financial model.
The present contribution aims to address the particular issue of Islamic finance, looking at the global diffusion of the phenomenon, in order to understand its differences and conflicts with the traditional financial model.
To this end, it will be treated the case study of the United Kindom where the phenomenon seems to have had more success than in other countries.

 

Tourism in Malta archipelago: between the mass phenomenon and new sustainability hypotheses. – The territorial repercussions linked to the tourist practice can characterized as a source of stress for the destination, such as to undermine its territorial integrity. Therefore, forecast the effects are of fundamental importance to better understand the future developments of the phenomenon in order to prepare new and sustainable development strategies. Starting from the analysis of the latest tourism trends, the paper intends to focus attention on the characteristics that the phenomenon has taken in the Maltese archipelago. More specifically, will analyze the various forms that tourism has taken over the last decades, from the mass phenomenon to new hypothesis of sustainable models, and how they are sufficient or not to ensure the integrity of material and immaterial heritage on which the tourist appeal of the affected area is based.

New Synergies Between Territories and Enterprises: The Benefit Corporation as Potential Actors of Sustainable Development. – Recently, in Italy, have been introduced the Benefit Corporation (BC), ie a new legal form once a formal recognition of those companies intending to pursue a different business model: the “for benefit”. These companies, in fact, are placed in a limbo between non-profit and for-profit, associating profit targets with requirements of transparency and accountability to a wider number of stakeholders such as employees and citizens, reaching the interest for the natural environment and the territory. The challenge launched by the BC is that to get a rapprochement between doing business and society that goes beyond a simple and residual integration of social concerns, introducing into the reasons of being of the company's one or more purposes turned to the common benefit. In this sense, the classical concept of corporate social responsibility undergoes a transformation and becomes more strong.
This study has two objectives, firstly to clarify the nature, the struc-ture and the geographic distribution of those enterprises, on the other hand it aims to check as this modern way of understanding the business may affect on the territory and the extent to which the context where the companies are placed can to contribute on their functioning. To achieve the ultimate goal will be analyzed recent experiences in the Italian system, taking into account some of the existing realities.

The reflection on the combination of landscape and GIS is certainly very broad. In addition to presenting a recent national and international literature, it may positively rely on some crucial questions that regional policies are facing, ranging from the operation to management, from the involvement at real participation of the community in the culture of landscape and a new way of representing it. If the landscape has become more and more a border line, the GIS is a real system of knowledge, with which it is possible to build interpretative models of real problems, which derivation leads to the idea of collective landscape.