Campi Flegrei: nature and culture. Landscape, risk and everyday life. – The Campi Flegrei are an area of volcanic origin, located north of Naples, where geological events and eruptions have upset the geography of this territory/physical-chemical laboratory. The area has been a favorite place for anthropic settlement since ancient times: the strong presence of sulfur and nitrogen have made the Phlegraean soil very fertile and the presence of the sea makes the climate mild. The Phlegraean territory has welcomed famous Greek colonies and Roman centers of primary importance, such as Cuma, Dicearchia / Puteoli, Baia, Miseno and large modern manufacturing settlements. I intend to analyze the landscape results that have been created and perceived, trying to investigate the particular relationship between physical geography and human geography that has been formed in this territory, together with the considerations that emerge in relation to the risk that the Phlegraean community experiences daily and social vulnerability and environmental peculiar to the area. 

Environmental transition and energy transition. A regional analysis – The relationship between environmental quality and GDP has been emphasized in the past, placing the accent on the “natural” trend towards improving environmental quality during the maturity of economic growth, after its deterioration in “takeoff” phases of the economy, according the socalled Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). This condition has in many parts been disavowed or weakened. In the same way, an attempt was made to read the energy transition through the EKC filter, but a regional analysis, carried out within the European Union, of the components of the energy transition (energy demand, intensity of energy, consumption of fossil fuels and renewables) shows that these conditions can vary considerably from country to country and that policies can determine changes, not just economic growth.

New perspectives on Covid-19 and epistemic injustices. – The Covid-19 outbreak is often associated with pollution and overexploitation of common global resources. Less attention, though with a few exceptions, has been paid to the social and human origins of the crisis. In fact, asymmetric power relations among social groups can determine the outbreak of crises and a reallocation of their related risks towards social and territorial peripheries. Research shows how the concept of epistemic injustice can take on systemic connotations, as the use of inappropriate or ineffective analytic tools can lead to practices that are perceived as just, effective, or efficient, but in fact lack these requirements. The negative impacts of such an eventuality would far outweigh the mitigating effect and magnitude of the ongoing redistribution processes and may fuel increasingly unequal power relations between insiders and outsiders. In this scenario, the rediscovery of an ethic of the common good is an essential element in the design and implementation of a collective way out of the crisis.

Fast mapping of the avalanche tracks on the Southern side of Malacoste (Gran Sasso Range, Abruzzi) for a better knowledge of environmental risk. – This note shows the results of a research, conducted in the Gran Sasso area, on the risk of avalanches and related territorial consequences. The study is based on a geological and geographic approach and uses techniques of fast mapping and field research. It was possible to identify the traces of 85 events that occurred between 2007 and 2017, which are many more than those officially registered. This made it possible to specify, at least for the type of wet-snow avalanches, the areas most subject to the phenomenon and highlighted the environmental risks and possible dangers for the visitors in the area. Therefore, it provided useful indications for a more prudent management of risk and better territorial planning.

Environmental impact and industry: the case of the cement-based plants of Colleferro and Guidonia. – Colleferro and Guidonia are two Lazio municipalities of the metropolitan city of Roma Capitale, linked to an industrial vocation, in particular that of cement. The first with the Italcementi pozzolana company, the other with the Buzzi Unicem cement plant. They are important factories because of the effects on local employment and economy. The two cement plants have adopted the best technologies available in favor of the environment and health, effectively reducing the production of polluting dust and CO2, but a more accurate study of the health evidence produced over time is needed.This case study can provide useful qualitative-quantitative indicators concerning the complex industry-environment-health relationship in two different contexts, even if they fall within the same regional reality.

Anthropocene and geography. – The concept of Anthropocene is used today in many disciplinary sectors to thematize the issues concerning the enormous and growing impact of human activities on nature. His introduction in the field of geographic studies has placed at the center the reflection on the heart of geographic epistemology: the relationships between human societies and the environment, their ecological consequences, the interpretation of the landscape, the analysis and the critical deconstruction of representations, the relationship between physical and human geography in scientific investigation. The article discusses the contribution of geographers to research on the Anthropocene and presents some ideas on the role that geography can play in scientific research on the Anthropocene. On the one hand, geography can support the critical reading of the ways in which the Anthropocene has also become a concept widely used by the media, contextualizing and deconstructing narratives. On the other hand, also by using the potential of thematic cartography in visualizing data and allowing reflections and analyzes at different scales, helping to territorialize the Anthropocene narrative, highlighting the changes and processes in the different regions of the planet.

Gli impatti ambientali delle attività sportive. Le buone pratiche di sostenibilità. Il caso del golf. – Lo studio intende evidenziare l’intensa e difficile relazione tra sport e ambiente prendendo in esame il caso del golf, uno sport che richiede una pianificazione e gestione dei percorsi più attenta e consapevole degli impatti ambientali, non solo per fronteggiare le pressioni esterne esercitate da coloro che denunciano gli effetti negativi sull’ambiente del golf, ma anche per ragioni economiche e pratiche di gioco. Efficienza energetica e uso di fonti rinnovabili, risparmio idrico, riduzione di prodotti chimici, limitazione dei rifiuti; conservazione della biodiversità; sensibilizzazione del pubblico sono obiettivi determinanti per l’affermazione dello sport sostenibile, una dimensione che esige, da un lato, l’impegno delle organizzazioni sportive, dei responsabili di eventi e di tutti gli stakeholder a vario titolo coinvolti di perseguire dette finalità e, dall’altro, un costante interesse e sostegno della ricerca scientifica per promuovere nuove conoscenze e comprendere le dinamiche del rapporto tra sport e ambiente.

Considerations on the regional landscape plan of Sardinia: a contribution from internal areas. – The concept of landscape is at the core of many geographical studies and is rich in different meanings that over time have given rise to numerous interpretations. According to the European Landscape Convention adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2000, landscape is a combination of natural and cultural elements in continuous transformation. Transformations that, if not planned attentively, can give rise to processes of deterioration and loss of quality of landscape configurations. In a Europe where there is still a significant dualism between urbanized and rural areas and in an environmental, economic and social era marked by the objectives of sustainability dictated by the 2030 Agenda, it is therefore necessary to adopt and strengthen policies and strategies for a more cohesive development and planning of the territory. The contribution, after a brief review of the literature on European and national policies on the landscape, wants to focus on the ability of regional realities to activate reconstructive interventions and environmental improvements from the adoption of Landscape Plans. In particular, the attention wants to focus on the Sardinian regional context, the first reality in Italy to have adopted a Landscape Plan in 2006. A plan that, to date, has identified only in the coastal areas the areas to be protected and enhanced. However, in the light of the priorities for a sustainable future, the Plan needs to be reviewed and a new plan that can also include the internal areas that are still not sufficiently integrated in the development process of the island.

Functions and benefits of green infrastructure: from contrast to climate change to the tourist positioning of cities. – Cities, in addition to being the main protagonists of global competition, represent those territorial contexts in which the effects of climate change become more evident. Among the sustainable urban planning tools supporting them are green infrastructures that can provide useful solutions capable of strengthening their resilience, transforming them into more pleasant and liveable environments. In light of these considerations, the contribution addresses the role played by green infrastructures also for the purposes of a more effective tourist positioning of cities in compliance with the sustainable development goals.

 

Dynamics of the urban forest. The case of Nervi and Sant’Ilario (Genoa). – The text was developed within the PRIN project “Sylva – Ripensare la selva” and aims to analyze some landscape and environmental impacts of the rewilding process that took place in the Nervi valley. Nervi and Sant’Ilario today represent one of the “greenest” areas of the municipality of Genoa. In the past, these localities, favored by a particularly mild microclimate, were however widely exploited for agriculture on terraces and pastoralism. The abandonment process that began in the second half of the twentieth century favored the advance of the forest, interrupted only by the repeated fires that hit the valley. These phenomena have also accentuated the susceptibility to instability of the slopes, demonstrating that reforestation processes are not always positive.

 

Environmental sustainability among socio-economic variables of influence and geographical determinisms. An analysis of the Italian scenario at nuts-3 level. – The process of awareness of the value of environmental sustainability is currently changing, also due to the the media lever that has catalyzed its dynamics both individually and collectively ones. At a European level, particularly, with the von der Leyen presidency, the orientations based on a vision linked to the Green Deal seem to have strengthened even more, according to which Europe must aim to become the first continent with zero climate impact by 2050, at the same time stimulating the economy, improving people’s health and quality of life, taking care of nature and in the absence of geographical differentials. The real effectiveness of these actions, however, will only materialize where integrated approaches will be adopted able to improve other variables directly related to the propensity for environmental sustainability. The present contribution, through a multivariate regressive analysis, a clustering methodology and the related cartographic representation, therefore tries to understand which are, in the Italian scenario (Nuts 3 scale), these socio-economic variables of possible influence, in order to clarify the territorial differentials that can be detected in the domain of sustainability.

Biofuels and bioplastics between opportunities and opportunisms in a regional experience. – Global and European strategies on renewable energies increasingly highlight the need for a paradigm shift in socio-spatial relations in agriculture. The territoriality of the renewable energy supply chains re-proposes the top-down characteristics of the fossil fuels era, deferring the support to coherent initiatives linking energy and territorial systems. The contribution explores European biomass strategies and their effects on a territorial level in Sardinia. The EU and Italian government strategies aiming at consolidating bioenergy and bioplastic production, both in terms of regulatory regulation and financial incentives for production, are reviewed. Starting from the agriculture and biomass energy production literature and based on a series of interviews carried out between 2018 and 2020 with local stakeholders, the effects of policies are investigated. The energy production process from biomass in Sardinia and the internal and external variables connected to it are examined.

Conflicts over the land-use of the Gaeta coastal zone (southern Lazio, Italy). – The aim of this contribution is to highlight the conflicts that have arisen over the centuries on Gaeta coastal zone in southern Lazio. The conformation of the Gulf, in which it faces, has favoured its vocation of mooring and therefore of maritime activities since ancient times. However, its defence capacity soon made it impregnable to attack by sea, making it a military fortress, so they interrupted its reputation as a commercial port and refuge for vessel. Fortunately, just outside the fortress, a fishing activity and a shipbuilding industry continued to be. These activities relaunched Gaeta until after the Second World War, and still survive today waiting for a new revival. The destruction of the historic walls also rehabilitated that part of the city that was enclosed there, but in it there are also the NATO fleet support and the military vessels controlling and safeguarding the coast of the entire gulf. Meanwhile, in the last decades, Gaeta has regained the role that had belonged since Roman times to a holiday resort. In the summer months, a large number of tourists pour out, especially on the different beaches that are developed on the coast just off the gulf. Over time, bathing, refreshment and accommodation services have been provided to them, threatening valuable coastal habitats, protected by both the Region and the 2000 Nature Network. This relationship between nature and man can be balanced only if the conditions of co-existence are known and respected. Similarly, it can be said for the maritime activities that develop in the Gulf of Gaeta.

“Public geographies. The reasons of the territory in ten social itineraries” by Angelo Turco

Verso un urbanismo a rifiuti zero: un manifesto per un futuro sostenibile. – Le città sono il principale luogo di produzione e consumo di rifiuti, nonché di rapida urbanizzazione. Questo articolo prende in considerazione la tradizione rifiuti zero, guardando in particolare alle città rifiuti zero, e mettendola in dialogo con le tradizioni critiche, in particolare con l’ecologia politica urbana. L’urbanismo rifiuti zero viene presentato come una nuova prospettiva e un invito all’azione, non solo per progettare città migliori, ma anche per cambiare la società e rielaborare i sistemi politici. Ponendo le sue domande chiave quelle che interrogano il potere, l’urbanismo rifiuti zero radicalizza l’approccio rifiuti zero, sviluppando nuovi modi di esplorare la realtà proponendo una visione ricostruttiva per creare futuri urbani sostenibili. In tal modo, questo lavoro mira a raggiungere sia i professionisti di rifiuti zero, sia i ricercatori interdisciplinari che gli attivisti-ricercatori.

When conflict is not seen. Resilience/resistance and territorial hegemony in the forest territories of Chile. – The central-southern regions of Chile have undergone a socio-ecological reterritorialization in the last forty years due to the conformation of an industrial forest monoculture, associated with a forestry sector structured in an oligopoly, dominated by two holding companies. This paper analyses the territorial relations between the wine sector and the forestry sector in the Itata River Valley sub-region. Wine-growing was born in this territory in Chile in the 17th century and has consolidated over time, becoming a reference point on a national scale. In recent decades it has been subjected to various shocks: from changes in wine-making processes to forest expansion. The results of the research lead us to think of socio-ecological relations in terms of a territorial hegemony operated by the main forest societies in economic, cultural and political terms. In cases where they come into contact with productive activities which are “resilient” to this expansion, such as wine-growing, forestry companies adopt practices of co-optation, favoured by the strength derived from the dimension of multinational holding.

The valorization of the natural and cultural heritage of the territory of Grassano and Grottole in Basilicata for sustainable tourism: geomorphological and GIS analysis for planning sustainable tourism itineraries. – The recognition of Matera as European Capital of Culture 2019 will certainly serve in the near future to channel more effectively part of the tourist flow towards the inner areas. Therefore, a study of a significant portion of the inner area of Matera was undertaken, aimed at collecting elements of the physical landscape that would act as a landscape “frame” for the formulation of hypotheses of routes with “multiple” values. In fact, the study area includes the villages of Grassano and Grottole, which have elements of cultural interest that are useful for valorising the itinerary to be proposed. The knowledge of the geographical elements of the study area, the accurate analysis of the forms of the physical landscape and the geomorphological processes that have generated them, the inventory of the main cultural attractions of the two villages located in the study area, as well as the use of a geographical information system, have made it possible to design the route proposed in this article.

The territorial needs, the UN 2030 Agenda and the university degree curricula. – In the complex frame of current changes and challenges, the paper aims at presenting the strategies and actions that the University of Piemonte Orientale is addressing to improve its training offer on the sustainability and environmental themes. Interdisciplinarity, territorial involvement, experiential learning are considered key factors to allow the shifting processes and projects towards sustainability on various levels, from civil society to the industrial context, from high schools to the non-profit and third sector.

The hydrogeological risk in Calabria in the relocation of Cavallerizzo (Northern Calabria, Italy). – In Italy, there are many areas in hydrogeological instability and many others show clear signs that, added to neglect, poor maintenance, absence of maintenance works and unsustainable territorialization processes, turn into critical issues. Risk mitigation interventions vary depending on the exposure, but even more so on the availability of resources and the perception of risk by the communities involved. About one third of the population lives in these areas with a high hydro-geological risk, which see the relocation of settlements with the consequent abandonment of unstable historical centers among the most complex and controversial interventions. The case study concerns the relocation of the Cavallerizzo di Cerzeto hamlet in Calabria, affected by a deep gravitational movement in the area of more recent urbanization and chosen as it was rebuilt with the urban structure and neighborhood relations of the old village as a settlement for the minority ethnic-linguistic arbëreshe. 

Climate Changes and International Security. – «Global warming is potentially the most dangerous of all forms of terrorism»: this is the disturbing revelation of a report prepared for the Pentagon by two American futurists, Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall. All that might be caused by climate changes as result of accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: the first to be hit would be, the Gulf Stream, which for centuries mitigates the climate of the east coast of the United States and northern Europe with a later «domino devastating effect». The report, which was to be secret, was for 2004 but was later published by various media organizations. Today, these positions are becoming increasingly important. On June 5, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing that global warming may cause a threat to international security and calling for UN agencies to «intensify efforts» to combat the effect emissions. But there are also dissenting voices.

The wind farm as a symbolic landscape. – Wind energy has had a remarkable development in Italy in recent years, despite severe criticism on the environmental and social impact of the plants. In particular, numerous studies and research have been conducted on the subject of the visual impact of wind turbines, mostly giving space to those who consider them a territorial realization that disfigures the landscape. The widespread construction of what today in Italy are commonly called wind parks must however lead us to consider that just as many are those who see in the plants not so much an element of visual disturbance but, on the contrary, an element of the landscape with an acceptable aesthetic value, and in some cases even positive. The research focuses on two wind farms – Monte d’Aria in Marche and Cinque Stelle in Liguria – close to established Italian tourist regions with the primary aim of giving a voice to those who, residents or tourists, consider them symbol and flag of a new, correct approach of society towards the natural environment.

The management of marine and coastal protected areas in Tunisia. – This contribution will examine the marine environment protection policies which have resulted from the international to endeavours undertaken by Tunisia in the last decade of the twentieth century, thus leading to the recovery of coastal wetlands, the establishment of sensitive coastal zones and Marine and Coastal Protected Areas (AMCP). In particular, when focusing on the latter, it was highlighted that, although specific legislation was issued (2009) following the acknowledgement of international guidelines on a participated management of such areas, the delay with which the implementing decrees (2014) were enacted and the strong existing contradictions within a country that only in recent years has initiated a process of territorial decentralization - a fundamental step for the democratization of the country - have hindered the civil society participation in the management of AMCPs.

Recensione a 

Valentina Albanese, Teresa Graziano, Place, cyberplace e le nuove geografie della comunicazione. Come cambiano i territori per effetto delle narrazioni online, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2020.

In this paper we suggest that, to approach the actual urban configurations, we are in need of new geographies. To critically understand the production of socio natural space we propose two methods: Planetary Urbanization and World Ecology. Consistent with the ongoing debate in Urban Political Ecology, we approach the Covid-19 pandemic as a result of the ecological crisis which is, as we show, an urban crisis. In order to immagine new methods of living with and
within nature, we suggest to go beyond the normative dichotomies developed by the Capitalistic culture. Considering this problem, we approac h to the urbanization as a multiscalar and uneven process, with a specific attention on public spaces (common), mobility (daily or wide ranging) and the relationship between infrastructures and nature (the Mapuche case).

Geographies of the Pandemic and Capitalism of Surveillance: Italian Reflections. – The current pandemic is therefore a geographic matter that must be addressed according to diverse scales, also including the bodies of single individuals as a primary and smallest dimension. Moreover, since the virus especially affects fragile people and communities, it is sensible to study these phenomena with an intersectional approach. Since national governments have made a massive use of digital instruments to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, the reflections of the present analysis will also be focused on digital issues, meant either as digital illiteracy and lack of access to digital technologies.
The aim of this study is thus to investigate the extent to which the digital weaknesses are affecting private and public spaces. The analysis provides a reflection on the new geographies that are emerging in Italy since February 2020.
More in detail, the reflection will focus on surveillance technologies devised to prevent the spread of the virus. In order to help limit people’s movements outside their private homes, national governments are often relying on digital technologies; these also include digital tracing systems useful to tackle infected individuals which are of great interest due to the many geographic implications.
Italy’s controversial contact tracing application, Immuni, has raised questions on the advance of surveillance capitalism, an issue that will be dealt with in the present analysis after an introduction on the geographic implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.

 

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.

The Geographies of War. Considerations in the Light of the New Role of Space in Conflicts...

Geography of the sacred: mystical literature as a source of knowledge. – The paper addresses the question whether mystical visions can offer a contribution to the knowledge of territories with regard to historical geography. The attention is limited to Christian mysticism, on which a rich literature is available, accompanied by in-depth critical analysis.
In several cases the authors provide us with significant details about the environment that is the background to episodes of sacred history, that is the geography of the Holy Land at the beginning of the 1st century. Without discussing the theological problems, the paper investigates the writings from two mystics almost a century apart, the German Anne Catherine Emmerick, a blessed nun of the 19^th century and the Italian Maria Valtorta (died in 1961). These are examined in order to ascertain the validity of the geographical information contained therein and their originality with respect to the knowledge to their time.