Assessing the economic profitability of Paulownia as a biomass crop in Southern Mediterranean area

2022 ◽  
pp. 130426
Author(s):  
Riccardo Testa ◽  
Giorgio Schifani ◽  
Giuseppina Rizzo ◽  
Giuseppina Migliore
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Biomass Crop ◽  
Southern Mediterranean

What to harvest when? Autumn, winter, annual and biennial harvesting of giant reed, miscanthus and switchgrass in northern and southern Mediterranean area

2015 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 129-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Monti ◽  
Federica Zanetti ◽  
Danilo Scordia ◽  
Giorgio Testa ◽  
Salvatore L. Cosentino
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Giant Reed ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
Winter Annual

Building quantitative scenarios of irrigation under climatic and anthropogenic changes in the mediterranean area: application to Morocco

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fakir Younes ◽  
Le Page Michel ◽  
Jarlan Lionel ◽  
Boone Aaron ◽  
Berjamy Brahim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Irrigation Water ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Crop Coefficient ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Single Equation ◽  
Climate Change Scenarios ◽  
Water Requirements ◽  
Irrigation Water Demand ◽  
Southern Mediterranean

<p>In a context of major changes (climate, demography, economy, etc.), the Southern Mediterranean area faces serious challenges with intrinsically low, irregular and continuously decreasing water resources. A method for translating a narrative scenario of irrigation water requirements into a quantitative scenario is presented. At first, we propose to describe the Irrigation Water Requirements (IWR) of any area by a single equation. IWR depends on climate (ET0, Rainfall), crop development estimated from remote sensing time series (crop coefficient/NDVI relationships), and four efficiencies parameters. In a second part, a reference model of the crop coefficient monthly cycle ( ) is proposed by empirically relating to rainfall and NDVI. Three variations of the model are compared in order to make a projection until 2050 based on downscaled climate change scenarios. The reliability of the model depends on the representativeness of the calibration period: It is considered to be high at the beginning of the simulation (RMSE below 0.1), but it deteriorates as the calibrating period gets shorter compared to the objective period: r<sup>2</sup>= 0.5, RMSE = [0.1-0.14], stderr = [0.02-0.03] by 2050. An alternative scenario is built upon the reference by interpreting the narrative as bending points. Finally, the examination of irrigation water demand until 2050 suggests that the difference between the two climate scenarios is very small (<2%), while the two proposed agricultural scenarios are strongly contrasted both spatially and in their impact on water resources.</p>

Convective and stratiform precipitation: A PCA-based clustering algorithm for their identification

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Francipane ◽  
Gianluca Sottile ◽  
Giada Adelfio ◽  
Leonardo V. Noto
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Clustering Algorithm ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Rain Gauge ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Mediterranean Island ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
Open Issue

<p>The increasing occurrence of flood events in some areas of the Southern Mediterranean area (e.g., Sicily), over the last few years, has contributed to raising the importance of characterizing such events and identifying their causes. Since most of these events can be related to high-intensity rainfalls, which, in turn, are usually due to convective rainfall, it is very important to understand which factors could be recognized as drivers of such extreme events. Nevertheless, the way to distinguish between convective and stratiform rainfall is still an open issue and not easy to solve.<br>With this regard, starting from precipitation time series recorded at different rain gauge stations of Sicily, which is the greatest Mediterranean island, we propose an algorithm capable to classify precipitation distinguishing between their convective and stratiform components.<br>In order to do that, a dataset from the regional agency SIAS (<em>Servizio Informativo Agrometeorologico Siciliano</em> - Agro-meteorological Information Service of Sicily) has been used because of its high temporal resolution, quality, and availability of up-to-date data. Specifically, data from rain gauge stations spread over the entire island have been collected for the period 2003 - 2018 and with a temporal resolution of 10 minutes.<br>In order to classify the precipitation in convective and stratiform components, the functional PCA-based clustering approach (denoted by FPCAC) has been applied, which can be considered as a variant of a k-means algorithm based on the principal component rotation of data. In order to evaluate the validity of the proposed algorithm, finally, the results have been compared to some ERA5 reanalysis products.</p>

scholarly journals Energy and Environmental Flows: Do Most Financialised Countries within the Mediterranean Area Export Unsustainability?

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3736 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Vozzella ◽  
Franco Ruzzenenti ◽  
Giampaolo Gabbi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Flows ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
The North ◽  
Energy Flows ◽  
Mediterranean Countries ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Polluting Emissions

The literature dedicated to the problems of transboundary pollution often aims to verify what the environmental and energy interactions between countries are. Little attention is paid to the financial relations of the phenomenon. We analyze how financial, environmental and energy flows have been redistributed within the main Mediterranean countries, with particular reference to pollution. Applying advanced methods of correlation, we verify the dynamics of transfer processes with the aim of assessing whether the link between economic and financial and environmental flows might support the hypothesis that rich countries export environmental emissions to poor ones. Our results show that richer countries have a significant propensity to export energy, financial flows and polluting emissions. The imbalance is even greater for emissions with local impact. This process is accompanied by a substantial increase in the financial activities of the North Mediterranean countries to the detriment of those of the South, which progressively increase their indebtedness. We find out that the economic and financial development of the North Med is accompanied by an increasing environmental impact measured by the various types of emissions covered by our study. The research shows how the most industrialized countries of the Mediterranean area are increasing the economic and financial gap with respect to the Southern Mediterranean countries.

scholarly journals Climate tolerances of Philaenus spumarius should be considered in risk assessment of disease outbreaks related to Xylella fastidiosa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Godefroid ◽  
M. Morente ◽  
T. Schartel ◽  
D. Cornara ◽  
A. Purcell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Xylella Fastidiosa ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
Plant Diseases ◽  
Distribution Models ◽  
Philaenus Spumarius ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean

AbstractThe bacterium Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is an invasive insect-borne pathogen, which causes lethal diseases to important crops including olives, citrus, almonds and grapes as well as numerous forest, ornamental, and uncultivated plants. Outbreaks of Xf-related plant diseases are currently occurring in the Mediterranean region, causing substantial losses to various agricultural sectors. Several models have recently been published to identify which regions are at highest risk in Europe; however, such models did not consider the insect vectors, which constitute the key driver of short-range Xf spread. We fitted bioclimatic species distribution models to depict the macroclimatic preferences of the meadow spittlebug Philaenus spumarius L. (1978) (Hemiptera: Aphrophoridae), the major epidemiologically relevant vector currently responsible for Xf spread in the Europe. Many regions of Western Europe and Mediterranean basin are predicted by models as highly climatically suitable for this vector, including all regions where severe Xf have occurred so far. Conversely, the driest and warmest areas of the Mediterranean basin are predicted as little suitable for P. spumarius. Models forecast that agricultural-important parts of the southern Mediterranean area might experience a substantial decrease in climatic suitability for P. spumarius by the period 2040–2060. Areas predicted as highly suitable just for the bacterium but not optimal for this vector are apparently still free of severe Xf outbreaks, suggesting that climate tolerances of P. spumarius might partly explain the current spatial pattern of Xf outbreaks in Europe and should always be considered in further risk assessments.

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