Strong Sustainability in Public Transport Policies: An e-Mobility Bus Fleet Application in Sorrento Peninsula (Italy)

Sustainability can be defined as the capacity to satisfy current needs without compromising future generations. Sustainable development clashes with the transport sector because of the latter’s high fossil fuels usage, consumption of natural resources and emission of pollutant and greenhouse gases. Electric mobility seems to be one of the best options to achieve both the sustainability goals and the mobility needs. This paper critically analysed weaknesses, strengths and application fields of electric mobility, proposing a real case application of an e-mobility bus fleet in Sorrento peninsula (Italy). The aim and the originality of this research was to propose a public transport design methodology based on a “strong sustainability” policy and applied to a real case study. To be precise, the renewing of the “old” bus fleet with a diesel plug-in hybrid one charged by a photovoltaic system was proposed, aiming to both improve environmental sustainability and perform an investment return for a private operator in managing the transport service. The proposed case study is particularly suitable because the peculiar morphology of the Sorrento peninsula in Italy does not allow other types of public transport services (e.g., rail, metro). Furthermore, this area, rich in UNESCO sites, has always been an international tourist destination because of the environment and landscape. Estimation results show that the new e-mobility bus service will be able to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions up to the 23%, with a financial payback period of 10 years for a private investor.

Geochemical fingerprinting of lemon juices and cultivation soils for authentication and traceability of geographical provenience

<p>Food habits or more generally food consumption, especially agro-food products, have always been linked to the territory of production. The Sorrento lemon (Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. cv. Ovale di Sorrento), is known for its characteristic cultivation on terraces in Sorrento peninsula of Campania (south Italy). In this environment, the peculiar soil and climatic features and the traditional cultivation on terraces have contributed not only to high-quality lemon productions but also to protect the landscape. Indeed, in terms of soil and climatic features, the Sorrento peninsula is very heterogeneous. The geographical conformation of the territory, along with the rainfall increase with elevation and in more inland areas, leads to different microclimates and habitats, even at a very small scale.  Main aim of this work was to develop a chemometric discriminant model to authenticate and track Sorrento lemons at a small geographical scale by multi-element fingerprinting and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) in order to protect the PGI lemon from lemons of other geographical origins. The variability of the total and bioavailable mineral contents in soil (top and subsoil) and their relationship with lemon juices were analysed. The multi-element fingerprinting of different areas are different for mineralogical and geochemical composition. The array of inorganic elements of agrofoods is greatly affected by the soil features, such as mineralogy, pH, moisture, and organic constituents. The LDA model was developed and cross-validated with the cultivar “Ovale di Sorrento”. External validation with other cultivars (Femminello Zagara Bianca, Femminello Siracusano 2KR, Femminello Sfusato Amalfitano, Femminello Adamo, and Femminello Cerza), grown in the same areas, was carried out. The LDA model was applied to 102 samples of “Ovale di Sorrento” lemons, cross-validated (96.08% of correct classification) and validated with external validation of 67 lemons juices from other cultivars (94.03% of correct classification) according to geographical origins. Pearson correlation analysis of the total and bioavailable element content of cultivation soils (top and subsoil) and lemons juices was performed.</p>

The offshore environmental impact by Sarno river in Naples bay (South-West Italy)

The goal of this work has been to establish the influence of the Sarno river on the present sedimentation in the Naples bay continental shelf by evaluating organic matter contribution and pollution. Sediments samples were collected, by van Veen grab, in 71 stations located offshore the Sarno river between Vesuvian and Sorrento Peninsula coasts. The characteristics of the surface sediments were analysed to highlight spatial trends in the (i) granulometry (grain-size); (ii) total nitrogen, organic carbon and total phosphorus; (iii) metal content (Hg, Cd, Pb, As, Cr, Cu, Ni, Zn, Fe and Mn).

New Insights of Historical Mortars Beyond Pompei: The Example of Villa del Pezzolo, Sorrento Peninsula

The topic of this study is the archaeometric characterization of mortars from Villa del Pezzolo, a Roman Villa located in Seiano (Napoli-Campania, Italy), dated between the 1st century B.C. and the 3rd century A.D. Mortars were analyzed by means of a multi-analytical approach (polarized optical microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersed spectrometry, thermal analyses and mercury intrusion porosimetry) according to existing recommendations. Analytical results evidenced the use of local geomaterials composed of sedimentary and volcanic aggregates in the mix design and confirmed the three distinct building phases identified by archaeologists. Volcanic tuff fragments, identified in the 1st building phase can be ascribed to Campanian Ignimbrite formation, widely cropping out in the Sorrento Peninsula, as confirmed by the presence of glassy shards, partially devitrified and replaced by authigenic feldspar, a typical feature of welded grey ignimbrite lithofacies (WGI). Volcanic aggregates in samples of the 2nd and 3rd building phases show, instead, the presence of leucite-bearing volcanic scoriae and garnet crystal fragments related to Somma-Vesuvius products. Study of these mortars allowed us to: (1) understand the production technologies; (2) highlight use of materials with hydraulic behavior, such as volcanic and fictile fragments; (3) confirm the three building phases from compositional features of mortars and (4) highlight the change over time of the volcanic aggregate for mortars mix-design.

Building physically based models for assessing rainfall-induced shallow landslide hazard at catchment scale: case study of the Sorrento Peninsula (Italy)

The assessment of rainfall-induced shallow landslide hazards at the catchment scale poses a significant challenge. Traditional empirical approaches for landslide hazard assessment often assume that conditions having caused failure in the past will not change in the future. This assumption may not hold in a climate change scenario. Physically based models (PBMs) therefore represent the natural approach to include changing climate effects. PBMs would in principle require the combination of a three-dimensional (3-D) mechanical and water-flow model. However, a full 3-D finite element model at the catchment scale, with relatively small elements required to capture the pore-water pressure gradients, would have a significant computational cost. For this reason, simplifications to the mechanical (i.e., infinite slope) and water-flow models (i.e., one-dimensional or hybrid 3-D) are introduced, often based on a priori assumptions and not corroborated by experimental evidence. The paper presents a methodology to build a PBM in a bottom-up fashion based on geological surveys and geotechnical investigation. The PBM is initially set as simple as possible and then moved to a higher level of complexity if the model is not capable of simulating past landslide events. The approach is presented for the case study of Sorrento Peninsula and two main landslide events recorded during the winter of 1996–1997.