Preliminary studies for the establishment of a tsunami early detection algorithm to be used in the frame of a Tsunami Warning System

This thesis presents and discusses TEDA, an algorithm for the automatic detection in real-time of tsunamis and large amplitude waves on sea level records. TEDA has been developed in the frame of the Tsunami Research Team of the University of Bologna for coastal tide gauges and it has been calibrated and tested for the tide gauge station of Adak Island, in Alaska. A preliminary study to apply TEDA to offshore buoys in the Pacific Ocean is also presented.

Impatto ambientale dei rifiuti e degli sprechi agroalimentari in Europa e in Italia

Nonostante il fatto che una gran parte del mondo viva ancora oggi a livelli di sussistenza, i dati in nostro possesso ci indicano che le attività umane stanno esaurendo le risorse ambientali del pianeta. La causa di questo eccessivo sfruttamento delle risorse è da ricercare nei pattern non sostenibili di produzione e consumo dei paesi sviluppati. La preoccupazione per le conseguenze sull'ambiente e la lotta al cambiamento climatico hanno posto le politiche ambientali al centro dell'attenzione internazionale. Il Protocollo di Kyoto e la Commissione Europea hanno stabilito degli obiettivi di riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra, rispettivamente del 12% entro il 2012 e del 20% entro il 2020. All'interno del Protocollo di Kyoto l'obiettivo per l'Italia è ridurre del 6,5% le emissioni di gas serra nazionali rispetto al 1990. Le politiche mirate alla riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra hanno in genere come obiettivo gli impianti energetici e i trasporti. Poca attenzione viene data alla filiera agroalimentare pur sapendo che l'agricoltura ha un forte impatto sull'ambiente e recenti studi stimano che circa il 50% del cibo prodotto viene perso o buttato via dalla produzione al consumo. Alla luce di questi dati, il mio lavoro di tesi ha avuto come obiettivo quello di quantificare i rifiuti e gli sprechi agroalimentari in Europa e in Italia e stimare l'impatto ambientale associato. I dati raccolti in questa tesi mettono in evidenza l'importanza di migliorare l'efficienza della filiera agroalimentare per ridurre l'impatto ambientale nazionale e rispettare gli accordi internazionali sulla lotta ai cambiamenti climatici.

Seismic fragility assessment of unreiforced masonry aggregate buildings

Aggregate masonry buildings have been generated over the years, allowing the interaction of different aggregated structural units under seismic action. The first part of this work is focused on the seismic vulnerability and fragility assessment of clay brick masonry buildings, sited in Bologna (Italy), with reference, at first, to single isolated structural units, by means of the Response Surface statistical method, taking into account some variabilities and uncertainties involved in the problem. The seismic action was defined by means of a group of selected registered accelerograms, in order to analyse the effect of the variability of the earthquakes. Identical and different structural units chosen by the Response Surface generated simulations are then aggregated in row, in order to compare the collapse PGA referred to the isolated structural unit and the one referred to the aggregate structure. The second part is focused on the seismic vulnerability and fragility assessment of stone masonry structures, sited in Seixal (Portugal), applying a methodology similar to that used for the buildings sited in Bologna. Since the availability of several information, the analyses involved the assessment of the most prevalent structural typologies in the area, considering the variability of a set of structural and geometrical parameters. The results highlighted the importance of the statistic procedures as method able to consider the variabilities and the uncertainties involved in the problem of the fragility of unreinforced masonry structures, in absence of accurate investigations on the structural typologies, as in the Seixal case study. Furthermore, it was showed that the structural units along the unreinforced clay brick or stone masonry aggregates cannot be analysed as isolated, as they are affected by the effect of the aggregation with adjacent structural units, according to the different directions of the seismic action considered and to their different position along the row aggregate.

Comparative constitutional design for divided societies: a model to explain vonstitutional asymmetries

Comparative studies on constitutional design for divided societies indicate that there is no magic formula to the challenges that these societies pose, as lots of factors influence constitutional design. In the literature on asymmetric federalism, the introduction of constitutional asymmetries is considered a flexible instrument of ethnic conflict resolution, as it provides a mixture of the two main theoretical approaches to constitutional design for divided societies (i.e., integration and accommodation). Indeed, constitutional asymmetries are a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, as their degree of intensity can vary across constitutional systems, and there are both legal and extra-legal factors that may explain such differences. This thesis argues that constitutional asymmetries provide a flexible model of constitutional design and aims to explore the legal factors that are most likely to explain the different degrees of constitutional asymmetry in divided multi-tiered systems. To this end, the research adopts a qualitative methodology, i.e., Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), which allows an understanding of whether a condition or combination of conditions (i.e., the legal factors) determine the outcome (i.e., high, medium, low degree of constitutional asymmetry, or constitutional symmetry). The QCA is conducted on 16 divided multi-tiered systems, and for each case, the degree of constitutional asymmetry was analyzed by employing standardized indexes on subnational autonomy, allowing for a more precise measure of constitutional asymmetry than has previously been provided in the literature. Overall, the research confirms the complex nature of constitutional asymmetries, as the degrees of asymmetries vary substantially not only across systems but also within cases among the dimensions of subnational autonomy. The outcome of the Qualitative Comparative Analysis also confirms a path of complex causality since the different degrees of constitutional asymmetry always depend on several legal factors, that combined produce a low, medium, or high degree of constitutional asymmetry or, conversely, constitutional symmetry.