A regional environmental accounting matrix and integrated environmental economic analyses to support regional planning

This research deals with the deepening and use of an environmental accounting matrix in Emilia-Romagna, RAMEA air emissions (regional NAMEA), carried out by the Regional Environment Agency (Arpa) in an European project. After a depiction of the international context regarding the widespread needing to integrate economic indicators and go beyond conventional reporting system, this study explains the structure, update and development of the tool. The overall aim is to outline the matrix for environmental assessments of regional plans, draw up sustainable reports and monitor effects of regional policies in a sustainable development perspective. The work focused on an application of a Shift-Share model, on the integration with eco-taxes, industrial waste production, energy consumptions, on applications of the extended RAMEA as a policy tool, following Eurostat guidelines. The common thread is the eco-efficiency (economic-environmental efficiency) index. The first part, in English, treats the methodology used to build a more complete tool; in the second part RAMEA has been applied on two regional case studies, in Italian, to support decision makers regarding Strategic Environmental Assessments’ processes (2001/42/EC). The aim is to support an evidence-based policy making by integrating sustainable development concerns at all levels. The first case study regards integrated environmental-economic analyses in support to the SEA of the Regional Waste management plan. For the industrial waste production an extended and updated RAMEA has been developed as a useful policy tool, to help in analysing and monitoring the state of environmental-economic performances. The second case study deals with the environmental report for the SEA of the Regional Program concerning productive activities. RAMEA has been applied aiming to an integrated environmental-economic analysis of the context, to investigate the performances of the regional production chains and to depict and monitor the area where the program should be carried out, from an integrated environmental-economic perspective.

Lo spreco alimentare domestico in Italia: stime, cause ed impatti

Non esiste una definizione standard di spreco alimentare, così come non esistono metodologie uniformi per calcolarlo. Gli studi finora realizzati sullo spreco sono carenti, i dati raccolti spesso insufficienti. Il cibo viene sprecato ad ogni stadio della filiera alimentare, dal campo alla tavola. Nei Paesi Membri dell’Unione Europea, le famiglie – secondo dati elaborati da Eurostat- sono le principali responsabili dello spreco. Secondo la FAO, ogni europeo spreca ogni anno 179 chili di alimenti. Last Minute Market, spin off accademico che si occupa di ridurre e recuperare lo spreco, ha stimato che a livello domestico in Italia si sprecano mediamente il 17% dei prodotti ortofrutticoli acquistati, il 15% di pesce, il 28% di pasta e pane, il 29% di uova, il 30% di carne e il 32% di latticini. Da un punto di vista economico, lo sperpero alimentare significa una perdita di 1.693 euro l’anno per famiglia. Per inquadrare lo spreco alimentare domestico in Italia e gettare luce su dati contrastanti emersi da diversi studi finora realizzati, la tesi – dopo aver presentato stime a livello globale, europeo e italiano – si concentra sull’analisi dei dati emersi da un questionario sullo spreco domestico, compilato da 3.087 italiani tra il mese di novembre e quello di dicembre 2012. L’indagine socio-economica è stata realizzata in collaborazione con la Commissione Europea (DG JCR, Istituto per la Tutela della Salute dei Consumatori) e il Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie. Il questionario è stato posto sulla piattaforma online surveymonkey. La tesi ha avuto come obiettivi l’identificazione di dati quantitativi circa “quanto si spreca” , “cosa si spreca”, l’individuazione delle cause sociali, valoriali, comportamentali e di stile di vita, dello spreco alimentare delle famiglie italiane, l’impatto economico dello spreco sul budget domestico e l’elaborazione di profili di consumatori attraverso la cluster analysis.

The elderly health status and its correlation with ageing biomarkers: the European Project Mark-Age

According to the latest statistics projections formulated by Eurostat, the proportion of elderly EU-27’s population aged over 65 years old is predicted to increase from 17.5 % in 2011 to 29.5 % by 2060. This "population explosion" makes extremely important to identify the different genetic and molecular mechanisms which underpin the morbidity and mortality along with new strategies able to counteract or slow down its progress. In this scenario fits the European Project MARK-AGE whose aim was to identify a robust set of biomarkers of human ageing able to discriminate between chronological and biological ageing and to derive a model for healthy ageing through the analysis of three populations from different European countries, supposed to be characterized by different ageing rate: 1. Subjects representing the “Normal” or “Physiological” aging. 2. Subjects representing the “successful” or “decelerate” aging 3. Subjects representing the “accelerated” aging. The aim of this work was to recruit and characterize volunteers, to perform an accurate analysis of the health status of elderly recruited subjects (60-79 years) verifying any possible dissimilarity in their aging trajectories, to identify a set of robust ageing biomarkers and investigate possible correlations between ageing biomarkers and health status of recruited volunteers. The model proposed by MARK-AGE Project regarding different ageing trajectories has been confirmed and several ageing biomarkers have been identified.