"Living in Nature". Residential Mobility and Real Estate Extractivism in Mountain Ranges of Cordoba (Argentina)

The current research analyses residential mobility from the big city to small towns with envi-ronmental and landscape qualities;and its counterpart, the real estate speculation that such displacement entails. For this purpose and based on the analysis of two ethnographic cases located in the mountain ranges of Cordoba (Argentina), discourses are investigated and which are mobilised by the practice of the business sector to encourage the arrival of metropolitan populations to these scenarios and install "life in nature" as a market niche. This internal mi-gratory trend, which originated approximately fifty years ago, has become more acute in the surge of the COviD-19 health crisis, raising local concerns about radical changes in land use. These changes result in a series of social and environmental problems that materialise a process that can be described as real estate extractivism.

How do metropolitan cities evolve after the 2008/2012 crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic? An analysis from real estate market values

Italian cities have been touched by two major events, the 2008 and 2012 crises and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The research aimed to verify whether, and in what way, Italian cities have embarked on a path of transformation, outlining their possible trajectories of change in the intervening decade. The cities considered were the metropolitan cities to which the legislature has assigned the role of territorial reference for areas of a regional nature. The research examined real estate market values for their ability to represent a city's degree of attractiveness in synthetic form. The other variables used made it possible to detect trends in the determinants of the real estate market: economic growth, demographic development and changes in the territorial capital endowment. Concerning the research objectives, cluster analysis appeared to be the most suitable tool to represent changes by aggregating cities according to common patterns. The survey considered the reactions of the different cities in the two five-year periods related to each exogenous shock and, overall, in the decade under review for a long-term reading of the trends. The conclusions reached by the survey show how, between 2012 and 2017, there was a concentration of wealth and population in the major centers and in particular in the city of Milan, characterized by rising property values against a generalized decline in the Italian market. In the second five-year period from 2017 to 2022, the pattern is reproduced with similar intensity, despite a vast debate on the crisis of large cities and their sustainability in the face of the pandemic. An overall ten-year view from 2012 to 2022 of metropolitan cities shows trends with a sufficiently solid and stable character. In the case of Milan, the expression of a clear-cut process of concentration on which the pandemic has had no effect, is counterbalanced by a second cluster of peripheral metropolitan cities that are suffering from processes that penalize their development prospects, while the third cluster of cities is distinguished by a profile that combines opportunities for growth and critical aspects in demographic and economic terms. © 2022, Dei Tipografia del Genio Civile. All rights reserved.

Health and Mobility in the Post-pandemic Scenario. An Analysis of the Adaptation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans in Key Contexts of Italy

The combination of concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic and structural problems relating to social injustice, climate change, and public health requires a radical reorganisation of transport structures, urban services, and the built fabric of metropolitan regions. This need is central to the pandemic era’s public debate: more significantly, it is reflected in the stimuli to metropolitan and urban policies aimed at adapting regional and mobility plans in order to realise a model of a smart, inclusive, sustainable, competitive and resilient city. The paper proposes a comparative content analysis to investigate the SUMPs adopted by the Italian metropolitan cities of Milan and Bologna, as well as their modification via the adoption of emergency plans and adaptation strategies for the post-pandemic scenario. The study’s purpose is to deduce a set of transferable guidelines. Based on earlier research, this study selects the Metropolitan City of Cagliari as a case study for implementing the set of guidelines derived from the comparative content analysis. The study significantly contributes to urban studies by investigating the transformation of concepts and criteria that underpin transport and mobility policies in the Italian context. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

COVID-19 and transportation of India: influence on infection risk and greenhouse gas emissions.

COVID-19 have significant impact on travel behaviour and greenhouse gases (GHG), especially for the most affected city in India, Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR). The present study attempts to explore the risk on different modes of transportation and GHG emissions (based on change in travel behavior) during peak/non-peak hours in a day by an online/offline survey for commuters in Indian metropolitan cities like MMR, Delhi and Bengaluru. In MMR, the probability of infection in car estimated to be 0.88 and 0.29 during peak and non-peak hour, respectively, considering all windows open. The risk of infection in public transportation system such as in bus (0.307), train (0.521), and metro (0.26) observed to be lower than in private vehicles. Furthermore, impact of COVID-19 on GHG emissions have also been explored considering three scenarios. The GHG emissions have been estimated for base (3.83-16.87 tonne), lockdown (0.22-0.48 tonne) and unlocking (2.13-9.30 tonne) scenarios. It has been observed that emissions are highest during base scenario and lowest during lockdown situation. This study will be a breakthrough in understanding the impact of pandemic on environment and transportation. The study shall help transport planners and decision makers to operate public transport during pandemic like situation such that the modal share of public transportation is always highest. It shall also help in regulating the GHG emissions causing climate change.

Social Network Analysis of COVID-19 Sentiments: 10 Metropolitan Cities in Italy.

The pandemic spread rapidly across Italy, putting the region's health system on the brink of collapse, and generating concern regarding the government's capacity to respond to the needs of patients considering isolation measures. This study developed a sentiment analysis using millions of Twitter data during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 metropolitan cities in Italy's (1) north: Milan, Venice, Turin, Bologna; (2) central: Florence, Rome; (3) south: Naples, Bari; and (4) islands: Palermo, Cagliari. Questions addressed are as follows: (1) How did tweet-related sentiments change over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) How did sentiments change when lagged with policy shifts and/or specific events? Findings show an assortment of differences and connections across Twitter sentiments (fear, anger, and joy) based on policy measures and geographies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results can be used by policy makers to quantify the satisfactory level of positive/negative acceptance of decision makers and identify important topics related to COVID-19 policy measures, which can be useful for imposing geographically varying lockdowns and protective measures using historical data.

A methodological proposal to assess and manage environmental-health risks in Italy

The recent pandemic has affected health and lifestyles, highlighting the vulnerability of cities and territories, such as the ecological-environmental and climate crisis, as a result of progressive urbanization-urban connections. The health emergency was governed in the absence of geographical-territorial references, often generalizing limitations and actions to contain the spread of the Sars- Cov2 virus. In this framework, a methodological policy approach is proposed for cities and territories, for multi-risk management (environment-health) in order to overcome the gap that the health emergency has further highlighted, both in the context of the completion of the reform of intermediate institutions in Italy and in the transitions in progress (energy, ecological and digital). Copyright © FrancoAngeli.

COVID-19 lockdown: a boon in boosting the air quality of major Indian Metropolitan Cities.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 lockdown has not only helped in combating the community transmission of SARS-CoV-2 but also improved air quality in a very emphatic manner in most of the countries. In India, the first phase of COVID-19 lockdown came into force on March 25, 2020, which was later continued in the next phases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the result of lockdown on air quality of major metropolitan cities-Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Lucknow-from March 25 to May 3, 2020. For this study, the concentration of six criteria air pollutants (PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, SO2, and O3) and air quality index during the COVID-19 lockdown period was compared with the same period of the previous year 2019. The results indicate a substantial improvement in air quality with a drastic decrease in the concentration of PM2.5, PM10, CO, and NO2, while there is a moderate reduction in SO2 and O3 concentration. During the lockdown period, the maximum reduction in the concentration of PM2.5, PM10, CO, NO2, SO2, and O3 was observed to be - 49% (Lucknow), - 57% (Delhi), - 75% (Mumbai), - 68% (Kolkata), - 48% (Mumbai), and - 29% (Hyderabad), respectively. The value of the air quality index (AQI) also dwindled significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The maximum decline in AQI was observed - 52% in Bengaluru and Lucknow. The order of AQI was satisfactory > moderate > good > poor and the frequency order of prominent pollutants was O3 > PM10 > PM2.5 > CO > NO2 > SO2 during the lockdown period in all the aforementioned metropolitan cities.