Human influence over 150 years of coastal evolution in the Volturno delta system (southern Italy)

This paper focused on the past shoreline change rates along the coastal plain of the Volturno River, in southern Italy, western Mediterranean. A wide database comprising historical maps, aerial photographs, topographic sheets, bathymetric data was used to extract the spatial and temporal information of the coastlines at seven time points. Coastline displacement was calculated for two successive time points and relative surface variation (accretion and erosion) was estimated as well as minimum and maximum accretion/erosion linear values and rates. The surface variation analysis has revealed that the studied coast can be considered homogeneous since the 1970s, whereas it exhibits a variety of shoreline evolutionary trends after that time period. Timing and causes of trends and rates of variation were detected. Based on the estimated shoreline change rates, an appropriate morhodynamic one-line model was applied to predict evolutionary scenarios also in presence of port and defence works. The results obtained strongly emphasize that a successful coastal management requires a constant monitoring of the human-induced changes to account for the variability of rates over time.     

Modeling the emissions of a dual fuel engine coupled with a biomass gasifier—supplementing the Wiebe function

There is a growing market demand for small-scale biomass gasifiers that is driven by the economic incentives and the legislative framework. Small-scale gasifiers produce a gaseous fuel, commonly referred to as producer gas, with relatively low heating value. Thus, the most common energy conversion systems that are coupled with small-scale gasifiers are internal combustion engines. In order to increase the electrical efficiency, the operators choose dual fuel engines and mix the producer gas with diesel. The Wiebe function has been a valuable tool for assessing the efficiency of dual fuel internal combustion engines. This study introduces a thermodynamic model that works in parallel with the Wiebe function and calculates the emissions of the engines. This “vis-à-vis” approach takes into consideration the actual conditions inside the cylinders—as they are returned by the Wiebe function—and calculates the final thermodynamic equilibrium of the flue gases mixture. This approach aims to enhance the operation of the dual fuel internal combustion engines by identifying the optimal operating conditions and—at the same time—advance pollution control and minimize the environmental impact.     

A design for EoL approach and metrics to favour closed-loop scenarios for products

Recently, environmentally conscious design and extended producer responsibility have become key aspects for companies that need to develop products that are sustainable along their whole life cycle. Design for End of Life (EoL) is a strategy that aims to reduce landfill waste through the implementation of closed-loop product life cycles. It is important to consider disassembly and EoL scenario management as early as the design phase. For these reasons, this paper presents an approach to help designers in the evaluation and subsequent improvement in product EoL performance. The method is based on four innovative EoL indices that compare different EoL scenarios for each product component. In this way, the designer can modify the product structure or the liaisons to maximise the reuse and remanufacture of components as well as material recycling. The presented case studies confirm the validity of the approach in helping designers during the redesign phase of goods and products to reduce the quantity of materials and industrial wastes sent to landfill.     

Toward quantification of the impact of 21st‐century deforestation on the extinction risk of terrestrial vertebrates

Conservation actions need to be prioritized, often taking into account species’ extinction risk. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List provides an accepted, objective framework for the assessment of extinction risk. Assessments based on data collected in the field are the best option, but the field data to base these on are often limited. Information collected through remote sensing can be used in place of field data to inform assessments. Forests are perhaps the best‐studied land‐cover type for use of remote‐sensing data. Using an open‐access 30‐m resolution map of tree cover and its change between 2000 and 2012, we assessed the extent of forest cover and loss within the distributions of 11,186 forest‐dependent amphibians, birds, and mammals worldwide. For 16 species, forest loss resulted in an elevated extinction risk under red‐list criterion A, owing to inferred rapid population declines. This number increased to 23 when data‐deficient species (i.e., those with insufficient information for evaluation) were included. Under red‐list criterion B2, 484 species (855 when data‐deficient species were included) were considered at elevated extinction risk, owing to restricted areas of occupancy resulting from little forest cover remaining within their ranges. The proportion of species of conservation concern would increase by 32.8% for amphibians, 15.1% for birds, and 24.7% for mammals if our suggested uplistings are accepted. Central America, the Northern Andes, Madagascar, the Eastern Arc forests in Africa, and the islands of Southeast Asia are hotspots for these species. Our results illustrate the utility of satellite imagery for global extinction‐risk assessment and measurement of progress toward international environmental agreement targets.     

Inventory routing for dynamic waste collection

We consider the problem of collecting waste from sensor equipped underground containers. These sensors enable the use of a dynamic collection policy. The problem, which is known as a reverse inventory routing problem, involves decisions regarding routing and container selection. In more dense networks, the latter becomes more important. To cope with uncertainty in deposit volumes and with fluctuations due to daily and seasonal effects, we need an anticipatory policy that balances the workload over time. We propose a relatively simple heuristic consisting of several tunable parameters depending on the day of the week. We tune the parameters of this policy using optimal learning techniques combined with simulation. We illustrate our approach using a real life problem instance of a waste collection company, located in The Netherlands, and perform experiments on several other instances. For our case study, we show that costs savings up to 40% are possible by optimizing the parameters.     

Pastoralists' responses to variation of rangeland resources in time and space.

We explore the response of pastoralists to rangeland resource variation in time and space, focusing on regions where high variation makes it unlikely that an economically viable herd can be maintained on a single management unit. In such regions, the need to move stock to find forage in at least some years has led to the evolution of nomadism and transhumance, and reciprocal grazing agreements among the holders of common-property rangeland. The role of such informal institutions in buffering resource variation is well documented in some Asian and African rangelands, but in societies with formally established private-property regimes, where we focus, such institutions have received little attention. We examine agistment networks, which play an important role in buffering resource variation in modern-day Australia. Agistment is a commercial arrangement between pastoralists who have less forage than they believe they require and pastoralists who believe they have more. Agistment facilitates the movement of livestock via a network based largely on trust. We are concerned exclusively with the link between the characteristics of biophysical variation and human aspects of agistment networks, and we developed a model to test the hypothesis that such a link could exist. Our model builds on game theory literature, which explains cooperation between strangers based on the ability of players to learn whom they can trust. Our game is played on a highly stylized landscape that allows us to control and isolate the degree of spatial variation and spatial covariation. We found that agistment networks are more effective where spatial variation in resource availability is high, and generally more effective when spatial covariation is low. Policy design that seeks to work with existing social networks in rangelands has potential, but this potential varies depending on localized characteristics of the biophysical variability.     

Could the predation risk hypothesis explain large-scale spatial sexual segregation in fallow deer (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Dama dama</Emphasis>)?

Large-scale spatial segregation was assessed by means of radio-telemetry in 48 fallow deer studied for 4 years. Three hypotheses have traditionally been used to explain sexual segregation: (1) the predation risk hypothesis, (2) the forage selection hypothesis, (3) the activity budget hypothesis. The first of these seems to be a valid explanation of large-scale segregation in fallow deer at San Rossore, where the use by the two sexes of areas characterized by intense anthropic disturbance, during the day, was compared with other areas not affected by human pressure. Males showed a high use of disturbed areas, both during the day and the night, with the exception of the rutting period, when they reached more remote areas to mate. Females frequented disturbed areas only during the night, with the exception of the birth period, when sexual segregation peaked because females never used these areas, not even during the night. The forage selection hypothesis was invalid on a large scale, considering that no differences between the degree of day and night sexual segregation were to be expected. However, the predation risk hypothesis seems not to be a valid explanation of small-scale sexual segregation, when further subdivisions of disturbed areas are considered, because sexes proved to be segregated also during the night in the area they both used. This emphasizes both the importance of scale in understanding ecological processes, since a combination of many different factors may be responsible for the evolution of sexual segregation in ungulates, and the importance of human pressure in influencing deer behaviour.Communicated by T. Czeschlik     

Home range and social behavior of three species of European Pitymys (Mammalia,Rodentia)

Summary Habits, home range, and social behavior of three species of voles of the genus Pitymys, P. multiplex, P. subterraneus, and P. savii, were studied in Tessin (Switzerland) by radioactive tagging. P. multiplex and P. savii are fossorial and often use the burrow systems of moles (Talpa); P. subterraneus moves around on the surface under dense vegetation. Males and females of P. multiplex were territorial and their home ranges averaged 342 and 229 m² respectively. The mating system appeared to be monogamous. P. savii male and female home ranges averaged 445 and 298 m² respectively. Groups of up to one to three adult females, one or more adult males, and several young, occupied exclusive communal territories. The mating system appeared to be flexible, including monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry. P. subterraneus females occupied exclusive territories (mean 256 m²) overlapped by the home ranges of one or more males (1025 m²). The mating system appeared to be promiscuous. Individuals of the three species occupied one to seven nests. In P. savii all family members utilized three or more communal nests at the same time or alternatively. Co-nesting between males and females of P. multiplex or P. subterraneus were observed less frequently.