Italy

Italy (Italia iˈtaːlja), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern and Western Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, it consists of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and surrounded by several islands. Italy shares land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. It has a territorial exclave in Switzerland, Campione, and some islands in the African Plate. Italy covers an area of , with a population of about 60 million; it is the third-most populous member state of the European Union, the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the tenth-largest country in the continent by land area. Its capital and largest city is Rome. The Italian peninsula was historically the native place of numerous ancient peoples and destination of a myriad of different peoples and cultures who immigrated throughout history. The ancient Roman state arose in Latium, and expanded throug

A global model study of ozone enhancement during the August 2003 heat wave in Europe

The European summer of 2003 was characterised by intense heat, prolonged isolation and suppressed ventilation of the boundary layer which, combined with large anthropogenic emissions and strong fires, resulted in a build up of an unprecedentedly high and long-lasting photochemical smog over large parts of the continent. In this work, a global chemistry and transport model GEOS-Chern is compared with surface O-3 concentrations observed in 2003 in order to examine the extent to which the model is capable of reproducing such an extreme event. The GEOS-Chem reproduces the temporal variation of O-3 at the Jungfraujoch mountain site, Switzerland, including the enhanced concentrations associated with the August 2003 heat wave (r = 0.84). The spatial distribution of the enhanced surface O-3 over Spain, France, Germany and Italy is also captured to some extent (r = 0.63), although the largest concentrations appear to be located over the Italian Peninsula in the model rather than over Central Europe as suggested by the surface O-3 observations. In general, the observed differences between the European averaged O-3 concentrations in the summer of 2003 to those in 2004 are larger in the observations than in the model, as the model reproduces relatively well the enhanced levels in 2003 but overestimates those observed in 2004. Preliminary contributions of various sources to the O-3 surface concentrations over Europe during the heat wave indicate that anthropogenic emissions from Europe contribute the most to the O-3 build up near the surface (40 to 50%, i.e. 30 ppb). The contribution from anthropogenic emissions from the other major source regions of the northern hemisphere, in particular North America, tends to be smaller than those of other years. The model indicates that the large fires that occurred in that year contributed up to 5% (3 ppb) to surface O-3 in close proximity to the fire regions and less elsewhere in Europe. Biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by grass and forest areas contributed up to 10% (5-6 ppb) of surface O-3 over France, Germany and northern Italy, which represents a contribution that is twice as large than that found in 2004. These results in terms of contributions from various sources, particularly biogenic emissions, should be seen as preliminary, as the response of vegetation to such extreme events may not be well represented in the model.

2007

Le processus de projet dans la reconstruction urbaine suite à une catastrophe

Julien Grisel

This study analyzes three project process for the reconstruction of urban areas destroyed by natural disaster or armed conflict: the village of Gondo in Switzerland, partially destroyed by a landslide, has been refurbished following an architectural competition; the city of Gibellina in Sicily, devastated by an earthquake, was rebuilt on another site by the Italian state; the Palestinian camp of Nahr el-Bared camp in Lebanon destroyed by the Lebanese army, is about to be rebuilt on the basis of a plan developed with the participation of residents. It appears that if the "users" are not active in the planning process it is likely to be inappropriate to their needs and therefore be rejected. Further more, it can be noticed that planners rarely have the means and knowledge necessary for such collaboration. This paper describes the nature of cultural reconstruction project by supporting that it must consider the relationship that people have with the place to rebuild. It addresses two major aspects of this relationship: memory and risk management. The first correspond to the need for commemoration and refers to the place as an identity component of the community. The second requires that we consider the risk as a social construction. We can then integrate risk management, taking into account the cultural dimension, in the reconstruction project to improve the resilience of the community. This research lead to the idea that these aspects can be incorporated into the planning process by using a mind map, that is to say a redrawing on the basis of memory of the place as it was before the disaster. This tool can allow the coproduction of the reconstruction project.

EPFL2010

A global model study of ozone enhancement during the August 2003 heat wave in Europe

2007

A global model study of ozone enhancement during the August 2003 heat wave in Europe

Recherche d'une méthode d'analyse de la production vernaculaire actuelle qui prend en compte l'architecture traditionnelle d'essence régionale. Eléments de composition du village suisse de l'exposition nationale de 1981

Le processus de projet dans la reconstruction urbaine suite à une catastrophe

A global model study of ozone enhancement during the August 2003 heat wave in Europe

Le processus de projet dans la reconstruction urbaine suite à une catastrophe

Recherche d'une méthode d'analyse de la production vernaculaire actuelle qui prend en compte l'architecture traditionnelle d'essence régionale. Eléments de composition du village suisse de l'exposition nationale de 1981