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The present study provides a reflection on the agent-based intelligence of urban spatial environments through the comparison of a formal quantitative approach, i.e., space syntax, and a qualitative experimentation based on the spatial cognition approach. Until recently, space syntax was adopted by urban planners and designers to support urban design and planning decisions, based on an analysis of the urban physical environment. Researchers in the cognitive science field have increased their attempts to address space syntax techniques to better understand the relationships of cognitive spatial agents with the spatial features of urban environments. In this context, the experimental approach focuses on the qualities of the environment as interacted, perceived and interpreted by cognitive agents and reflects on the role which it plays in affecting spatial decisions and route choices. The present paper aimed to explore the extent to which possible integration between the different approaches can provide insights on agent-based decisions in actions and behavioural processes in space for useful perspectives in urban analysis and planning. Findings suggest relevant correlations between the experimentation results and space syntax predictions when a correspondence of some aspects can be found. Conversely, interesting qualitative insights from the spatial cognition approach are pointed out to enrich the configurational analysis. The potential and constraints of each approach and the ways of combining these are presented. Evidence supports the suitability of the proposal outlined in the present paper within the framework of urban planning practice.

In a modern pandemic outbreak, where collective threats require global strategies and local operational defence applications, data-driven solutions for infection tracing and forecasting epidemic trends are crucial to achieve sustainable and socially resilient cities. Indeed, the need for monitoring, containing, and mitigating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has generated a great deal of interest in Digital Proximity Tracing Technology (DPTT) on smartphones, as well as their function and effectiveness and insights of population acceptance. This paper introduces and compares different Data-Driven Epidemic Intelligence Strategies (DDEIS) developed on DPTTs. It aims to clarify to what extent DDEIS could be effective and both technologically and socially suitable in reaching the objective of a swift return to normality for cities, guaranteeing public health safety and minimizing the risk of epidemic resurgence. It assesses key advantages and limits in supporting both individual decision-making and policy-making, considering the role of human behaviour. Specifically, an online survey carried out in Italy revealed user preferences for DPTTs and provided preliminary data for an SEIR (Susceptible–Exposed–Infectious–Recovered) epidemiological model. This was developed to evaluate the impact of DDEIS on COVID-19 spread dynamics, and results are presented together with an evaluation of potential drawbacks.

Optimization of acid digestion method for mercury determination in marine biological samples (dolphin liver, fish and mussel tissues) using a closed vessel microwave sample preparation is presented. Five digestion procedures with different acid mixtures were investigated: the best results were obtained when the microwave-assisted digestion was based on sample dissolution with HNO3-H2SO4-K2Cr2O7 mixture. A comparison between microwave digestion and conventional reflux digestion shows there are considerable losses of mercury in the open digestion system. The microwave digestion method has been tested satisfactorily using two certified reference materials. Analytical results show a good agreement with certified values. The microwave digestion proved to be a reliable and rapid method for decomposition of biological samples in mercury determination.

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<p>The effects of flooding on urban environment and social vulnerability are challenging issues in flood risk management and long-term planning. Flood risk is among the main causes of social crisis, as it can drastically affect the socioeconomic status of a community and an increase in flood events can significantly inhibit the political system of land and emergency management, social security, human welfare, and the economy.</p><p>In recent decades, several studies have illustrated how the probability of occurrence of a flood event can be modified by human-dependent factors, such as, among others, climate and land-use changes. </p><p>For this reason, flood risk management policies are evolving to redirect the actions of policymakers from purely physical defensive measures toward integrated management and planning strategies, placing greater emphasis on the complexity of the interaction between social and physical processes.</p><p>The complexity of physical processes lies in the wide variety of underlying phenomena that produce different types of flooding, while that of social processes can be reconducted to their characterization, given by human-related factors such as risk perception, emotions, bonds, context, and behaviors. Structuring the complexity of these two systems could support flood risk to define the elements/classes of citizens that make a social system vulnerable.</p><p>Based on these premises, the present work aims in modelling the relationship between flood risk and community, starting from an analysis of social perception and knowledge of protective measures, and exploiting a methodology based on an online survey used to collect data, and on Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests used for their analysis.</p><p>The methodology was experimentally applied to the city of Brindisi (Puglia region, Southern Italy), which is potentially subject to floods of different nature, as fluvial, coastal and pluvial floods and dam overflows.</p><p>The results suggest that perceptions of flood risk depend on intrinsic components of individuals, primarily related to dimensions of perception such as trust in public strategies and risk communication. Slightly higher perception emerged for those living in risk areas, but the results of the remainder show that there is a non-negligible perception even where there is apparently no source of risk. This is reflected in the varying nature of the flooding that has affected the city. The presence of disabled persons in the household does not act in any way neither in the perception nor in the knowledge of the measures; the previous experience seems to have little weight in reference to the perception and almost null on the knowledge of the measures. This element is probably linked to the temporal distance from the last event that caused serious damage to the community. Knowledge of protective measures appears to be uniformly low for each category of citizens and territorial area, in particular for adolescents, a recurring category also on other investigated dimensions.</p><p>This work represents the first step for the development of a multi-agent model, as developed by the science of intelligent systems, able to analyze more deeply the relationships between natural and social systems and to bring out elements to support flood risk management.</p>

<p>Increased availability of social media and crowdsourced data is becoming a precious source of information in Disaster Risk Management, heralding a new era where the policy makers adapt their strategies to the potential of these new technologies.  This is also happening in the field of Flood Risk Management, where the aid of new technologies can provide important support for disaster risk reduction. On the one hand, they play an important role in the collection, monitoring and data analysis of physical flood processes. On the other hand, they foster the involvement of citizens threatened by the flood risk situation, creating shared knowledge and collaboration and becoming tools to educate and empower citizens' behavior, increasing community resilience.</p><p>Evidence shows that community response to flood risk is associated with the social context in which a specific flood occurs. A wide range of sociodemographic characteristics, but also the psychological factor of risk perception, have been identified as factors influencing citizens’ response, contributing in increasing or decreasing the effects of flooding on the environment.</p><p>In this study a coupled approach that combine Crowdsourced retrieved data and information from newspaper media is proposed and applied to the urban territory of the city of Brindisi (southern Italy), subject to multiple sources of flood risk, in order to demonstrate potential advantages arising from the implementation of such built analysis.</p><p>Crowdsourcing data based on e-survey allowed the collection of social flood data in order to explore how citizens living in the urban area of Brindisi perceive flood risk and assess their preparedness for protective measures. Specifically, the degree of citizen risk perception has been investigated through factors influencing risk perception subdivided into three categories: world view, media influence and social value and trust; the degree of citizens’ preparedness knowledge has been investigated asking citizens to select the recognized Flood Protection Strategies from the set of alternatives in the Civil Protection Behavioral Guide.</p><p>Integration of available data about previous floods with a newspaper-based research of historical floods allowed to detect a tendence of Brindisi urban territory to be subject to floods that can be reconducted mainly to pluvial and fluvial type. Journal reports provided precious details not only on affected streets and neighborhoods, but also on type and dynamics of damages. Results of surveys showed how this flood phenomenology is perceived by population, providing an important integration of the information available from current flood maps. Measurement of emergency measures knowledge revealed to be an effective source of information for an a priori modelling of reliable flooding scenarios.Results emerging from proposed approach can constitute a precious support for emergency managers and local Authorities, because of its ability in capture heterogeneities in flood phenomenology and population preparedness. Emergency planning phase can be therefore enriched with elements that contribute to the definition of risk potential situations and therefore make the response and recovery phase more effective.</p>