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This paper aims to report strategies towards a green campus project at Politecnico di Torino University, a 33,000-students Italian higher education institution (HEI), and estimate the avoided ecological footprint (EF) of different scenarios accounted for open spaces.

A consumption-based study has been developed to analyse the current EF of the main campus site. Data were collected from different departments and administrative units to identify the measure of the pressure exerted by the campus activities on the ecosystem. Then, possible scenarios were accounted for open spaces along five different design layers: energy, water, landscape, food and mobility. Acting on the spaces by means of biophilic design and user-driven design requires complex considerations on university’s anticipated future needs and a wide-ranging evaluation of the most appropriate pathways forward according to all university stakeholders, far beyond the mere accounting of avoided EF.

A reduction of the 21 per cent of the current EF can be achieved through the solutions envisaged in the green campus project along the open space layers. Moreover, universities have the opportunity to not only improve the sustainability of their facilities but also demonstrate how the built environment can be designed to benefit both the environment and the occupants.

The acknowledgement of predicted behavioural change effects is a question left open to further researchers on methods and indicators for social impact accounting and reporting in truly sustainable university campuses.

This is the first research that estimates the EF of an Italian HEI. The research represents also an innovative approach integrating the EF reduction scenarios in the design process of the new masterplan of open spaces, trying to identify the connection between environmental impact reduction and improvement in users’ perception.

The study, within the Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage (ResCult) project, aims to support civil protection to prevent, lessen and mitigate disasters impacts on cultural heritage using a unique standardised-3D geographical information system (GIS), including both heritage and risk and hazard information.

A top-down approach, starting from existing standards (an INSPIRE extension integrated with other parts from the standardised and shared structure), was completed with a bottom-up integration according to current requirements for disaster prevention procedures and risk analyses. The results were validated and tested in case studies (differentiated concerning the hazard and type of protected heritage) and refined during user forums.

Besides the ensuing reusable database structure, the filling with case studies data underlined the tough challenges and allowed proposing a sample of workflows and possible guidelines. The interfaces are provided to use the obtained knowledge base.

The increasing number of natural disasters could severely damage the cultural heritage, causing permanent damage to movable and immovable assets and tangible and intangible heritage. The study provides an original tool properly relating the (spatial) information regarding cultural heritage and the risk factors in a unique archive as a standard-based European tool to cope with these frequent losses, preventing risk.

Decision making at local planning level is usually concerned with evaluation of alternatives and selection of a preferred action. This can be improved with the use of multicriteria (MCA) methods which provide a systematic process for trading off effects of various alternative, synthesizing, individual contributions. This paper illustrates three MCA methods for evaluating complex planning projects where multiple criteria are taken into account. These methods are applied to an example of urban regeneration. Subjective issues, such as those related to the perception of quality of life, are taken into account alongside more quantitative data. The results obtained using the three methods are considered when applied to three alternative design solutions.

In strategic planning and management of environmental resources, traditional multicriteria analysis is usually adopted for evaluating alternative development scenarios against a set of criteria. However, the modeling of the problem is often inadequate for representing the complexity which characterizes the decision. To overcome this problem, this paper aims to suggest the application of an advanced version of the analytic hierarchy process: the analytic network process (ANP).

The ANP is the first mathematical approach that makes it possible to systematically deal with all kinds of dependencies and feedback among elements. It requires the identification of a network of clusters and nodes, as well as pair‐wise comparison to establish relations within the network elements. The number of comparisons is dependent on the number of interrelations among the elements.

The method is applied to the Strategic Management Plan of the River Po Basin in Italy. The result obtained is a surprising ranking which places major weight on the cultural heritage and landscape rather than on traditional environmental categories, such as land and water. This result reflects the recent River Po Basin Authority strategy to institute an integrated and coordinated policy action in the field.

The proposed approach has improved the integration of the strategic evaluation in the decision‐making process within the management of territorial development policies, thanks to a better representation of the interrelations among issues within the decision model.

Policy makers are frequently challenged by the need to achieve sustainable development in cities and regions. Current decision-making processes are based on evaluation support systems which are unable to tackle the problem as they cannot take a holistic approach or a full account of actors. The purpose of this paper is to present a new generation of evaluation systems to support decision making in planning and regeneration processes which involve expert participation. These systems ensure network representation of the issues involved and visualization of multiple scenarios.

A literature review is used for both revising existing evaluation tools in urban planning and the built environment and highlighting the need to give stakeholders (industry, cities, operators, etc.) new tools for collaborative or individual decisions and to facilitate scaling up solutions. An overview of the new generation of decision support systems, named Multicriteria Spatial Decision Support Systems (MC-SDSS) is provided and real case studies are analyzed to show their ability to tackle the problem.

Recent research findings highlight that decisions in urban planning should be supported by collaborative and inclusive processes. Otherwise, they will fail. The case studies illustrated in this study highlight the usefulness of MC-SDSS for the successful resolution of complex problems, thanks to the visualization facilities and a network representation of the scenarios.

The case studies are limited to the Italian context.

These SDSS are able to empower planners and decision makers to better understand the interaction between city design, social preferences, economic issues and policy incentives. Therefore, they have been employed in several case studies related to territorial planning and regeneration processes.

This study provides three case studies and a review of the new MC-SDSS methodology which involve the Analytic Network Process technique to support decision-making in urban and regional planning.

Public housing in Hong Kong plays an essential role in accommodation supply to people of low income. Access to social resources and rent levels of nearby private residential housing are two critical issues impacting the well-being of residents living in public housing estates. However, previous research has rarely focused on the spatial distribution of public housing estates through exploring these two critical issues. On the other hand, Hong Kong is currently experiencing an urban renewal process. It would be beneficial to consider these critical issues for spatial allocation of public housing in urban renewal decision making. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these two critical issues in relation to the spatial distribution of public housing estates in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Seven spatial variables were selected to reflect these critical issues. Spatial analysis in Geographic Information System was conducted to process the data required. Multiple logistic regression was employed to analyse the relationships between the spatial location of public housing estates and the seven selected variables.

Based on the analysis results, several problems as well as geographical advantages of the current location of public housing estates were discovered, which can be valuable references for decision making by government authorities for public housing development in the future.

This research is a pilot study on the spatial distribution of public housing estates and the critical influencing factors in Hong Kong, undertaken by applying both spatial analysis and statistical methods. It can help relevant decision makers deal with current problems of public housing location and make informed decisions on where to locate new housing projects in an urban renewal process, which can increase the equal distribution of social resources and improve the well-being of people living in public housing.

The purpose of this paper is to utilise commodification for the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage in cities by developing interpretative strategies, specifically enabling access to intangible cultural heritage through its tangible parts.

In total, three case studies were conducted in the cities of Amsterdam, Genoa and Leipzig, through a workshop cycle with destination and local tourism stakeholders and citizen representatives, to develop interpretative strategies for the cities.

The paper identifies tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the three cities, and integrates them into stories and outlines the development of an interpretative strategy for destinations independent from, but aligned with, the current marketing and positioning strategy development level.

Future research should examine the integration process of interpretative strategies and heritage interpretation of cultural heritage in marketing strategies, and in particular focus on the intangible aspects.

The article integrates and highlights the value of intangible cultural heritage and interpretation of cultural heritage in general for marketing purposes through the development of an interpretative strategy improving access to destinations' cultural heritage supporting destination management. The article adds to the research discussion of the commodification of cultural heritage.

Gives reports and surveys of selected current research and developments in systems and cybernetics. They include: A calculus of ethics for a systemic world, Biocybernetics, Neuroscience, Neural technology, Computational model for chocolate, Safety‐critical systems (SCSs), Scientific and technical information from Russia, Cybernetics and systems control, Automation and cybernetics, UK science research.

The Italian government addressed the first wave of its COVID-19 outbreak with a series of social restrictions and calculative practices, all branded with the slogan #istayathome. The hashtag quickly went viral, becoming both a mandate and a mantra and, as the crisis played out, we witnessed the rise of the Italian social movement #istayathome. This study examines how the government's calculative practices led to #istayathome and the constituents that shaped this social movement.

The authors embrace social movement theory and the collective identity perspective to examine #istayathome as a collective action and social movement. Using passive netnography, text mining and interpretative text analysis enhanced by machine learning, the authors analysed just over 350,000 tweets made during the period March to May 2020, each brandishing the hashtag #istayathome.

The #istayathome movement gained traction as a response to the Italian government's call for collective action. Thus, people became an active part of mobilising collective responsibility, enhancing the government's plans. A collective identity on the part of the Italian people sustained the mass mobilisation, driven by cohesion, solidarity and a deep cultural trauma from COVID-19's dramatic effects. Popular culture and Italy's long traditions also helped to form the collective identity of #istayathome. This study found that calculative practices acted as a persuasive technology in forming this collective identity and mobilising people's collective action. Numbers stimulated the cognitive, moral and emotional connections of the social ties shaping collective identity and responsibility. Thus, through collective identity, calculative practices indirectly influenced mass social behaviors and the social movement.

This study offers a novel theoretical perspective and empirical knowledge to explain how government power affects people's culture and everyday life. It unveils the sociological drivers that mobilise collective behaviors and enriches the accounting literature on the effects of calculative practices in managing emergencies. The study contributes to theory by providing an understanding of how calculative practices can influence collective behaviors and can be used to construct informal networks that go beyond the government's traditional formalities.