Smart management of urban built environment relies on the availability of data supporting sound policy making and guiding city renovation processes toward more sustainable and performant models. Nevertheless, public managers are unlikely to have comprehensive information on the existing building stock. In addition, tools providing effective insights on potential costs and benefits of retrofit strategies at city/district scale are hardly available. This article describes how data related to existing buildings may be effectively combined together into a so-called Building Information System, and discusses the advantages and shortcomings related to this process. At the same time, the implementation on a real case study in northern Italy demonstrates how the effort due to data harmonization and integration is able to foster applications to support policy makers in the management of the built environment and in the definition of urban sustainability strategies. Building data were harmonized according to the requirements of the international open standard CityGML, therefore facilitating the exchange of building information. The whole project was carried out while considering the characteristics of data sources that are available for each public body in Italy and, as a consequence, it may be replicated to other Italian municipalities.

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ABSTRACT:The availability of integrated information on buildings is the premise for an effective assets management and the provision of innovative services to buildings users: such form of knowledge relies on the efficient exploitation of existing data, providing a complete overview on the state of buildings, and on the acquisition of real-time data flows, coming from sensor and mobile devices, reporting users behaviours. If, on the one hand, technology is progressively enabling the management of new huge streams of data, on the other hand the interconnection among traditional and well rooted datasets, the majority of which in charge of public administrations, is not always guaranteed. While, at European level, interoperability issues among public archives concerning buildings were properly addressed, and the relevance of geo-information is widely recognized, in Italy this process is still taking time to be undertaken. This paper discuss the current state of Building Information in Italy, outlining a possible path for the creation of a georeferenced Building Information System at municipal level, starting from the informative heritage available in existing databases, generated with different purposes and maintained by independent authorities: the idea is to solicit that digitalization process, started a decade ago with the "Digital Administration Code", through the proposition of real use cases that might be implemented once that public data on buildings are profitably combined together.

This research aims to extend the existing knowledge on air quality improvement by the arboreal–shrub heritage. The PM accumulation (PM10–100, PM2.5–10, and PM0.2–2.5 (µg·cm−2)) was measured with consolidated gravimetric techniques during spring, summer, and fall for 2160 leaf samples belonging to the basal, median, and apical part of the crown of 17 species located in the streets and parks of 2 European cities (Rimini and Krakow). On the same samples, the deposition (PM10 and PM2.5 (µg·cm−2·day−1)) was evaluated according to a model based on the wash-off rain effect. Quercus ilex accumulated more PMx than the other species in Rimini, while in Krakow, the highest accumulators were Pinus nigra for PM10–100, Tilia cordata for PM2.5–10, and Populus nigra for PM0.2–2.5. Only in Krakow was the capture capacity of some species affected by the street or park growing condition. The basal leaves showed greater PM10–100 accumulation than the median and apical ones. In Rimini, the total PM accumulation tended to increase throughout the year, while in Krakow, the opposite occurred. However, as the accumulation increased, the deposition decreased. The PM accumulation was reduced by rainfall and enhanced by the air PM concentration, while the wind speed effect was opposite, depending on the city. These findings are useful for directing decision makers in the design of greener, healthier, and sustainable cities.

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