No abstract

Sri Lankans constitute one of Italy's oldest foreign communities. A comparative geographic study of Sri Lankans’ settlement patterns in three main municipalities of South Italy (Naples, Palermo, and Catania) is performed in the present work. The uniqueness of the analysis relies on the fact that, to the authors’ knowledge, no other existing studies comparatively examine the spatial segregation of Sri Lankan communities in different southern European municipalities. Moreover, implementing a single geographic reference grid allowed the homogenisation of different areal unit arrangements and the comparison between urban contexts. Original results have emerged from the empirical analysis, detecting peculiar and similar residential behaviour in Sri Lankans’ settlement patterns across the three municipalities analysed, jointly influenced by work specialisation and variations in the local cost of living. In particular, the high levels of Sri Lankan concentration detected in the wealthiest neighbourhoods revealed complex dynamics underlying the urban spatial segregation, beyond the mere centre-periphery dichotomy.

The study of geographic determinants in the processes of spreading infectious diseases has a long tradition. As a result of the increase in the incidence of chronic and non-infectious diseases, such as cancer and various types of heart disease, especially in the more advanced countries, the typical methods of spatial analysis have also been applied to these types of diseases. In fact, their heterogeneous aetiology often includes environmental risk factors that need to be investigated using geographic techniques. The object of this study is the possible influence of an environmental risk factor on the onset of thyroid cancer (TC): volcanic activity. Numerous studies conducted in different parts of the world show that in volcanic areas the incidence of this tumour is significantly higher than the national average. In the present work, we propose an exploratory study of the spatial distribution of TC in Eastern Sicily, where the Mt. Etna is located. Georeferencing the data provided by the Cancer Registry of Eastern Sicily, we will provide a visualization of the phenomenon through geographical maps, highlighting the areas with significantly higher incidence than expected. We will then apply the generalized Ripley’s K-function and the local Moran’s I to verify the presence of high-risk areas, taking into account both the proximity to the volcano and the non-homogeneous distribution of the population over the territory. Our results seem to confirm the consolidated opinion that the presence of a volcano can determine the increase in the incidence of TC.