Interest towards urban micromobility has been growing lately, and it will now increase further due to the measures used against COVID-19. It is recommended to avoid close contact to prevent contagion. Municipalities have been called to implement wider cycling networks so that people may go to their work place by cycling rather than by using public transport. This paper focused on cycling path design using an infrastructure-building information model (I-BIM). The issue covered was how to connect cost and safety requirements in the first steps of the project. We set a methodology that gives, after identifying the intervention area and defining the available economic resources, the key elements needed to design possible cycle path solutions. It guides the designer step-by-step, starting from basic assumptions related to a cycle path’s location (urban/non-urban), budget (by range), and safety (according to Bicycle Compatibility Index BCI and Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS) index), up to the definition of preferred options in terms of materials to be selected. As a case study, we implemented this methodology in the old city center of Catania in Sicily (Italy), designing a cycle path that connects the city center with the existing cycle path on the coast, while aligning with safety requirements within budget constraints.

The European Union is committed to enforce limitations to water pollution through specific directives (UWWTD 91/271/EEC). The delay of some EU member states in transposing these directives has had an impact on the quality of the wastewater treatment system. Therefore, it is necessary to intervene with adjustment procedures and construction of new plants. The aim of the study is to carry out an economic feasibility assessment for the construction costs of an urban wastewater treatment plant of medium-low capacity (<50,000 Population Equivalent or pe) according to a simplified process diagram, and help in the planning of new investments. We propose a methodology based on cost functions according to two different procedures: synthetic estimate of the costs for civil works and a multiple linear regression for the cost of the electromechanical equipment. These functions show a correlation between the construction costs and the population equivalent and enable us to understand it. The results show greater economic benefit in increasing wastewater treatment plants sizes serving a population equivalent of 5000 pe to 10,000 pe, while further increases are less beneficial.

The aim of this paper, in line with the 2030 European Agenda and 2021 Italian “Recovery and Resilience Plan” objectives, is to define an evaluation methodology and tool to support public administrations to detect buildings, currently unused or underused, that might be apt for transformation interventions. The focus is on historical Italian healthcare buildings since these show widespread decay and neglect. A five-step methodology has been developed: screening of public assets; classification, evaluation, and identification of buildings, based on the “potential index”; GIS mapping and inventory; selection of buildings for in-depth analysis; BIM digitization and definition of the “transformability index”. In the fifth phase, an evaluation tool is integrated into the BIM software to automatically calculate the transformability index of each building using six indicators: usability, fragmentation, modifiability, roof implementation, external envelope, and window-to-wall ratio. The “transformability index” helps define the most appropriate buildings to intervene with for reuse. Building transformation is connected to construction features and layout organization and it is limited by architectural, structural, and artistic constraints.

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