Reaction of RNHC(S)PPh2NPPh2C(S)NR (HRSNS; R = Me, Et) with M(I) (M = Cu, Ag, Au) salts afforded zwitterionic complexes of the general formula [M(RSNS)] (M = Cu, Ag, Au). The ligand was found in the solid state in S,S-kappa2 and S,N,S-kappa3 coordination fashions. [Cu(RSNS)] and [Ag(RSNS)] can be used as metalloligand building blocks for the assembly of pentanuclear multizwitterionic Cu5, Cu3Ag2 and Ag5 core clusters of the general formula [M'2{M(RSNS)}3]2+ (M = Cu, M' = Cu, Ag; M = M' = Ag) upon reaction with suitable M' salts. The crystal structures of the most significant compounds are reported herein. Compound [Ag2{Ag(RSNS)}2(OTf)2] was also isolated and structurally characterized, representing a model for the intermediate species of the aforementioned assembly.

Densely urbanized areas, with a low percentage of green vegetation, are highly exposed to Heat Waves (HW) which nowadays are increasing in terms of frequency and intensity also in the middle-latitude regions, due to ongoing Climate Change (CC). Their negative effects may combine with those of the UHI (Urban Heat Island), a local phenomenon where air temperatures in the compact built up cores of towns increase more than those in the surrounding rural areas, with significant impact on the quality of urban environment, on citizens health and energy consumption and transport, as it has occurred in the summer of 2003 on France and Italian central-northern areas. In this context this work aims at designing and developing a methodology based on aero-spatial remote sensing (EO) at medium-high resolution and most recent GIS techniques, for the extensive characterization of the urban fabric response to these climatic impacts related to the temperature within the general framework of supporting local and national strategies and policies of adaptation to CC. Due to its extension and variety of built-up typologies, the municipality of Rome was selected as test area for the methodology development and validation. First of all, we started by operating through photointerpretation of cartography at detailed scale (CTR 1: 5000) on a reference area consisting of a transect of about 5x20 km, extending from the downtown to the suburbs and including all the built-up classes of interest. The reference built-up vulnerability classes found inside the transect were then exploited as training areas to classify the entire territory of Rome municipality. To this end, the satellite EO HR (High Resolution) multispectral data, provided by the Landsat sensors were used within a on purpose developed "supervised" classification procedure, based on data mining and "object-classification" techniques. The classification results were then exploited for implementing a calibration method, based on a typical UHI temperature distribution, derived from MODIS satellite sensor LST (Land Surface Temperature) data of the summer 2003, to obtain an analytical expression of the vulnerability model, previously introduced on a semi-empirical basis.

We studied the structure of the 15-minute city by measuring the distances from the services on spatial graphs. While the concept of the 15-minute city is rapidly spreading, its operative definition can be of help for planning and understanding the possibilities of the general idea. For three European cities (Rome, Paris, and London), we developed a method to calculate pedestrian travel time to reach services for all the possible paths on urban graphs, finding that the 15-minute city generally has multiple connected components and that the services have not necessarily been part of it. This algorithm was used to to make a quantitative comparison between the cities, showing that Paris and London have a stronger 15-minute characterization than Rome. By generalizing the method, it was possible to define a 15-minute urban index, which quantitatively characterizes this city feature. The results seem to be promising because, at the cost of the massive use of computational time, a digital model for the city can be generated: a planning tool to simulate urban solutions and a rigorous criterion for evaluating how much a city can be considered a 15-minute city.

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Traditional agricultural practice and peculiar geographical features in the Mediterranean basin have not only moulded cultural and heritage values, but also created the conditions for the development of habitats to be protected. Therefore, Landscape proves a suitable concept both for the enhancement of cultural features and for nature conservation. The aim of this work is to apply the landscape approach to the Pantelleria National Park, providing the opportunity to reflect upon and discuss whether and how to encompass rural landscape planning and management within the broader context of natural values, offering a frame of reference for the zoning of the future Park Plan. Specifically, the research aims to define zoning categories, typical to protected areas planning, using criteria related to landscape features and patterns, environmental quality, traditional agriculture, architectural heritage. Established in 2016, the Pantelleria National Park is the most recent Italian National Park and the first one in Sicily. The Park covers 79% of the island, encompassing two sites of Community Importance as well as one Special Protection Area belonging to the Natura 2000 network. Pantelleria is a microcosm gathering a great variety of natural and human-made landscapes characterized by high levels of complexity embodying the antagonism of two protected ‘noble interests’: Nature and the environment on the one hand, Culture framed as traditional rural practices on the other. The main challenge of the new-founded National Park is to combine quality and values relating to the domain of Nature, which is expanding, with those expressed by Culture, represented by a wide array of historical rural values at risk due to ongoing abandonment of most remote areas.