No abstract

Outdoor workers are particularly exposed to climate conditions, and in particular, the increase of environmental temperature directly affects their health and productivity. For these reasons, in recent years, heat-health warning systems have been developed for workers generally using heat stress indicators obtained by the combination of meteorological parameters to describe the thermal stress induced by the outdoor environment on the human body. There are several studies on the verification of the parameters predicted by meteorological models, but very few relating to the validation of heat stress indicators. This study aims to verify the performance of two limited area models, with different spatial resolution, potentially applicable in the occupational heat health warning system developed within the WORKLIMATE project for the Italian territory. A comparison between the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature predicted by the models and that obtained by data from 28 weather stations was carried out over about three summer seasons in different daily time slots, using the most common skill of performance. The two meteorological models were overall comparable for much of the Italian explored territory, while major limits have emerged in areas with complex topography. This study demonstrated the applicability of limited area models in occupational heat health warning systems.

No abstract

In this study the new Regional Geochemical Database (RGDB), called GEOBASI, is presented and illustrated in the framework of a joint collaboration among the three Tuscan universities (Florence, Pisa and Siena), CNR-IGG (Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of Pisa), ARPAT (Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection), LAMMA (Environmental Modelling and Monitoring Laboratory for Sustainable Development) Consortium and S.I.R.A.(Territorial and Environmental Informative System of Tuscany). The database has permitted the construction of a repository where the geochemical information (compositional and isotopic) has been stored in a structured way so that it can be available for different groups of users\ud (e.g. institutional, public and private companies). The information contained in the database can in fact be downloaded freely and queried to\ud correlate geochemistry to other non compositional variables. The first phase of the project was aimed at promoting the use of the geochemical\ud data already available from previous investigations through a powerful Web-GIS interface to implement the exploratory statistics graphical-numerical tools used to: 1) analyse the spatial variability of the investigated context, 2) highlight the geographic location of data pertaining to classes of values or single cases, 3) compare the results of different analytical methodologies applied to the determination of the same element and/or chemical species, 4) extract the geochemical data related to specific monitoring plans and/or geographical areas, and finally 5) recover information about data below the detection limit to understand their impact on the behaviour of the investigated variable. Developments of this project will be focused on the definition of rules and standardized methods in a way that external users could also interactively pursue the RGDB. Furthermore, a detailed investigation of the Scarlino-Follonica plain will permit the improvement and test of statistical and geostatistical methods, using open source software (QGIS and R) to support the process of evaluation of the geochemical baseline

In the complex processes of route planning, voyage monitoring, and post-voyage analysis, a key element is the capability of merging metocean forecast data with the available knowledge of ship responses in the encountered environmental conditions. In this context, a prototype system has been implemented capable of integrating metocean models forecasts with ship specific performance data and models. The work is based on the exploitation of an open source ECDIS-like system originally developed in the e-Navigation framework. The resulting prototype system allows the uploading and visualization of metocean data, the consequent computation of fuel consumption along each analyzed route, and the evaluation of the encountered meteo-marine conditions on each route way point. This allows us to “effectively and deeply dig inside” the various layers of available metocean forecast data regarding atmospheric and marine conditions and evaluating their effects on ship performance indicators. The system could also be used to trigger route optimization algorithms and subsequently evaluate the results. All these functionalities are tailored in order to facilitate the “what-if” analysis in the route selection process performed by deck officers. Many of the added functionalities can be utilized also in a shore-based fleet monitoring and management center. A description is given of the modeling and visualization approaches that have been implemented. Their potentialities are illustrated through the discussion of some examples in Mediterranean navigation.