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Beaches can serve as a valuable asset to any community, which can gain a massive source of income from them; in fact, beach tourism is ever more frequently the essential target of countries, aimed at attracting foreign investment or exchange. In this frame, prediction of coastal evolution at large scales is very important for coastal management and first conceptual design. Management strategies, almost at the early stages of the projects, may likely involve numerical simulations, but they can be extremely laborious, computing demanding and intensely time-consuming especially when involving either wider coastal domain or longer time scales that basically encompasses the majority of coastal projects by now. Analytical solutions of the Diffusion Shoreline Equation (DSE) can be a valid alternative. I n these frames, given the surprisingly good predictive capabilities, they can isolate essential features of the processes, making them more readily comprehended, and can avoid cumulative errors associated with the accuracy of computational time-stepping models. Nevertheless, the rather complex mathematical form makes their use extremely challenging and confines them in the realm of high mathematic s. Ciccaglione et al. (2023) provided analytical solutions of the DSE for finite beaches bounded by outcrops of whatever length (bypassing or non-bypassing groin compartments). Differently from the other studies, the authors checked the applicability range of the solutions through the comparison with reliable numerical models; furthermore, using curve fitting analysis simple design tools were suggested to aid engineers in the practical applications. In this paper, a deep focus is given on the case of a bypassing groin compartment, and easy-to-use formulae are given to assess the lifetime of beach fill projects. A simple semi-theoretical solution is also given for the case of a compartment bounded by a very short groin, by introducing a "convective term" modelled via a Heavy-side function, H (x). The practical usefulness of this solution is proved through an application to the evolution of a real beach along Italy's Adriatic coast. • Long-term shoreline evolution is important for coastal management and planning. • Analytical solutions are valid tools for estimating shoreline change in a bypassed cell. • Simple formulae are derived for the response of a beach fill into bypassing cells. • The applicability range is limited by the shortness of the bypass groin. • "convective" correction is checked against a coastal segment of the Adriatic coast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon an extensive body of valuation literature focused on water quality, this paper performs a meta-analysis benefit transfer exercise aimed at quantifying willingness to pay (WTP) for an enhancement in drinking water quality for households that have been directly exposed to Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) over recent decades in Italy. The analysis compiles metadata of 72 WTP estimates extracted from 40 previous valuation studies conducted in advanced economies. The benefit transfer is realized estimating a meta regression model (MRM) which includes both study design and socio-economic explanatory variables, according to the Weak Structural Utility Theoretic approach. To determine the most suitable MRM specification, a comparative evaluation of various model configurations is developed exploiting the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) selection criterion, and assessing their predictive performances in terms of transfer error and explanatory power. The mean transfer error (MTE) and the adjusted R-squared of the preferred MRM are in line with past published meta-analyses (0.665 and 0.607, respectively). The parameters estimated in the model align with both economic theory and intuition. The benefit transfer process results in an estimated annual WTP of € 250.80 per household for improved drinking water quality in the PFAS-affected area and an aggregated value of social benefits from PFAS decontamination of around € 12 million. • First meta-analysis focused on drinking water quality valuation in developed economies. • WTP for PFAS decontamination of drinking water via benefit transfer. • LASSO selection criteria applied for the selection of variables in the meta-regression model. • New dataset for drinking water quality valuation around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel four-step methodology to achieve an extended-reality-based choice experiment in historic and touristic centers. The study exploits the case of Manfredonia (a seaside town in southern Italy) to apply the new approach and investigates public attitudes and preferences towards the installation of offshore wind turbines in the area. The novelty of the proposed work is twofold: i) for the first time, a structured methodological approach is defined for the development of a hybrid extended-reality-based choice experiment; ii) the perception of the visual impact of offshore wind turbines is assessed in a touristic and historic city in southern Italy exploiting the proposed approach. Our findings underscore the importance of continuously monitoring public perceptions to maintain and promote support for sustainable energy solutions, particularly in relation to the perception of wind energy's visual impact. In particular, 65% of respondents express their worries about wind power plants impact on the landscape. Moreover, the positive coefficient of the visual impact (0.011) suggests a positive utility of respondents from a higher off-shore turbines' density and a marginal willingness to accept a compensation of about 13€ for the visual impact and of about 33€ for the distance from the shore. In this context the use of extended reality technology in choice experiment scenarios significantly improves the results and enhances the understanding of the landscape impact of offshore wind farms. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]