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The present analysis looks into the issue of mapping information contained in the fadn database aimed at finding a methodology useful as a preliminary analysis to data extraction.To the purpose the concept of data granularity has been introduced. The method has been used to perform a farm-based analysis, revealing a wide heterogeneity of factors and levels that show the existence of specific data ‘patches'. The work proved to be able to increase awareness regarding effective data availability as a preliminary analysis to queries performed on relational data-bases which are not designed from a systems basis, and that can be considered valid for any survey-supplied data.

Runoff stationary critical flow is investigated as a stochastic process by means of two routing simulation models, a stream confluence, which has beens interpreted as a Marcus- Lushnikov coalescence process, and a channel splitting model, which has ben interpreted as a Markov chain over a regular tree. Despite of the expected similarity due to expection that they should be seen as one the backward of the other, the initiation and the stopping methods using in algorithms influence strongly stream size distribution.

The assessment of economic and environmental sustainability of agricultural systems represents a critical issue, which has been addressed in this work with a multi-objective programming model to explore the abatement costs (AC) of CO2 for a set of representative contexts of Italian arable land agriculture. The study was based on the FADN-compliant Italian database RICA and estimates the abatement costs of CO2 emissions in a short time horizon, using linear multi-objective programming and compromise programming. RICA data were used to quantify technical parameters of the model, adopting an innovative concept of a cropping scheme to simulate land-use adaptation. The study shows a quite diversified situation regarding income and emission levels per hectare across the Italian region and farm classes. A reduction of CO2 emissions higher than 5 kg/ha at an AC lower than 1 EUR/kg is affordable only in seven regions, among which Abruzzo, Lombardy, and Puglia show the highest potential. Comparing the estimated abatement costs for CO2 emissions with the corresponding European Trade System prices highlights a difference of 1 order of magnitude, proving that emission reductions for Italian arable crops still require research and innovation to lower adaptation costs.

Tuber magnatum, the Italian white truffle, is the world’s most valuable truffle. Despite the economic importance, its biology and ecology are largely unexplored. This gap of knowledge makes difficult to find reliable methods for its cultivation and to protect and increase the production of the natural productive areas. In this study, the vertical distribution of T. magnatum mycelium in productive soil patches was evaluated using a quantitative PCR (qPCR) approach. Data were then used to develop for the first time a simulation model to predict the mycelial dynamics of T. magnatum at varying soil temperatures and moisture. T. magnatum mycelium was abundant up to 30-cm depth, while the model determined the optimal temperature (20°C) and water potential (~ 0kPa) for growth of T. magnatum mycelium in soil. Such information could be useful to establish proper irrigation scheduling and to enhance the management of T. magnatum sites, for increasing mycelial growth and fruiting body production.

Yield averages and variability from three long-term agronomic experiments (LTAEs) have been used in a preference scheme for cropping system options by means of a dominance approach. Preference maps are obtained and include both parametric and stochastic dominance based on yield level and risk for wheat and maize crops grown in the Mediterranean area. Dominance method could add to classic ANOVA the direction of the effect of a treatment and a comparative approach. It allowed comparing technical options and practices on the basis of treatments explored in 3 still running LTAEs: rotation, tillage, mineral fertilisation level and organic amendment.

In this paper we report our efforts to develop an inter-temporal model for the evaluation of the impact of organic farming on greenhouse gases emissions, that we called BIOSUS-MAD. The model focuses on the maximization of farmer's net income though different crops rotations constrained to the use of resource inputs; outputs of this optimization process are numerical values for key variables useful to estimate a set of social, economic and environmental indicators. These indicators will feed a multi-criteria model providing a synthetic and comparable sustainability overall index. This approach makes MAD a potentially useful tool for policy-makers to get an ex-ante assessment of the effects of agro-environmental policies. The model can manage different scenarios and could provide useful information to policy makers by running simulations incorporating European economic and/or environmental policies.

International audience; Arable land is a major component both in landscape and in the food production system. The ability to understand and describe how spatial and dynamical characters affect human life and eventually to design the agricultural systems beyond the processes ruling them is fundamental to preserve land and ensure economic, ecological and social sustainability. In this paper, we will refer to cropping scheme as a general term merging two aspects of cropping systems, the spatial and the temporal one, represented respectively in terms of crop pattern and crop rotation. Analysis of crop rotations is of basic importance in sustainable farming strategies dealing with climate change, food security and organic farming. In fact, crop rotations are fundamental to maintaining fertility and, even if their analysis often focus on local crops, they help face market and weather uncertainties as well as interpret landscape diversity and its dynamics (Dury et al., 2012, Thenail et al. 2009). In European Community (EC) an agricultural holding database standard has been developed, the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), which is seldom rich in information on farm management techniques. The present study makes use of Italian FADN to identify more recurrent crop patterns and evaluate the possibility to describe them as a crop rotation [...]

Functional Structural Plant Modeling (FSPM) studies the interaction between plant and environment including architectural and morphological features. VPN (Virtual Plant on the Net) has been developed to analyze the benefits of having a plant simulation model (Virtual Plant Engine,VPE) apart from a graphic client (Virtual Plant Interface,VPI). VPI use Java3D to render the plant in a virtual scene where the skeleton of simulated plants is enriched of VRML-2 features. VPI also allows the user to interact actively with the plant cutting elements and see it re-grown from VPE. Both VPI and VPE have an OO approach to represent and model a wide range of plant.

Although describing the primary sector of a given country is a common institutional practice, such studies usually offer aggregated information on holding, not supplying the information required for farm-level simulations. The present study aimed to identify the main typologies of Italian farms from the 2007 database of RICA (the Italian section of the European Union’s Farm Accountancy Data Network). Using a hierarchical strategy driven by climates (5) and slopes (3), farms have been grouped by super-structure, described in terms of the presence and extent of primary activities (livestock, farmland use). The resulting picture of Italian farms is based on 35 farm types, the most common of which grow low-input orchards (e.g., olive trees). On the plains in warm climatic areas, low-input orchards and arable crops dominate; in hilly and mountainous areas, mixed farms with forage crops, meadows, ovines, and cattle prevail. In more temperate areas, the most common farm type is based on intensive and field crops (e.g., durum and bread wheat). In temperate hilly and mountain areas, mixed farms combining meadows, woods, and cattle become predominant. Though the representative farm typology derives from a database (RICA) that accounts for only about 1% of Italian farms, it nevertheless provides the information required to develop bio-economic simulations.

Greenhouse climate control has developed very quickly in the past decades, and at present also advanced model based decision support systems are being introduced in commercial production. The experiment was carried out in a commercial pot rose greenhouse from the late winter to the early spring (01.01.2003-07.04.2003) in Odense, Denmark. The data set (light intensity, CO2 concentration and temperature) was used for the determination of net simulated leaf photosynthesis (LsimPhot, μmol m-2 s-1) and potential maximum leaf photosynthesis (LMAX,sim,Phot, μmol m-2 s-1). The present study show how a photosynthesis model can help to diagnose greenhouse management problems in terms of choice of climate strategy.

The problems typically encountered with the basic engineering of a combined-cycle installation are examined here in general; the selection criteria of the operating fluid and determination of the thermodynamic parameters of the steam cycle are also dealt with in the appendix. The combined-cycle gas compression unit at present under construction in SNAM’s Station at Messina is then described extensively; the system, designed to comply with the specific requirements of a gas compression plant (unmanned continuous operation in severe environmental conditions), is characterized by an efficiency higher than 47% at ISO conditions. Special attention is paid to the control system and to the analysis of the dynamic behaviour of the gas / steam unit by which two pipeline compressors (the main one driven by the gas turbine and the auxiliary one driven by the steam turbine) are made to run in parallel.

We model the opportunities provided by organic agriculture in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) in order to mitigate emissions of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The sources of farm-based emissions are identified and compared with a recent work by Schneider et al (2007). A distinction is made between direct and indirect sources of emissions and besides carbon dioxide two other gases are examined, which are relevant in agriculture, namely methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). A linear programming model based on a set of equations that allows identifying the optimal rotation among those available in the Emilia-Romagna region is run for a representative farm, thus quantifying the amount of carbon which can be stored permanently in that farm under different scenarios. Finally, suggestions are given for the design of public policies that aim to reward low inputs systems, for which organic agriculture can be considered as a prototype. Results of the compared simulations show that the alleged benefits of organic agriculture in terms of less emissions and more sequestration basically hold but they can be conditional upon using the same cropping pattern for the two systems and under certain conditions the consideration of labour inputs can make conventional systems more efficient.

L'introduzione alla Fisica Ambientale è scritta per studenti dei primi anni di università, scritto allo scopo di dare una linea di studio dei concetti chiave e cercando di stimolare approfondimenti. Si affrontano a livello elementare i concetti di base della fisica dell'atmosfera, meteorologia e climatologia, idrologia e fisica del suolo, privilegiando la descrizione dei processi che caratterizzano gli ambienti terrestri. Il testo inizia col descrivere gli aspetti strutturali dell'ambiente, diviso nei suoi elementi classici sole, aria, acqua e terra; nella seconda parte si affrontano gli aspetti dinamici e quindi i flussi all'interno e tra i vari comparti, assieme al fenomeno del trasporto; nella terza parte sono invece introdotti i concetti di base relativi alle principali trasformazioni fisiche e chimiche associate alle interazioni tra energia e materia; infine nella quarta parte si affrontano i processi associati agli organismi viventi, per concludere con una introduzione alla climatologia.

Questo testo rappresenta un’avvio allo studio della Fisica del Terre-no,materia che si avvale dei concetti della fisica di base (meccanica, fluidodinamica etermodinamica) per sviluppare le conoscenze di un sistema poroso fondamentale sia per l’idrologia che per l’ambito del-le produzioni vegetali e dell’ecologia in generale.In questa introduzione si è cercato di dare agli argomenti trattati la sequenza e la gradualità a chi ha poca dimestichezza con il formali-smo matematico.La trattazione è arricchita di alcune note metodologiche ed esercizi, ma nel contempo tende a facilitare l’inquadramento della materia in un più ampio schema di studio.

European agriculture is undergoing a rapid evolution that challenges agronomic research to scale from field to landscape. In particular, the undergoing processes (e.g. urbanization or land abandonment) and the multiple ecosystems services provided by agricultural areas are requiring to broaden the research at the regional level. Since some decades, the European Union is promoting the collection of agricultural data to evaluate the farmers’ eligibility for subsidies and to assess the Common Agricultural Policy performances. Part of these datasets is being increasingly used beyond their administrative functions, as for the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS). Starting from a bibliometric analysis of the scientific literature using these datasets, we will discuss two examples of their application for characterizing cropland and cropping systems. Our aim is to discuss the relevance of these datasets as tools to improve the monitoring and management of agroecosystems at the regional level., {"references":["Benoît, M., Rizzo, D., Marraccini, E., Moonen, A.C., Galli, M., Lardon, S., Rapey, H., Thenail, C., Bonari, E., 2012. Landscape agronomy: a new field for addressing agricultural landscape dynamics. Landsc. Ecol. 27, 1385–1394. doi:10.1007/s10980-012-9802-8","Bertaglia, M., Milenov, P., Angileri, V., Devos, W., 2016. Cropland and grassland management data needs from existing IACS sources (EUR - Scientific and Technical Research Reports). European Commission.","Boiffin, J., Benoît, M., Le Bail, M., Papy, F., Stengel, P., 2014. Agronomie, espace, territoire : travailler « pour et sur » le développement territorial, un enjeu pour l'agronomie. Cah. Agric. 23, 72–83. doi:10.1684/agr.2014.0688","Bradley, D., Hill, B., 2016. Diversity and Innovation in the FADN Data Collection Systems in the EU-28. EuroChoices 15, 5–10. doi:10.1111/1746-692X.12137","Dalgaard, T., Kjeldsen, C., Jørgensen, M.S., Hutchings, N., Mogensen, L., Sahrbacher, A., Damgaard, M., Happe, K., Piorr, A., 2009. Scaling from Farm to Landscape 175–189. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-79470-7_10","Grandgirard, D., Zielinsky, R., 2008. Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) Anomalies' Sampling and Spatial Pattern: Towards convergence of ecological methodologies and GIS technologies. (EUR - Scientific and Technical Research Reports).","Latruffe, L., Piet, L., 2014. Does land fragmentation affect farm performance? A case study from Brittany, France. Agric. Syst. 129, 68–80. doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2014.05.005","Leenhardt, D., Angevin, F., Biarnès, A., Colbach, N., Mignolet, C., 2010. Describing and locating cropping systems on a regional scale. A review. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 30, 131–138. doi:10.1051/agro/2009002","Levavasseur, F., Martin, P., Bouty, C., Barbottin, A., Bretagnolle, V., Thérond, O., Scheurer, O., Piskiewicz, N., 2016. RPG Explorer: A new tool to ease the analysis of agricultural landscape dynamics with the Land Parcel Identification System. Comput. Electron. Agric. 127, 541–552. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2016.07.015","Plieninger, T., Draux, H., Fagerholm, N., Bieling, C., Bürgi, M., Kizos, T., Kuemmerle, T., Primdahl, J., Verburg, P.H., 2016. The driving forces of landscape change in Europe: A systematic review of the evidence. Land Use Policy 57, 204–214. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.04.040","Ruiz-Martinez, I., Marraccini, E., Debolini, M., Bonari, E., 2015. Indicators of agricultural intensity and intensification: a review of the literature. Ital. J. Agron. 10, 74. doi:10.4081/ija.2015.656","Sagris, V., 2013. Land Parcel Identification System conceptual model: development of geoinfo community conceptual model (PhD thesis). University of Tartu (Estonia).","Tancoigne, E., Barbier, M., Cointet, J.-P., Richard, G., 2014. The place of agricultural sciences in the literature on ecosystem services. Ecosyst. Serv. 10, 35–48.","Vitali, G., Cardillo, C., Albertazzi, S., Della Chiara, M., Baldoni, G., Signorotti, C., Trisorio, A., Canavari, M., 2012. Classification of Italian Farms in the FADN Database Combining Climate and Structural Information. Cartogr. Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Geovisualization 47, 228–236. doi:10.3138/carto.47.4.1478","Vitali, G., Rizzo, D., Baldoni, G., Bazzani, G.M., Cardillo, C., Canavari, M., 2016. A national pedoclimatic characterization of cropping schemes based on FADN Italian data, in: Farm and Land System Dynamics in the Mediterranean Basin: Integrating Spatial Scales, from the Local to the Global One. Presented at the AgroMed International Conference, Avignon (FRA)."]}

Il ruscellamento superficiale è una delle principali cause di perdita di suolo nei terreni in pendio. Ruscellamento ed erosione sono processi naturali che possono essere fortemente accelerati nei terreni coltivati. La pendenza, la copertura vegetale e la direzione di lavorazione (che dipende dalla sistemazione agronomica) sono, insieme all’andamento meteorologico, tra i fattori più rilevanti di questi processi (Ampofo et al., 2002; Zhang & Garbrecht, 2002). Scopo di questo studio è stato verificare la relazione tra pioggia e ruscellamento e le caratteristiche del ruscellamento in sei parcelle di diversa sistemazione agronomica e pendenza, coltivate con specie erbacee annuali e poliennali ed arboree. Si tratta di una prova di lunga durata che ha previsto la raccolta e l’elaborazione di quasi un ventennio di dati (1992-2010).