Course program
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND THE ACTION STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABILITY - 15 H
Definitions and concept evolution, programs and rules, tools and actions. Sustainable use of renewable and non-renewable resources: Herman Daly’s rules for the sustainable use of natural resources, “Economy as an hourglass”, the importance of non-renewable resources in the everyday life, why an efficient use of resources is essential, how to increase the sustainable use of non-renewable resources. The role of Critical Raw Materials in the sustainable energy transition. The EU approach for a sustainable growth, EU sustainability strategies, the European Green Deal, Sustainable Development Goals. Environmental policy and management tools: Command and Control, Voluntary Agreements, management tools for sustainability. Externalities of production and consumption processes, how to internalize externalities.
SUSTAINABILITY TOOLS - 20 H
Report on the State of the Environment (RSoE): aims, activities for its implementation, models to represent the information (PSR, DPSIR); the DPSIR model and the importance of the different indicators, tools and methods, the importance of land monitoring for the acquisition of updated information about the territory, results and hypothesis for intervention. An example of RSoE.
LCA - Life Cycle Assessment: what is Life Cycle Assessment and how it is defined, different approaches of the methodology (cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-gate, gate-to-gate). Life Cycle Thinking approach for production process monitoring and management, the Integrated Product Policy of the EU. Origins and evolution of the methodology. LCA in the actual rules and legislation. Structure and phases of an LCA: Goal and Scope Definition, aim of the study, functional unit, system boundaries; Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and data quality; Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) and the main impact categories used in the analysis; Life Cycle Interpretation and the improvement of the system; the importance of carrying out an LCA. Eco-design and Ecolabelling, different type of Eco-labels: the European Ecolabel, the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD); environmental indicators, examples of Product Category Rules and Environmental Product Declarations for different products and services. Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Circular Economy vs. Linear Economy; Green Public Procurement (GPP). Environmental Management Systems and the Deming Cycle.
Examples of the application of the LCA methodology to production systems, identification of impact categories and indicators.
GEO-RESOURCES AND ORE DEPOSITS. CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TRANSITION - 15 H
The importance of non-renewable mineral resources for the economic growth, seeking sustainability in mining activities, ore deposits and metallogenic processes, common elements and their ore minerals, the rock cycle, genetic classification of ore deposits. Examples of magmatic, volcanic, sedimentary and metamorphic deposits. Economic evaluation of an ore deposit: the “cut off grade” and the natural, technical and economic factors from which it is determined; operational research and technical-economic parametrization of an ore deposit. Resources and reserves, the transformation path from resources to reserves and vice versa. Characterization of mining activities, mining geology prospecting, the importance of satellite prospecting for geological, geo-structural and ore deposit characterization.
Critical Raw Materials (CRM) and their role in the sustainable energy transition: definition of CRM, the dependence on CRM and the possibility that it may soon replace that on oil. The EU final report on CRM (2023): most relevant features to determine the criticality of a raw material, the assessment methodology, CRM for the EU. Actions to limit the degree of dependency in the post-fossil economy of CRM
REMOTE SENSING FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION AND MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES - 10 H
Definition, fields of application; advantages and limitations. Remote sensing active and passive systems, components of a passive remote sensing system, the spectral reflectance curve of the most common surface elements (water, soils, rocks, vegetation), analysis of multispectral information and construction of the spectral reflectance curves; data acquisition and representation, processing methods, image enhancement, georeferencing, false color composites, satellite images and their geometric, radiometric, spectral and temporal resolutions. Examples of medium and high-resolution remote sensing images for the identification and the characterization of the qualitative state of surface elements; monitoring land use changes (change detection), the health of agricultural and forestry vegetation, pollution of inland and ocean waters, wildfires, soils and rocks.
Prerequisites
No specific prerequisites required
Books
PWP presentations, lecture notes, in-depth documents and scientific articles in English on the topics covered in the course are provided by the teacher through the specific Classroom
Frequency
ATTENDANCE IS RECOMMENDED BUT NOT MANDATORY
Exam mode
The exam consists of an oral test covering the main topics addressed during the course. The examination is held in English or, upon the student’s request, in Italian
Bibliography
- G. Sonnemann, M. Margni, Life Cycle Management (LCA Compendium – The Complete World of Life Cycle Assessment), 374 pp., Springer Open
- B. Ramachandran et al. - Land Remote Sensing and Global Environmental Change, 873 pp., Springer
- S. Liang (Editor) - Advances in Land Remote Sensing, 497 pp., Springer
- M. Lillesand, R.W. Kiefer - Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation, 750 pp., John Wiley Sons
- VV.AA. - Geospacial Techniques for Managing Environmental Resources, 296 pp., Springer
Lesson mode
Teaching is carried out through the presentation and discussion of the various topics covered in the course. Students are actively involved during the lectures to foster interaction and participation on the subjects addressed. The lectures are delivered in English in the second semester (Latina Campus).
Students interested in attending the lectures and accessing the course materials should send an email to andrea.cappelli@uniroma1.it in order to be added to the dedicated Google Classroom.
