The article is the Editorial of the Special Issue "Digital Education, Geography and Multidisciplinarity: Themes, Methods and Critical Issues". It explores some fundamental and theoretical issues on ...the interrelated subjects of digital education, geography and multidisciplinarity. More in particular, the article takes into account the manner in which this Special Issue of AIMS Geosciences reflects on links between the teaching/learning of geography (at any school/university level) and the digital world in a multidisciplinary perspective. That includes both the critical issues and the advantages in terms of sustainability and greater awareness of geographical phenomena, also in relation to cultural dynamics (e.g., migrations, urban transformations, development, geopolitics, tourism).
Extreme atmospheric-marine events, known as medicanes (short for "Mediterranean hurricanes"), have affected the Mediterranean basin in recent years, resulting in extensive coastal flooding and storm ...surges, and have occasionally been responsible for several casualties. Considering that the development mechanism of these events is similar to tropical cyclones, it is plausible that these phenomena are strongly affected by sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during their development period (winter and autumn seasons). In this study, we compared satellite data and the numerical reanalysis of SSTs from 1969 to 2023 with in situ data from dataloggers installed at different depths off the coast of southeastern Sicily as well as from data available on Argo floats on the Mediterranean basin. A spectral analysis was performed using a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) for each SST time series to highlight the changes in SSTs prior to the occurrence of Mediterranean Hurricanes as well as the energy content of the various frequencies of the SST signal. The results revealed that decreases in SST occurred prior to the formation of each Mediterranean hurricane, and that this thermal drop phenomenon was not observed in intense extra-tropical systems. The spectral analyses revealed that high CWT coefficients representing high SST energy contents were observed before the occurrence of a Mediterranean hurricane. This information may provide a useful fingerprint for distinguishing Mediterranean hurricanes from common seasonal storms at the onset of these events.
Commercial dynamics within a city represent an excellent observatory desk to study urban transformation processes. These dynamics reflect the verticality and horizontality relational system, but also ...the exchanges and reciprocation of the cultural and socio-economic relations. From a geographical perspective it is interesting to detect cultural, social and economic changes both permanent and in evolution which constitute the urban pattern and shape its viability. This work originates in 2015 within the PRIN project (Relevant Interest National Project) “Commerce, consumption and the city: practices, planning and governance for urban inclusion, resilience and sustainability” which has studied some relevant commerce dynamics in Italian main cities. Here we focus on the case of Palermo, by analysing four important streets in the city center: via Maqueda, via Ruggero Settimo, viale della Libertà and via Lincoln. They represent significant cut outs of how consumers’ habits have developed in Palermo and have strongly characterized the present urban landscape by establishing a complex network of relations which shape the pattern of the city. By employing both a diacronical and synchronical approach, on one hand we analyse the evolution of the four axes. On the other hand, we illustrate the results of the research carried out by using questionnaires aimed to reveal the present conditions of the shops taking place through the business owners’ perception.
A field assessment was carried out in May 2023 in a natural protected area in South Italy to investigate the real-time behavior and fate of common marine litter items at different depths at the ...nearshore and foreshore under low energetic conditions. The field data were also compared with theoretical values calculated using theoretical formulations considering the Stokes drift current, wind-induced current, and current at breaking position. The wind approached from N to W, with values ranging from 2.4 to 3.8 m/s. The propagated significant wave height ranged from 14 to 21 cm, with an associated period of 3 s. Items with a positive buoyancy recorded different velocities. Very protruding (above water surface) items were greatly affected by windage and recorded velocities from 0.23 to 0.33 m/s; higher than the theoretical values that do not take into account windage. Theoretical values correctly predicted the velocity of other less-protruding items but slightly underestimated the velocity of neutral buoyancy items, evidencing in both cases the low relevance of the Stokes drift current. Items with a negative buoyancy moved (or not) in the bottom with different velocities. Different behaviors were observed at the breaking point, where items surfed (or not) spilling breaking waves, and at the foreshore, where items moved along the plunge step or in a “zig–zag” movement due to a swash–backwash process.
On December 24, 2018, the Etna volcano has recorded a significant eruption. Linked to this phenomenon, after a seismic swarm of 72 shocks, a 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck a large area North of ...Catania city, on the Eastern coast of Sicily. Six villages reported 28 injured people and damages to the building. According to seismologists the earthquake had an unusual level of magnitude. Yet, despite the real danger of this event, many people who live around the volcano, in one of the most densely populated areas of Sicily, perceived these facts in an ambivalent way. Indeed, their lives continued as before even in awareness of the natural hazard, while several media presented the situation as really dangerous in a worried tone. This paper, part of a wider research still in progress, aims to analyse the perception of the risk towards the biggest and highest volcano of Europe by the inhabitants of some villages that rise around the Etna. Based on a previous research conducted in 2013 in the same area, this study compares the ways in which this recent earthquake was perceived by some residents in the area and the ways in which some online newspaper narrated the event. Therefore, by analysing and comparing the first results that come from interviews realized during a fieldwork and from online newspaper/magazine articles, this study tries to understand, from a geographical and cultural perspective, how the perception of the risk can be narrated attributing different values to hazard. The latter can have pragmatic implications because from this symbolic evaluation may depend the behaviour of an entire community.
The latest progress in deep learning approaches has garnered significant attention across a variety of research fields. These techniques have revolutionized the way marine parameters are measured, ...enabling automated and remote data collection. This work centers on employing a deep learning model for the automated evaluation of tide and surge, aiming to deliver accurate results through the analysis of surveillance camera images. A mode of deep learning based on the Inception v3 structure was applied to predict tide and storm surges from surveillance cameras located in two different coastal areas of Italy. This approach is particularly advantageous in situations where traditional tide sensors are inaccessible or distant from the measurement point, especially during extreme events that require accurate surge measurements. The conducted experiments illustrate that the algorithm efficiently measures tide and surge remotely, achieving an accuracy surpassing 90% and maintaining a loss value below 1, evaluated through Categorical Cross-Entropy Loss functions. The findings highlight its potential to bridge the gap in data collection in challenging coastal environments, providing valuable insights for coastal management and hazard assessments. This research contributes to the emerging field of remote sensing and machine learning applications in environmental monitoring, paving the way for enhanced understanding and decision-making in coastal regions.
This chapter presents a study conducted in Italy during the Covid-19 lockdown. Severa! volunteers were asked to send to a website with a text describing their everyday space. In total, 300 ...testimonies were collected. This chapter analyses some of them by a joint anthropological and geographical approach. The aim is to understand how, in a highly critical moment, testimonies give meaning to spaces related to everyday life, otherness, bodies and interactions.
Many tourist services are connected to the care of the body. The tourist industry proposes different vacation opportunities where the body is the main focus of the experience. This kind of tourism ...implies specific services that show a particular universe of representation and particular languages. In this context, cruise tourism is an interesting case to analyze because a part of its services gives a central role to the body which, on-board, organizes and is organized within dedicated spaces and times. Cruise ships provide spaces for the wellness of the passengers such as swimming pools, gyms, spas or beauty centres. The analysis proposed in this work is based, on one hand, on a recent anthropological fieldwork on a Costa Crociere cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. On cruises people use a limited space, the ship, in different ways. This use also reflects a particular conception of the body, built through an interaction of different systems of representation. So, the ship can become a space for social aggregation or separation. On the other hand, this study considers different textual advertisements from the Costa Web site where the company presents specific services for the body to future passengers1. This paper analyzes them using a joint approach: both semiotic and linguistic. Through texts and pictures Costa Crociere creates a “synthesis” of the wellness spaces which prefigures the behaviour of the passengers on the cruise. More particularly, in order to analyze advertisements, a cognitive linguistics approach is suitable to show the authors’ linguistic choices and the paratextual elements used to promote the cruise.
Centres de bien-être dans les croisières Costa Crociere : Corps, Espace et Représentation du point de vue anthropologique et linguistique Résumé La majorité des services touristiques est liée aux soins du corps. En effet, l'industrie touristique propose des opportunités différenciées pour vivre des vacances où le corps est l'intérêt principal de l'expérience. Ces formes de tourisme impliquent des services spécifiques qui montrent un univers particulier de représentation et des langages appropriés. Dans ce contexte, le tourisme de croisière est un cas intéressant à analyser, car une partie de ses services assigne un rôle central au corps qui, à bord, organise et il est organisé selon des temps et des espaces déterminés. Les croisières fournissent des espaces pour le bien-être des passagers tels que les piscines, les gymnases, les spas et les centres esthétiques. L'analyse proposée dans cette recherche est fondée, d'une part, sur un terrain anthropologique accompli dans une croisière Costa Crociere, en mer Méditerranée. Pendant la croisière, il y a plusieurs manières d'utilisation d'un espace déterminé comme le bateau. Cet usage reflète aussi une conception particulière du corps qui est construit grâce à l'interaction des différents systèmes de représentation. Ainsi, le bateau peut devenir un espace pour l'agrégation et la séparation sociales. D'autre part, cette étude prend en compte plusieurs publicités textuelles du site web Costa où la compagnie présente au futur passager des services spécifiques pour le corps. Cette recherche les analyse en ayant recours aussi bien à des approches sémiotiques que linguistiques. De ce point de vue, Costa Crociere crée une « synthèse » des espaces du bien-être par les textes et les images et, de cette manière, la compagnie préfigure le comportement des passagers pendant la croisière. En particulier, l'analyse développera une approche afin de mettre au jour les choix linguistiques et les éléments paratextuels sélectionnés pour concevoir la publicité des croisières.
Many tourist services are connected to the care of the body. The tourist industry proposes different vacation opportunities where the body is the main focus of the experience. This kind of tourism ...implies specific services that show a particular universe of representation and particular languages. In this context, cruise tourism is an interesting case to analyze because a part of its services gives a central role to the body which, on-board, organizes and is organized within dedicated spaces and times. Cruise ships provide spaces for the wellness of the passengers such as swimming pools, gyms, spas or beauty centres. The analysis proposed in this work is based, on one hand, on a recent anthropological fieldwork on a Costa Crociere cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. On cruises people use a limited space, the ship, in different ways. This use also reflects a particular conception of the body, built through an interaction of different systems of representation. So, the ship can become a space for social aggregation or separation. On the other hand, this study considers different textual advertisements from the Costa Web site where the company presents specific services for the body to future passengers . This paper analyzes them using a joint approach: both semiotic and linguistic. Through texts and pictures Costa Crociere creates a “synthesis” of the wellness spaces which prefiguresthe behaviour of the passengers on the cruise. More particularly, in order to analyze advertisements, a cognitive linguistics approach is suitable to show the authors’ linguistic choices and the paratextual elements used to promote the cruise. .
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