Samuele Marinello

People spend approximately 90% of their day in confined spaces (at home, work, school or in transit). During these periods, exposure to high concentrations of atmospheric pollutants can pose serious health risks, particularly to the respiratory system. The objective of this paper is to define a framework of the existing literature on the assessment of air quality in various transport microenvironments. A total of 297 papers, published from 2002 to 2021, were analyzed with respect to the type of transport microenvironments, the pollutants monitored, the concentrations measured and the sampling methods adopted. The analysis emphasizes the increasing interest in this topic, particularly regarding the evaluation of exposure in moving cars and buses. It specifically focuses on the exposure of occupants to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs). Concentrations of these pollutants can reach several hundreds of µg/m³ in some cases, significantly exceeding the recommended levels. The findings presented in this paper serve as a valuable resource for urban planners and decision-makers in formulating effective urban policies.

In recent years, the addition of plastic and rubber waste to construction materials has been widely studied by the research community. This great interest can mainly be attributed to the achievable potential environmental and economic benefits, mainly deriving from the reduction of incinerated or landfilled wastes and the decrease of used raw materials. Several reviews have been published on the addition of polymeric waste materials in concrete and cement mortar mixtures, discussing properties, environmental and cost implications. However, there are not available studies that organize and analyses the knowledge presented in this review. For the scope, in this paper we present a tertiary study of previous relevant review articles from peer-reviewed journals, with the aim to provide an overview of the state of the evidence related to this topic and to highlight the main critical aspects and open issues. The overview provides conclusions drawn from the 33 included reviews finding different open issues on the theme regarding environmental performance, cost savings and impacts on the supply chain as well as long term health problem related to the use of waste plastic and rubber in concrete and cement mortar. For each open issue further research proposals are also suggested.

To improve buildings and their characteristics, the feedback provided directly by users is generally fundamental in order to be able to adapt the technical and structural functions to the well-being of users. The post-occupancy evaluation (POE) fits perfectly into this context. The POE, through qualitative and quantitative information on the interior environment, makes it possible to identify the differences between the performances modeled in the design phase and the real performances experienced by the occupants. This review of 234 articles, published between 2006 and 2022, aims to analyze and compare the recent literature on the application of the POE methodology. The aim was to provide both a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the main factors that comprise the indoor environmental quality (IEQ). The study highlighted the factors that comprise the quality of the indoor environment, as well as the variables that are usually analyzed to describe the well-being of the occupants. The results suggested which are the most common approaches in carrying out POE studies and will identify the factors that most influence the determination of the good quality of an indoor environment.

Air pollution is a major risk factor, and it still remains a global cause of death for millions of people. Indoor air quality (IAQ) plays an important role in human health as people spend most of their time in confined spaces. Many studies have recently addressed this issue, but no systematic analysis has been conducted, which is the aim of our study. We present a bibliographic analysis of articles on IAQ in industrial environments from 2010 to 2021. A total of 658 articles were collected, and 409 were used. The NVivo tool was used to analyze the collected documents both quantitatively and qualitatively. This analysis of the literature enables us to identify the most studied working environments and pollutants, the analysis tools, and the types of measurement used to provide a clear overview of the theme, which includes a comparison between the studied working environments and the state of origin of the authors. Our analysis of each working environment and the related frequently cited pollutants provides a clear approach to identifying the specific areas of focus when improving the quality of the air in a specific working environment. In addition, a research gap and future research areas have been identified in the conclusions.

Designing an order picking system can be very complex, as several interrelated control variables are involved. We address the sizing of the storage capacity of the picking bay, the crew of pickers, and the AGV fleet, which are the most important variables from a tactical viewpoint in a parts-to-pickers system. Although order picking is a widely explored topic in the literature, no analytical model that can simultaneously deal with these variables is currently available. To bridge this gap, we introduce a queue model for Markovian processes, which enables us to jointly optimise the aforementioned control variables. A discrete-event simulation is then used to validate our model, and we then test our proposal with real data under different operative scenarios, with the aim of assessing the usefulness of the proposal in real settings.

Globally, tourism is currently one of the fastest-growing industries, with strong impacts on territories, from an environmental, economic and social point of view. The increase in the number of tourists who flock to destinations requires greater attention to sustainability through tools (indicators) such as strategic destination management support. This paper, through the review of 104 scientific papers, aims to analyze the structure and evolution of the evaluation and monitoring of sustainable tourism through the use of sets of indicators. In particular, the study favors the understanding of the most significant aspects of sustainable tourism that the literature suggests to analyze, evaluating how these vary in relation to the type of destination and the time period of the study. The results contribute to the understanding of the theoretical and operational aspects which, today, are considered representative of the concept of sustainable tourism, improving the sustainable management of territories.

The recently developing coffee market has been characterized by profound changes caused by new solutions and technologies for coffee preparation. The polylaminate materials that compose most popular capsules make them a type of waste that is difficult to manage and recycle. This paper analyses the scientific references that deal with studying and improving the management processes of waste coffee capsules, as well as the studies that have analysed their environmental impact. Through a bibliographic review, some encouraging aspects emerged in the recovery of materials that can be adequately recycled (plastics and metals), as well as their possible use for the production of biogas and energy recovery. The need to manually separate the components that make up the capsule still represents one of the main challenges. Many efforts are still needed to favour the environmental sustainability of this waste from a strategic, technological and consumer empowerment point of view.

Air quality monitoring and control are key issues for environmental assessment and management in order to protect public health and the environment. Local and central authorities have developed strategies and tools to manage environmental protection, which, for air quality, consist of monitoring networks with fixed and portable instrumentation and mathematical models. This study develops a methodology for designing short-term air quality campaigns with mobile laboratories (laboratories fully housed within or transported by a vehicle and maintained in a fixed location for a period of time) as a decision support system for environmental management and protection authorities. In particular, the study provides a methodology to identify: (i) the most representative locations to place mobile laboratories and (ii) the best time period to carry out the measurements in the case of short-term air quality campaigns. The approach integrates atmospheric dispersion models and allocation algorithms specifically developed for optimizing the measuring campaigns. The methodology is organized in two phases, each of them divided into several steps. Fourteen allocation algorithms dedicated to three type of receptors (population, vegetation and physical cultural heritage) have been proposed. The methodology has been applied to four short-term air quality campaigns in the Emilia-Romagna region.

The health emergency linked to the spread of COVID‐19 has led to important reduction in industrial and logistics activities, as well as to a drastic changes in citizens' behaviors and habits. The restrictions on working activities, journeys and relationships imposed by the lockdown have had important consequences, including for environmental quality. This review aims to provide a structured and critical evaluation of the recent scientific bibliography that analyzed and described the impact of lockdown on human activities and on air quality. The results indicate an important effect of the lockdown during the first few months of 2020 on air pollution levels, compared to previous periods. The concentrations of particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide have decreased. Tropospheric ozone, on the other hand, has significantly increased. These results are important indicators that can become decision drivers for future policies and strategies in industrial and logistics activities (including the mobility sector) aimed at their environmental sustainability. The scenario imposed by COVID‐19 has supported the understanding of the link between the reduction of polluting emissions and the state of air quality and will be able to support strategic choices for the future sustainable growth of the industrial and logistics sector.