Research Overview

Research area and experience

My research interests fall within the broad field of environmental humanities and could be characterized as Socio-Ecological Systems Dynamics. I am interested in the study of the human/environment interaction over space and time, particularly in regards of the complex global environmental change, which unfortunately often results in critically harmful resource misuse. So far I have explored different frameworks of investigation, trying not to be confined into one specific discipline, rather favoring an interdisciplinary approach and a critical perspective. I strongly believe that social and natural sciences shall work together with policy makers, public stakeholders and NGO’s, to design equitable, sustainable and resilient development practices, in order to address the complex socio-environmental challenges of the Anthropocene.

Since 2017 I am affiliated to the Dept. of Economics and Management at the University of Florence, where my role is Ass. Professor in Economic Geography. Currently i am also a Research Associate in Local Development at ARCO Lab.

Since 2014 I am affiliated to the Department of Methods and Models for Economics, Territory and Finance at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” as a Post-Doctoral Fellow. I am working at an exciting EU FP/7 funded project called TESS-Transition. My role is to develop, test and apply an innovative methodology through which proficiently investigate social, economic, political and environmental aggregate impacts of grass-root initiatives promoting sustainability and carbon reduction in Europe. The main scope is to provide EU policy makers with useful findings about the impacts that upscaling of grass-roots initiatives may have on environment and society.

In 2013 I was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the LABEX Futurs Urbains laboratory at Paris-Est University (France); my research focused on the investigation of fuel poverty and fuel vulnerability at the household level. The project framework I developed was based on the concept of the “potential minimum energetic demand” that is needed to satisfy a set of “basic needs” (i.e. commuting and house maintenance). Research results described the spatial distribution and the socio-demographic profiles of households that can potentially be prone to fuel vulnerability. The final goal was to support public stakeholder and policy makers in elaborating strategies to foster sustainable and equitable human development. This project gave me the opportunity to narrow the focus on the consequences of urban expansion on anthropogenic processes, and to improve my skills in investigating living conditions. Working at the University of Paris-Est/ParisTech was the chance for me to fully enjoy and learn French language and culture.

After my PhD, in 2010, I joined the Land Use and the Global Environment (LUGE) research laboratory, led by Prof. Navin Ramankutty, at the Geography Dept. - McGill University (Canada). I successfully applied and obtained a

Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Canadian Bureau for International Exchange (CBIE) and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT), to investigate the spatial correlation between urban sprawl land-use change dynamics and the loss of vegetation in a region characterized by oil-sand exploitation (Alberta). Furthermore I led a successful research project that aimed at assessing the potential for urban agriculture to contribute to current food demand at the global scale. In fall 2012 I was appointed to design and teach a new keystone course for undergraduate students at McGill University about ‘Research in Sustainability’. The aim of this course was to stimulate student critical thinking, and to lead students in developing cutting-edge research in sustainability, mixing quantitative and qualitative methods. As an instructor this was probably my most rewarding experience, in fact my students have been awarded the Jury price at the McGill Sustainability Symposium in 2013 and I supervised them in the elaboration of an original manuscript that has been published in the International Journal of Geo-Information in 2014.The long experience at McGill gave the opportunity to enlarge my research interests and move the focus onto environmental sustainability and resilience, and to develop skills to conduct global-scale research.

During my PhD, at the University of Trieste with Gianfranco Battisti, co-supervised by Keith Clarke from University of California - Santa Barbara (USA), I shifted my focus on the theoretical background of land-use change patterns. Over the PhD term, I developed an original empirical framework to quantitatively describe urban sprawl. I spent the last year of my doctoral studies as a visiting fellow at the University of California – Santa Barbara, to improve my skills in urban/environment geography, remote sensing and GIS.

At the early stages of my career, my scientific interest was mainly focused on assessing effects of human activities at a local/regional scale. For my Master Thesis, I investigated socio-economic and environmental impacts of oil exploitation in a small region in central Africa (southern Chad).

The research toolset I have used includes socio-economic theory, GIS, advanced spatial modeling, statistical analysis of surveys and ancillary data, social network analysis, remote sensing, text analyses and GPS data collection. Furthermore, I am familiar with several software for conventional cartography and GIS.

The results of my studies have been published in important international journals (such as: Regional Environmental Change, Environmental Research Letters, Environment and Planning B). Besides, I have often reviewed manuscripts submitted to several leading international journals (such as Environmental Research Letters, Landscape and Urban Planning etc.) and conferences. Nevertheless, my interest in socio-environmental sustainability is not limited to research, but I am proactive also for what concerns its dissemination. I was on the Organizing Committee of the Sustainability Research Symposium at McGill 2012. This successful event’s scope is to stimulate public debate and promote scientific collaboration on and off campus dealing with sustainable development and resilience.

In conclusion, my academic activities are primarily driven by questions regarding how to adapt modern human development life-style to more sustainable paradigms, in order to preserve Earth’s resilience while supporting equitable and fair human development.

Research foci

My research interest is to investigate the interrelations between human activities and surrounding landscapes under several perspectives in order to develop more sustainable growth strategies. To do so, I want to tackle the following broad research questions:

1)How different spatial patterns of urbanization influence land cover change dynamics? Which are the causes and what are the consequences (both for environment and population)?

2) How can we manage our land in the future, to provide enough resources for a growing population, while minimizing environmental impacts and maximizing life quality?

While my research focus to date has been more on localized case studies, I envision that my future work will focus on more regional/global scale of analysis. To accomplish the goals described through my research questions, I am developing the following research themes: 1) Improving the knowledge of urbanization from a theoretical perspective, and developing spatial investigation tool to recognize patterns of land cover changes; 2) build up a portfolio of several medium and large scale case studies across the world that can be representative of this issue at a global scale; 3) interpolation of past time data analysis and forecast scenario to better describe the nature and the consequences of patterns of change. 4) Design planning strategies that aim at improving life quality and reducing environmental impacts through more sustainable urban growth and environmental management.

Research projects i want to develop

1) Improving the knowledge of urbanization from a theoretical perspective, developing spatial investigation tool to recognize patterns of land cover transition. This field of research is a follow up of my PhD work. Currently, in collaboration with Prof. K. C. Clarke we are developing innovative synthetic index that can be usefully applied to investigate urban sprawl and landscape fragmentation and their level of interdependency.

2) Build up a portfolio of several medium and large scales case studies across the world that can be representative of this issue at a global scale. At the present time few case studies have been already done; I am actually working on a research that aims to investigate and possibly forecast land cover scenarios in northern Canada. The goal is to apply similar methodology to study urban growth and land cover change dynamic also in developing country. A cross regional comparison can provide a deeper understanding of the socio-economic and environmental drivers of the change that occurred. In collaboration with Prof. Navin Ramankutty we are setting the premises to study urban growth and land cover change in South West India. This project can be seen as a pilot study to develop and validate a framework to study urban growth in developing countries from a spatial perspective. Potentially I intend to develop a network that includes natural and social scientists, government, industry, non-profit organizations, and the public. This theme of research aims to prevent and tackle repercussion of unorganized land cover management at the local scale, but also to establish paradigms and guidelines for a sustainable development at the global scale.

3) Interpolation of past time data analysis and forecast scenario to model the nature and the consequences of patterns of change. Large-scale changes in land cover can significantly influence regional and global climate; even if urban areas cover globally less than 3% of the land, their dynamic strongly influences dynamic of surrounding landscape; therefore affects human society. I will develop in collaboration with Prof. Navin Ramankutty, a global-scale study that aims to underline the interdependency of agriculture and urban areas, determine the amount of suitable land for agriculture (also for high vegetation) lost during the last 30 years of urban expansion, and forecast possible scenarios for the future both for population and environment. At the present time I am co-leading with Prof. Ramankutty a project that aims to investigating a very relevant issue such as Urban Agriculture at the global scale. We want to assess the potential for urban farming to improve food security and sustainability; we want to generally answer the question “How many people can urban agriculture feed and at which cost?” through the depiction of several different scenarios.

4) Develop planning strategies that aim to design improved life quality through more sustainable urban growth and environment exploitation. While global scale research adds value to our general understanding of human-environment interactions and has relevance from a cross-national point of view, regional-to-local scale research is able to impact local and national policies, as well as being able to target local populations’ needs (often politically disadvantaged and dependent on local natural resources). One project I would like to develop in the future is to model the urban growth and land cover change, taking in account also planning policies. This research will make possible to forecast the effects of a specific policy for the environment and for urban areas.

During my research career, I have embraced this philosophy of collaboration very strongly and I have established research connections with numerous colleagues around the world.