Aestimum

Assessing the effects of “appeal to authority” in the evaluation of environmental goods. Evidences from an economic experiment in Mt Etna, Italy

2021-03-13T13:05:38+00:00

In this study we aim to assess how public opinion perceives the value of dry-stone walls in the terraced vineyards of Mt Etna (Italy), recently named intangible cultural heritage of Humanity by UNESCO because they are an “example of human manufacture realized in perfect harmony with the environment”. We referred to the concept of “appeal to authority” that is a form of defeasible argument in which a claimed authority’s support is used as evidence for an argument’s conclusion. By a Contingent Valuation approach, we showed that the authoritative role of UNESCO affected people’s willingness to pay to preserve dry-stone walls in the terraced vineyards in Mt. Etna. The role of the Institutions dedicated to the protection of environmental goods appears relevant in promoting the preservation of environmental resources for future generations.

Destination of the waste generated by a steelmaking plant: a case study in Latin America

2021-03-13T13:05:26+00:00

The purpose of this article is to identify the destination given by a steelmaking plant located in Brazil to the waste it generates. The research method is a case study. The primary research techniques are interviews with practitioners and scholars, visits to the steel plant and applications, and analysis of internal documentation. The main contribution is a complete case in a large company that generates a significant amount of waste. For each ton of steel, an ordinary steel plant generates approximately 0.6 tons of waste, such as steelmaking slag, electric arc furnace dust, mill scale, and zinc sludge. The slag routes to the conservation of unpaved roads, the electric arc furnace dust routes to Zamak manufacturers and earthworks activities, the mill scale routes to the cement and machinery construction industries, and the zinc sludge helps to produce new zinc ingots. The main obstacles for more elaborate destinations are the lack of research, logistics cost, and the need for environmental licenses.

The circular economy in transforming a died heritage site into a living ecosystem, to be managed as a complex adaptive organism

2021-03-13T13:05:17+00:00

Climate change is a consequence of our difficulty to manage the currently conflicts and contradictions. It is configured as a process that makes human life on Earth increasingly uninhabitable, making the relationship between the Earth’s ecosystem and humanity increasingly difficult. A fundamental cause of the climate change is the way in which economic wealth is produced and distributed. The current economy produces also ecological and social poverty. The adaptive reuse of cultural assets is proposed in the general framework of the Green New Deal of European Union, assuming the circular economy model for re-integrating economy into ecology. The aim of the paper is to identify how to transform a died heritage site into a living system, to be managed as a complex adaptive system, discussing the ways in which adaptive reuse can be implemented as the entry point for implementing the circular city.

La monumentalità vegetale sotto la lente del legislatore

2021-03-13T13:05:21+00:00

Is there any form of legal protection for plant monumentality? This work envisages an excursus on the interventions made by the Italian legislator on this subject, highlighting the close connection between nature and culture emerging from the regulatory framework, also stigmatising the critical elements contained in the legal provisions and proposing new solutions in order to overcome them.

Ordinarietà: applicazione, implicazioni ed integrazioni

2021-03-13T13:05:32+00:00

Despite the long time since individuals have started to evaluate goods, as well as the first estimation treaties date back to the XVIII century, a shared epistemological framework of evaluation discipline have not yet been produced.

The growing demand of market values and the expansion of the estimates have greatly reduced the role of ordinariness principle. Scope of application, implementation mode, as well implications underlying its adoption, should be object of investigation in order to define what it is the currently context for its better use. At the same time, the evolution of the market and the socio-economic context call for its support with other principles. These have to be able to ensure appropriate and pro-active theoretical frameworks for answering at new types of value, both for new markets and also for not-market oriented evaluations.

Rassegna giurisprudenziale

2021-03-13T13:05:12+00:00