Renzo Rosso – författare

Flood control in urban areas can be feasibly and cost-effectively enhanced by implementing flood proofing approaches to risk reduction in the context of environmental and land-use planning and management. Indeed, flood proofing makes it possible to improve, integrate and in some cases even replace traditional measures for flood control, reducing the vulnerability and increasing the resilience of buildings and infrastructures.

This book begins by reviewing the physics of stability and instability of both human beings and buildings under flood conditions, together with criteria and models (both conventional and innovative) for assessing flood strains. In turn, it presents a range of flood proofing concepts and techniques, together with a complete and updated classification of related methods and devices. This provides a user-friendly tool to help identify appropriate solutions to real-world problems for each specific risk scenario.

In particular, the book focuses ontemporary flood proofing techniques, given their ability to deliver effective performance at low costs. Lastly, it features an overview of norms, guidelines and laboratory recommendations that are currently being adopted in various countries with regard to flood proofing devices and testing procedures.

Instead of following the Magna Charta Universitatum, the declaration of the principles of knowledge signed in 1988 in Bologna, the academic approach pursued in Europe and the other continents over the past 30 years has strictly employed a utilitarian model of higher education. This jeopardizes academic freedom, shared governance and tenure, the three pillars of the long-established model of universities. Scientific conformism and fragmentation, educational bias and authoritarianism are the major drawbacks, together with a poor readiness to meet the emerging challenges in the labor market and technology. In this book, Renzo Rosso presents a new model for countering these developments, e.g. by establishing novel democratic rules for university governance. The Slow University paradigm positions culture and education as essential tools for the long-term survival of humankind.

Water is the essential substance for life on Earth. The natural patrimony of all living beings and the material and cultural heritage, a common good, a shared resource, a treasure trove of humanity. The nature of water, water at rest and in motion, the water cycle and its management are addressed here in a multidimensional, comprehensive and transdisciplinary approach.

The book focuses on water without complying with any disciplinary approach: philosophical, historical, physical and mathematical issues are merged with traditional hydrochemistry, hydrostatics, hydrodynamics and hydrology to provide an overview of basic knowledge on Earth’s water. These five lectures can be delivered to any undergraduate STEM student to introduce them a valuable, basic, multidisciplinary knowledge on water. Non-specialists will find here an insight of water made as simple as possible, but not simpler than required