Actual position:
Full Professor - Department of Agriculture at Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria (Reggio Calabria, Italy)
Web page:
https://www.unirc.it/scheda_persona.php?id=764
Short BIO:
Full Professor of Land Use Planning for the Scientific Disciplinary Sector AGR / 10 at the Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, University of Tuscia, Viterbo.
Born in Modica (Italy), March 5th 1973. Graduated cum laude in Forestry Sciences at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria in 1999. PhD in Environmental and Agro-forestry Engineering (2004).
Since 2005, Researcher and Assistant professor in “Rural Building and Landscape Planning” (SSD AGR/10)at Mediterranea' University of Reggio Calabria. In 2018, he has received the National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor in ‘Rural buildings and agro-forest landscape planning’ (AGR/10).
Member of Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering (AIIA), CIGR (Commission International du Génie Rural), AgEng (International Association of Agricultural Engineers), and European Geosciences Union (EGU).
Teaching activity: since Academic year 2005-2006, Lecturer in “Agro-forestry landscape planning”, “Laboratory of Geographic Information Systems”, “Laboratory of CAD”, “Landscape survey and representation” at Department of Agriculture of the ‘Mediterranea’ University of Reggio Calabria.
Since 2017, Member of the Teaching Staff of the PhD Course on “Agricultural, Food and Foresty Science” at 'Mediterranea' University of Reggio Calabria. From 2008-2015 Member of the Teaching Staff of the PhD Course on “Rural Development, Sciences and technologies for agroforestry and animal farming” at 'Mediterranea' University of Reggio Calabria. From 2008 to 2015 Member of the Teaching Staff of the PhD Course on “Rural Development, Sciences and technologies for agroforestry and animal farming”.
He is supervisor and co-supervisor of several undergraduate and master degree theses, and supervisor of several PhD students.
Person in charge of the GIS and cartographic section of the AGROMATER-LAB research laboratory at 'Mediterranea' University of Reggio Calabria.
His main research interests focus on: sustainable landscape planning, land use dynamics, landscape services, landscape analysis characterization and interpretation, Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for sustainable landscape planning, multi-criteria evaluation, satellite and UAV remote sensing applications in Agro-Forestry; remote sensing of vegetation; image processing and classification on remotely sensed data, geographic object-based image analysis; machine learning.
Member of the editorial board of Remote Sensing (IF 4.50; ISSN 2072-4292), LaborEst (ISSN 2421-3187), and of the topic board of Land (IF 2.43; ISSN 2073-445X) and ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (IF 2.24; ISSN 2220-9964). Since 2011, Member of the Programme Committee of the International Conference on "Geographical Analysis, Urban Modeling, Spatial Statistics" within the International Conference on Computational Science and Its Applications (ICCSA). Guest Editor of the following special issues: “Machine Learning Using High-Resolution Remote Sensing Datasets” (Journal ‘Remote Sensing’ – co-editors, dr. Johnson, dr. Rao, dr. Zabalza); “Multi-Sensor Data Fusion of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Remote Sensing for Environmental Applications” (Journal ‘Remote Sensing’ – co-editor, dr. Abbaspour); “Geomatics in Forestry and Agriculture: New Advances and Perspectives” (Journal ‘ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information’, co-editors, dr. Pollino); “Sustainable Land Uses and Rural Governance” (Journal ‘Sustainability’, co-editor Prof. De Montis A.).
Referee for several international journals, among others: Landscape and Urban Planning, Remote Sensing of Environment, Remote Sensing, European Journal of Remote Sensing, International Journal of Remote Sensing, IEEE Access, Land Degradation & Development, Sustainable Cities and Society, Environmental Modelling & Software.
He authored more 95 scientific publications in these research fields, 41 of which are indexed in Scopus and/or Web of Science databases.
Bibliographic indexes
Scopus: Number of documents 39, Number of citations 610, H index 16.
Main experiences in Scientific projects:
From 2016 to 2019 - Principal Investigator in the Project entitled “Application of GIS and Remote Sensing in the Formulation of Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Variability in Arid and Semi-arid Zones in Mozambique” Project Partners: Department of Geography, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique (Lead Prtner); Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria (Italy) and Department of Geography of the Federal Fluminense University (Brazil).
From September 2016 to September 2019 – member of the RU of the research project “"Ecological networks and landscape planning: case studies in Sardinia", funded by the “Banco di Sardegna Foundation. Principal Investigator, prof. A. De Montis.
From 2014, member of working group (WG) 3 “Conceptual reflection" and of the Managing Committee of the project CYBERPARKS (Fostering knowledge about the relationship between Information and Communication Technologies and Public Spaces supported by strategies to improve their use and attractiveness), funded in the intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) - Transport and Urban Development (TUD) COST Action T? (www.cost.eu/domains_actions/tud/Actions/T? - http://cyberparks-project.eu).
From October 2014 to October 2015 - member of the Research Unit project "SUBERWALL - SU.STAINABLE B.UILDINGS E.NVIRONMENTALLY EXCELLENT WALL in the framework of Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 of Regione Calabria funded by the European agricultural fund for rural development (EAFRD), Axis 1 “Improving the competitiveness of the agricultural and forestry sector”, Measure 124 “Cooperation for development of new products, processes and technologies in the agriculture and food sector”,– project coordinator Prof. F. Barreca.
From July 2012 to December 2013 – member of the Research Unit project "LANDsARE Landscape Architectures in European Rural Areas: a new approach to the local development design Cooperation project" in the framework of LEADER programme. Partners: LAG Oglio Po, Italy (LEAD Partner); LAG BaTir, Italy; LAG Valle Camonica, Italy; LAG Garda Valsabbia, Italy; LAG Oltrepo Mantovano, Italy; Kultural-Landschaft, Haldensleben-Hundisburg, Germany; University of Highlands and Islands, United Kingdom; LAG Highland Leader, United Kingdom; County Cremona, Italy; County Mantova, Italy; County of Brescia, Italy; Adamello Regional Park, Italy; Nursey's Rural Union, Italy.
From June 2011 to July 2013 Project Manager of the Project Partner 4-University of Reggio Calabria on the ESPON project SIESTA (Spatial indicators for a Europe 2020 Strategy Territorial Analysis). SIESTA has been funding on ESPON2013 Programme (European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion) priority 1 (Applied Research Projects). Lead Partner, research group ANTE of the University Institute for the Study and the Development of Galicia (IDEGA); international Project coordinator Prof Lois.
2011 – Scientific coordination of 15 Research Fellows on a course in “Expert in the requalification and Valorisation of Anthropic Parks of Reggio Calabria province” and scientific responsible for the “Definition of an innovative model for the strategic planning in the ambit of the Provincial Agri-touristic Plan” (Research agreement between DiSTAfA and Provincial Administration of Reggio Calabria).
Since January 2010, organization of the GIS and cartographic section in the research Laboratory “AGROMATER-LAB” (Technological Innovation, Research and Services for quality and typical Agro-food products and for the Valorization of the typical labour places) granted in the Framework Program "APQ - Ricerca Scientifica e Innovazione Tecnologica nella Regione Calabria” (Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in Calabria Region) among EU, Calabria Region and MIUR (Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research).
Participation on PRIN projects - Research Projects of National Relevance funded by Italian Ministry for University and Research (MIUR):
2008-2010 - PRIN 2007 member of the Research Unit (RU) involved on the research “New guidelines for building design and landscape planning in Italian rural areas” Principal investigator Prof de Montis
2004-2006 - PRIN 2003 member of the RU involved on the research “The rural landscape between conservation and innovation: analysis of the evolution trends and definition of strategies and tools for a sustainable planning” Principal investigator Prof de Montis.
MUR - BANDO 2020
2004-2006 - PRIN 2003 member of the RU involved on the research “Models for the sustainable landscape development areas with differentiated typology: the case of Aeolian islands” Principal