This paper explores how the field of place-based appraisal and land economics is shifting from focusing mainly on market-based values of places with high human and activity densities to a broader and multi-faceted approach that explicitly considers human and territorial wellbeing. Traditional welfare assessment measures like GDP reflect economic growth, but neglect important environmental, cultural, and social factors that shape the quality of places. We propose a new framework for territorial appraisal that addresses spatial value in a more holistic way by breaking it down into economic, environmental, cultural, and social components, and then reconnecting them through an integrated recomposition approach. The paper uses new concepts, in particular circular cultural economies and ‘detouristification’, as regenerative strategies that rebalance sustainable growth, tourism, culture, and land use, showing how places can create new value by reimagining culture and using land in different ways, while strengthening transparent and participatory governance. Digital tools like geospatial models, digital twins, and visual dashboards support this process by improving transparency, participation, and learning across scales and over time. In this framework, wellbeing is not only a human goal, but also a condition for sustainable territorial development. The approach helps policymakers, planners, and appraisers move beyond the yardstick of GDP and support places where economy, culture, and society flourish sustainably, with appraisal guiding both evaluation and renewal.
The 2008 subprime mortgage crisis that deeply affected the entire international financial system highlighted the close interdependence between securities and real estate markets. This led to the need for evaluation methods for assets given as collateral for bank mortgages that were as objective and reliable as possible. Starting in 2008, the International Valuation Standards Council defined common criteria to be adopted internationally for real estate valuations. These criteria were adopted in Italy by the Italian Property Valuation Standard (Tecnoborsa, 2018). Despite the numerous market value estimation models developed by appraisal disciplines based on price comparison, the Italian Property Valuation Standard essentially considers only the so-called Market Comparison Approach (MCA) to be reliable. The analysis carried out has highlighted that the MCA contains some relevant methodological and theoretical errors. Moreover, it emerged that, especially for farmland, the MCA is substantially similar to other price comparison-based estimation models. The paper also suggests some modifications that can improve the accuracy and reliability of the MCA.
With the recent advent of large language models, text data can now be readily processed and analyzed across various sectors; traditionally, this was not the case, and text data had proven challenging to analyze. The housing market uses and features a vast amount of textual data, such as property descriptions and neighborhood trend reports, but has yet to fully exploit this potential. This study has two objectives: first, to enhance house valuation accuracy by integrating text information into valuation models; and second, to interpret how text information contributes to improved performance. We convert the environmental descriptions of each house into embedding vectors, which are then incorporated into regression and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) models to estimate house prices. Additionally, we interpret the XGB model’s results using Shapley Additive explanations (SHAP) values. The embedding vectors significantly improved the performances of both the regression and XGB models, and the embedding vector values aligned well with the semantic meaning of the environmental descriptions of each house. This study contributes to the literature by deepening our understanding of embedding vectors in the context of house valuations and housing markets.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), launched by the United Nations in 2015, have reshaped global development strategies, including the financial sector. SDGs are a concept developed from the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) framework proposed by Elkington (1998), which measures corporate performance based on economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity. This TBL concept is currently evolving and being implemented by companies as part of their Corporate Sustainability Practices (CSP), Environmental Social Governance (ESG). Islamic banking, grounded in ethical and Sharia-compliant principles, is naturally aligned with the SDGs agenda. This study employs a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) using the PRISMA framework to investigate the progress, challenges, and thematic contributions of Islamic banking to the SDGs over the past decade (2015–2025). The review identifies dominant themes, emerging research trends, and gaps, particularly in areas of financial inclusion, green finance, social financing, and SDG reporting in Islamic banks. Our findings highlight the strong conceptual alignment but limited practical implementation of SDGs initiatives in Islamic financial institutions. The paper offers recommendations for future research and policy formulation to enhance the role of Islamic banks in sustainable development.
This study analyses the effect of Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) on residential buildings in Padua (Italy). Introduced by the 2002/91/EC Directive, EPCs became mandatory in European Union countries for buildings at sale or lease. Using web-scraping we collected 5,188 real estate offers in 2022 and 2023, of which 1,738 were in the ‘apartment’ category and suitable for data analysis. We examined EPC effects on prices both in aggregate terms (2022–2023 combined) and by year, to test short-run stability. Results confirm previous findings: a price premium emerges as energy classes improve, with the highest values for top EPC ratings. While most housing characteristics showed stable short-run effects, EPC classes revealed a stronger and more significant impact over time, especially for lower energy classes.
The topic of public residential housing is relevant in the international context with different peculiarities and approaches in the various European Member States, according to the several political, economic, and cultural specificities, despite some general analogies characterizing this sector. The present research focuses on the Italian territory, aiming to critically analyse the institute mostly implemented in the initiatives of social housing, that is the surface right. In particular, the objective of the study is to empirically verify the fair fee to be paid for the conversion of surface right into full ownership, overcoming the legal provisions and considering also the real estate market and the compensation approach which takes into account the initial advantage of the assignees. By applying the three approaches, the potential disparities caused by the current legislation are highlighted and the possible increased revenues for the Public Administration generated if the normative forecasting were integrated by including real estate factors, are detected.
Rural areas play a crucial role in achieving sustainable development, yet they face persistent and recurring social issues such as demographic decline, limited access to essential services, and economic stagnation. Framed on community revitalization and place-based development, this study examines the factors influencing quality of life in marginal rural areas at high risk of abandonment, focusing on Basilicata and Tuscany—two Italian regions with distinct socio-economic profiles. Adopting a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with local stakeholders to capture their lived experiences and perceptions of rural well-being and development opportunities. The analysis, supported by textual data processing, highlights shared and region-specific challenges. Key themes include service accessibility, demographic dynamics, economic opportunities, and governance capacity. Findings reveal that while both regions emphasize essential services and economic revitalization, their approaches differ: Basilicata stakeholders stress infrastructural deficits and demographic decline, whereas Tuscany stakeholders highlight rural diversification and place-based initiatives. These insights underscore the importance of local stakeholder perceptions in shaping rural development strategies. The study contributes to theoretical debates on rural well-being by demonstrating how stakeholder perspectives influence policy priorities and intervention strategies. It advocates for place-sensitive policies that enhance institutional capacity and leverage regional assets to promote sustainable rural community revitalization. These findings support the need for a context-specific approach to rural policy that integrates both qualitative and quantitative measures of well-being.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a well-established procedure to support Decision Makers (DMs) in considering and evaluating the effects of Policies, Plans, and Programs (PPPs) on the environment, along with social and economic considerations, providing a valid basis for informed decision making. The integration of sustainability issues into decision-making processes can be provided in several ways: offering a framework to support DMs in their choice, studying and analyzing alternatives, identifying sustainability objectives, and integrating sustainability criteria in PPPs. In light of such needs, this paper aims to present a methodological approach to guide the assessment phase of environmental effects in the SEA procedure. The proposed methodology consists in seeking a strong and clearly understandable connection between the environmental sustainability objectives deriving from policies at the international level, and the specific environmental sustainability objectives of a Plan, which is propaedeutic to the evaluation of the environmental effects of the Plan itself. Moreover, this approach allows to keep the analysis at the strategic level, which is the one required in SEA. The contextualization of the general objectives of environmental sustainability with respect to the environmental aspects affected by the Plan itself and to the characteristics of the reference territory allows the requirement of strategic relevance to be fully met, integrating policy directions that in some contexts, such as the European one, are not subject to the SEA procedure.
The conference dedicated to Giovanni Rosadi, held in Florence on 16 maggio 2025 to mark the centenary of his death, brought renewed attention to a key figure in the origins of Italian landscape law. Starting from the rediscovery of his 1910 legislative proposal "For the Protection of the Landscape", the event offered a multidisciplinary reflection on the relevance of his ideas today. The introductory paper, while framing the contributions of the speakers, highlights the importance of distinguishing between the protection of landscape values and environmental protection, calling for a clearer, more effective and sustainable evolution of operational tools.
The Author, starting from Giovanni Rosadi's futuristic and enlightened intuitions on the need to protect outstanding natural beauty alongside historical and artistic heritage assets, highlights their reflections on the original text of the Italian Constitution (art. 9) and on landscape legislation, from the first laws of the 20th century to those currently in force, in the sign of the constant acknowledgment of the cultural value that connotes the landscape. The author then highlights the limits and the current criticalities inherent in the extension of the traditional landscape protection to areas of significant environmental interest, performed by the Galasso Law in 1985, and reiterated by the Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code in 2004. And finally, she reflects about the impact of the Italian Constitutional Reform in 2022, Articles 9 and 41, which includes environmental protection among the constitutional values, on the relation between environment and landscape, projecting its consequences beyond the law in force into a future legislative horizon, where, under the chrism of constitutional legitimacy, environmental, cultural and landscape values can finally achieving a balanced recomposition capable of respecting their specificity.
The topic of landscape protection aroused considerable interest in the Italian Parliament in 1910-1911, thanks to Giovanni Rosadi, who introduced a bill specifically addressing the issue. This article aims to examine, through the lens of environmental economics, the concepts and approaches evident in Rosadi's writings, which would become integral to environmental analysis methodologies and policy interventions in the decades that followed. Ecosystem services, environmental externalities, sustainable development, and public goods are concepts readily discernible in Rosadi's arguments for the need to develop regulations to protect landscape. Rosadi uses the term "landscape" as a synecdoche for the term "environment", as it has a more evident and powerful perceptual significance, but it often emerges as a synonym in the motivations for its protection and enhancement.
The essay aims to illustrate the "ancient" friendship between Giovanni Rosadi and Giacomo Puccini, which began in their early teens and lasted uninterrupted until the year of Puccini's death. Valuable evidence can be found in the correspondence between the two. In addition to distant memories, the two were also linked by their relationship with their hometown, from which they lived more or less distant. An exchange of correspondence from 1911 provides an opportunity to examine one of Rosadi's many legislative initiatives, that of the reform of the copyright law. Rosadi had proposed a reduction of the period of protection on musical works to only ten years. Puccini had also publicly expressed his strong dissent on the matter, joining the choral reaction of composers that had found wide space in the press. The episode did not interrupt the correspondence or break the friendship: Puccini's last letter to Rosadi, written on 30 October 1924, a few days before he departed for Brussels, bears witness to this.
Recent tax reforms have helped to delineate a seemingly tax-free agricultural sector. The purpose of this article is to highlight the inconsistencies of the cadastral system and how this contributes to distancing the levy from the general principles of fairness and economic efficiency in the agricultural sector. The findings show that taxpayers are randomly rewarded and penalised, without the due logical consistency to which the tax levy should be aimed. In order to ensure objectivity and transparency, the entire taxation system needs to be reviewed, and consideration should be given to reverting the tax levy to personal flat-rate and budget systems.
The Philippine government spends a lot of resources to aid the farming sector. Still, most of the farmers are considered economically poor. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the KAANIB Enterprise Development Project’s coconut processing component by the Philippine Coconut Authority in Kibawe and Damulog, Bukidnon, 10 years after implementation. Using descriptive research and thematic analysis on 140 beneficiaries, it measured profitability changes through a paired sample t-test. Significant improvements were found in Return on Investment, Return on Asset, Return on Equity, Gross Profit Margin, and Net Profit Margin for both locations. The study highlights the need for a proper community needs assessment and comprehensive impact evaluation to address project setbacks. Findings support policy recommendations to help the agency better achieve its goals.
The profession of the agronomist, in the hundred years of its history, is marked by the evolution of the notion of agriculture. Thus, initially holder of skills inherent to the land relevance of production structures, he finds himself later exercising more articulated tasks congenial to the profound transformation of production activities, once the biological cycle is removed from soil conditioning and the valorisation of the land becomes a qualifying parameter of a multifunctional vocation capable of involving management formulas integrated with the environment. A profession that requires a specialised cultural background but which rejects the fragmentation of knowledge, in a renewed commitment to compose from his point of view, how the agronomist can continue to be an interpreter of the productive leap characterising the sustainable dimension of development, improving the quality of life in the countryside with solutions placed at the service of common goods.
The conference dedicated to Giovanni Rosadi, held in Florence on the centenary of his death, brought renewed attention to a key figure in the origins of Italian landscape law. Starting from the rediscovery of his 1910 legislative proposal “For the Protection of the Landscape”, the event offered a multidisciplinary reflection on the relevance of his ideas today. The introductory paper, while framing the contributions of the speakers, highlights the importance of distinguishing between the protection of landscape values and environmental protection, calling for a clearer, more effective and sustainable evolution of operational tools.
Giovanni Rosadi, MP and statesman of liberal Italy, was the main architect of the first laws on landscape protection between 1905 and 1922. This essay reconstructs his work as a writer and legislator, focusing in particular on the cultural context of the time and the opportunities that Rosadi exploited to implement his policies.
