Papers by Maria Valentina Lasorella
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Dec 31, 2015
Soil is an ecological system and a phylogenetic organism that evolved in response to stimuli and ... more Soil is an ecological system and a phylogenetic organism that evolved in response to stimuli and changes. It is a precious, fragile, limited and non-renewable resource, since it takes 100 to 1,000 years to produce one centimetre of fertile soil. Soil constitutes the largest existing organic carbon store and, consequently, plays a central role in the global carbon cycle and in the fight against climate change.However, land degradation has progressed markedly around the world. In fact, studies show that about 33% of the world’s soils are moderately or strongly degraded. An estimated annual global loss of 75 billion tons of fertile soil is caused by erosion, pollution, unsustainable agronomic practices, change of use (e.g. deforestation or conversion from pasture to cultivated land) and sealing of land. More than 12.7% of EU soil is subject to moderate to severe erosion and degradation. Stocks of organic carbon in farmland and the extent of wetlands and peatlands are steadily decreasin...
The CAP has introduced a higher allocation of the budget to the Agri-environmental schemes and Or... more The CAP has introduced a higher allocation of the budget to the Agri-environmental schemes and Organic Farming over the years. In order to estimating impacts at regional level the evaluation of a Rural Development Programme single sub-measure have been considered. A FADN panel sample of Marche Region has been selected for years 2013, 2015. The application of a nonparametric matching model and the Difference-in-Difference estimator is presented. The environmental performance of organic farms is statistically different from conventional ones, therefore policy intervention has reached a positive effect. Instead, results on detected economic variables shown no differences between the two groups.
The main challenge of agriculture due to current population growth and changing in food preferenc... more The main challenge of agriculture due to current population growth and changing in food preferences is to guarantee
food access. The agricultural intensification in the last 20 years have led to soil degradation, water pollution and food
insecurity. Worldwide, the unsustainable use of raw material and fossil energy has exploded during the past 50 years,
with dreadful consequences for the global environment. Enterprises have embraced a variety of environmental, social
and economic initiatives at all levels of their operations. Most of enterprises that have moved their operations toward
developing markets, embraced Corporate Social Responsibility as a key factor in business growth and environmental
social and economic strategies. To date, the current global situation led to few questions such as: can we produce
enough food to feed growing human numbers that is expected to be 9 billion projected for 2050? How can Corporate
Social Responsibility refer to enterprises moving to developing markets, taking responsibility for their impact on
society and environment and guarantee food production? What is the role of business in facing the critical issues of
human development and environmental sustainability in developing countries? In this context, possible research
priorities on CSR are to increase competitiveness of enterprises through sustainable agriculture intensification, quality
of life, new improved technologies and innovation capacity with a different modus operandi in Europe and in
developing markets such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, without forgetting the fundamental role of the sustainable
development that constitutes one of the biggest opportunities in the history of commerce.
Keywords: food security, sustainability development, emerging markets, corporate social responsibility, Europe.
Since the advent of agriculture, more than one-fourth of Earth's land surface has been conver... more Since the advent of agriculture, more than one-fourth of Earth's land surface has been converted for agricultural purposes. Conversion from natural to agricultural landscapes dramatically changes the plant communities that are integral to ecosystem processes. Renewable biomass to be used in bioenergy production is expected to play a multifunctional role including food production, source of energy and fodder, biodiversity conservation, environmental services as well as mitigation of the impact of climate change. As revised in chapters 2, 3 and 4, several limitations to the expansion of energy crops have been highlighted in recent years, particularly regarding the use of food crops for biofuels. At the same time, while biomass residues are considered for bioenergy, limitations to the use of forestry, industrial and agricultural waste materials have been suggested to constraint the expansion of bioenergy projects. In Europe, dedicated energy plantations would be required to meet th...
Industrial Crops and Products
Switchgrass is a promising perennial energy crop with a good potential under environmental limiti... more Switchgrass is a promising perennial energy crop with a good potential under environmental limiting conditions. Although some studies have highlighted the different yields of lowland and upland cultivars in Mediterranean environments, only a few have explored the role of soil and different crop managements on switchgrass productive performances. For this reason, two field trials were carried out in central Italy to investigate the effect of soil texture (silty-clay-loam vs. sandy-loam soils), irrigation (rainfed vs. 75% restitution of the potential evapotranspiration) and nitrogen fertilization (0, 50 and 100 kg N ha−1) on the yield of two switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) cultivars: Alamo and Blackwell. Crop aboveground dry yields were monitored from the first to the fourth year of growth. Results highlighted cultivar as the most significant factor affecting crop yield. In fact, excluding the establishment year, aboveground dry yields in Alamo and Blackwell exceeded 30 and 15 Mg ha...
Why is ENVIEVAL relevant? Background Status quo and starting ... more Why is ENVIEVAL relevant? Background Status quo and starting point is the (current and future) CMEF
Improved evaluation tools required to better address challenges such as:
Linkages between different levels of indicators and different rural development measures;
Complexity and data requirements of existing and additional impact indicators;
Counterfactual development for measures implemented across large areas;
Quantification of net impacts at macro-level and establishing causal-effects relationships; and
Influence of site-specific circumstances, time gap of impacts and impacts of other intervening factors.
Evaluations of environmental impacts of RDPs are characterized by a number of
methodological chal... more Evaluations of environmental impacts of RDPs are characterized by a number of
methodological challenges. However, recent methodological developments have improved the
understanding and capacity of analysing the impacts of farming and forestry on the provision
of public goods. Against this background, the main aim of ENVIEVAL is to develop and test
improved tools for the evaluation of environmental impacts of rural development measures
and programmes in EU Member States. The main innovative aspects of the new
methodological frameworks are that they enable the integration of micro- and macro-level
evaluations (and their results) and provide guidance on the selection and application of costeffective
evaluation methods to estimate net effects of rural development programmes on the
different main public goods from farming and forestry.
Reports by Maria Valentina Lasorella
ENVIEVAL 7FP Proejct - Development and application of new methodological frameworks for the evaluation of environmental impacts of rural development programmes in the EU
Based on the findings of the indicator and methodological reviews in WP2 – WP5 and the results of... more Based on the findings of the indicator and methodological reviews in WP2 – WP5 and the results of the first stakeholder consultations in WP9, the data requirements for a set of candidate methods and corresponding public goods and indicators have been assessed. This report aims to analyse these data requirements and to summarise the main findings to propose guidelines for the structure of the databases for the case studies from a micro-level perspective. Section 3 provides an overview of the selected method/public good/indicator combinations at micro level. Section 4 starts with a list of key questions to be answered by the assessment and then reports in detail the data requirements for the selected methods, applied
to selected CMEF, direct and indirect indicators for each public good, in order to depict clearly the state-of-art of data requirements for RDP assessment at micro level. Thus, each method has been analysed in terms of types of data (primary and secondary), spatial aspects and temporal dimension, data processing, sensitivity, and consequences of data gaps. Section 5 will provide an overview of the key aspects of the data monitoring requirements of the candidate methods. Specifically, Subsection 5.1 assesses the outputs of Section 4 in tables that
compare the data requirements for the selected methods for each public good, with respect to data types, level of detail, spatial and temporal dimensions, data processing, applicability in case-study areas and micro/macro linkage. Subsection 5.2 scores the data requirement of Subsection 5.1, assigning four scores that ‘weight’ the data requirement. A discussion of the related findings and preliminary conclusions are provided in Subsection 5.3, while Section 6 highlights key aspects for the structure of the databases for the case studies from a micro-level
perspective. Generally, this report underlines the necessity to acquire more adequate data, database and data sources for the environmental evaluation of RDP at micro level. Microlevel data should be developed in a more consistent and standardised way, targeting an accurate data collection at farm level, in order to provide a detailed overview of the whole farming systems. An emerging question is related to the representativeness of the data collected at farm level. The complexity of active variables within the farming systems necessitates the establishment of a baseline common to European Member States. This complexity also restricts the possibility to assess very specific methodologies in order to
reduce uncertainty. Finding methods that ensure representativeness of data is crucial for the future challenges of the ENVIEVAL project.
Teaching Documents by Maria Valentina Lasorella
Inventory of climate actions, technical fiches for
RDP operations
The Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) offer numerous opportunities to advance climate activitie... more The Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) offer numerous opportunities to advance climate activities across the EU. In the 2007 – 2013 programming period, Member States used the RDPs to fund operations such as those related to renewable energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and forest fire prevention, irrigation, improved nitrogen-use efficiency and manure management, and grassland management. For the programming period from 2014 to 2020, Member States can build on past experiences and further provide targeted support for climate operations under a range of rural development measures such as the agri-environment-climate measure, forestry measures, investments in physical assets, knowledge transfer and information actions, and organic farming.
As part of a wider project for EC DG Climate Action, a series of 25 fiches have been written which seek to explain how some key “new and innovative” mitigation and adaptation measures work, and how they could be integrated into RDP operations. By “new and innovative” we mean actions either not commonly implemented in the past RDPs (but which have significant mitigation or adaptation potential), or actions which have already been commonly implemented in RDPs but which have significant additional mitigation or adaptation potential. The fiches were chosen (with the assistance of a range of stakeholders from across the EU) in order to provide actions that target a wide range of farm systems, GHG emission sources and adaptation pressures and are feasible to implement in RDPs. It is important to keep in mind that mitigation and adaptation are complex processes, while the fiches are relatively brief overviews that explain key points and are intended to provide inspiration rather than detailed technical guidance.
Conference Presentations by Maria Valentina Lasorella
Strategie di mitigazione: insieme
di interventi che riducono le
emissioni di gas serra in quanto
... more Strategie di mitigazione: insieme
di interventi che riducono le
emissioni di gas serra in quanto
principale fattore di rischio di
cambiamenti climatici
Strategie di adattamento:
modificazioni dei sistemi antropici in
risposta a modifiche delle condizioni
di contesto per ridurne gli impatti o
per sfruttarne le opportunità
Uploads
Papers by Maria Valentina Lasorella
food access. The agricultural intensification in the last 20 years have led to soil degradation, water pollution and food
insecurity. Worldwide, the unsustainable use of raw material and fossil energy has exploded during the past 50 years,
with dreadful consequences for the global environment. Enterprises have embraced a variety of environmental, social
and economic initiatives at all levels of their operations. Most of enterprises that have moved their operations toward
developing markets, embraced Corporate Social Responsibility as a key factor in business growth and environmental
social and economic strategies. To date, the current global situation led to few questions such as: can we produce
enough food to feed growing human numbers that is expected to be 9 billion projected for 2050? How can Corporate
Social Responsibility refer to enterprises moving to developing markets, taking responsibility for their impact on
society and environment and guarantee food production? What is the role of business in facing the critical issues of
human development and environmental sustainability in developing countries? In this context, possible research
priorities on CSR are to increase competitiveness of enterprises through sustainable agriculture intensification, quality
of life, new improved technologies and innovation capacity with a different modus operandi in Europe and in
developing markets such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, without forgetting the fundamental role of the sustainable
development that constitutes one of the biggest opportunities in the history of commerce.
Keywords: food security, sustainability development, emerging markets, corporate social responsibility, Europe.
Improved evaluation tools required to better address challenges such as:
Linkages between different levels of indicators and different rural development measures;
Complexity and data requirements of existing and additional impact indicators;
Counterfactual development for measures implemented across large areas;
Quantification of net impacts at macro-level and establishing causal-effects relationships; and
Influence of site-specific circumstances, time gap of impacts and impacts of other intervening factors.
methodological challenges. However, recent methodological developments have improved the
understanding and capacity of analysing the impacts of farming and forestry on the provision
of public goods. Against this background, the main aim of ENVIEVAL is to develop and test
improved tools for the evaluation of environmental impacts of rural development measures
and programmes in EU Member States. The main innovative aspects of the new
methodological frameworks are that they enable the integration of micro- and macro-level
evaluations (and their results) and provide guidance on the selection and application of costeffective
evaluation methods to estimate net effects of rural development programmes on the
different main public goods from farming and forestry.
Reports by Maria Valentina Lasorella
to selected CMEF, direct and indirect indicators for each public good, in order to depict clearly the state-of-art of data requirements for RDP assessment at micro level. Thus, each method has been analysed in terms of types of data (primary and secondary), spatial aspects and temporal dimension, data processing, sensitivity, and consequences of data gaps. Section 5 will provide an overview of the key aspects of the data monitoring requirements of the candidate methods. Specifically, Subsection 5.1 assesses the outputs of Section 4 in tables that
compare the data requirements for the selected methods for each public good, with respect to data types, level of detail, spatial and temporal dimensions, data processing, applicability in case-study areas and micro/macro linkage. Subsection 5.2 scores the data requirement of Subsection 5.1, assigning four scores that ‘weight’ the data requirement. A discussion of the related findings and preliminary conclusions are provided in Subsection 5.3, while Section 6 highlights key aspects for the structure of the databases for the case studies from a micro-level
perspective. Generally, this report underlines the necessity to acquire more adequate data, database and data sources for the environmental evaluation of RDP at micro level. Microlevel data should be developed in a more consistent and standardised way, targeting an accurate data collection at farm level, in order to provide a detailed overview of the whole farming systems. An emerging question is related to the representativeness of the data collected at farm level. The complexity of active variables within the farming systems necessitates the establishment of a baseline common to European Member States. This complexity also restricts the possibility to assess very specific methodologies in order to
reduce uncertainty. Finding methods that ensure representativeness of data is crucial for the future challenges of the ENVIEVAL project.
Teaching Documents by Maria Valentina Lasorella
As part of a wider project for EC DG Climate Action, a series of 25 fiches have been written which seek to explain how some key “new and innovative” mitigation and adaptation measures work, and how they could be integrated into RDP operations. By “new and innovative” we mean actions either not commonly implemented in the past RDPs (but which have significant mitigation or adaptation potential), or actions which have already been commonly implemented in RDPs but which have significant additional mitigation or adaptation potential. The fiches were chosen (with the assistance of a range of stakeholders from across the EU) in order to provide actions that target a wide range of farm systems, GHG emission sources and adaptation pressures and are feasible to implement in RDPs. It is important to keep in mind that mitigation and adaptation are complex processes, while the fiches are relatively brief overviews that explain key points and are intended to provide inspiration rather than detailed technical guidance.
Conference Presentations by Maria Valentina Lasorella
di interventi che riducono le
emissioni di gas serra in quanto
principale fattore di rischio di
cambiamenti climatici
Strategie di adattamento:
modificazioni dei sistemi antropici in
risposta a modifiche delle condizioni
di contesto per ridurne gli impatti o
per sfruttarne le opportunità
food access. The agricultural intensification in the last 20 years have led to soil degradation, water pollution and food
insecurity. Worldwide, the unsustainable use of raw material and fossil energy has exploded during the past 50 years,
with dreadful consequences for the global environment. Enterprises have embraced a variety of environmental, social
and economic initiatives at all levels of their operations. Most of enterprises that have moved their operations toward
developing markets, embraced Corporate Social Responsibility as a key factor in business growth and environmental
social and economic strategies. To date, the current global situation led to few questions such as: can we produce
enough food to feed growing human numbers that is expected to be 9 billion projected for 2050? How can Corporate
Social Responsibility refer to enterprises moving to developing markets, taking responsibility for their impact on
society and environment and guarantee food production? What is the role of business in facing the critical issues of
human development and environmental sustainability in developing countries? In this context, possible research
priorities on CSR are to increase competitiveness of enterprises through sustainable agriculture intensification, quality
of life, new improved technologies and innovation capacity with a different modus operandi in Europe and in
developing markets such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, without forgetting the fundamental role of the sustainable
development that constitutes one of the biggest opportunities in the history of commerce.
Keywords: food security, sustainability development, emerging markets, corporate social responsibility, Europe.
Improved evaluation tools required to better address challenges such as:
Linkages between different levels of indicators and different rural development measures;
Complexity and data requirements of existing and additional impact indicators;
Counterfactual development for measures implemented across large areas;
Quantification of net impacts at macro-level and establishing causal-effects relationships; and
Influence of site-specific circumstances, time gap of impacts and impacts of other intervening factors.
methodological challenges. However, recent methodological developments have improved the
understanding and capacity of analysing the impacts of farming and forestry on the provision
of public goods. Against this background, the main aim of ENVIEVAL is to develop and test
improved tools for the evaluation of environmental impacts of rural development measures
and programmes in EU Member States. The main innovative aspects of the new
methodological frameworks are that they enable the integration of micro- and macro-level
evaluations (and their results) and provide guidance on the selection and application of costeffective
evaluation methods to estimate net effects of rural development programmes on the
different main public goods from farming and forestry.
to selected CMEF, direct and indirect indicators for each public good, in order to depict clearly the state-of-art of data requirements for RDP assessment at micro level. Thus, each method has been analysed in terms of types of data (primary and secondary), spatial aspects and temporal dimension, data processing, sensitivity, and consequences of data gaps. Section 5 will provide an overview of the key aspects of the data monitoring requirements of the candidate methods. Specifically, Subsection 5.1 assesses the outputs of Section 4 in tables that
compare the data requirements for the selected methods for each public good, with respect to data types, level of detail, spatial and temporal dimensions, data processing, applicability in case-study areas and micro/macro linkage. Subsection 5.2 scores the data requirement of Subsection 5.1, assigning four scores that ‘weight’ the data requirement. A discussion of the related findings and preliminary conclusions are provided in Subsection 5.3, while Section 6 highlights key aspects for the structure of the databases for the case studies from a micro-level
perspective. Generally, this report underlines the necessity to acquire more adequate data, database and data sources for the environmental evaluation of RDP at micro level. Microlevel data should be developed in a more consistent and standardised way, targeting an accurate data collection at farm level, in order to provide a detailed overview of the whole farming systems. An emerging question is related to the representativeness of the data collected at farm level. The complexity of active variables within the farming systems necessitates the establishment of a baseline common to European Member States. This complexity also restricts the possibility to assess very specific methodologies in order to
reduce uncertainty. Finding methods that ensure representativeness of data is crucial for the future challenges of the ENVIEVAL project.
As part of a wider project for EC DG Climate Action, a series of 25 fiches have been written which seek to explain how some key “new and innovative” mitigation and adaptation measures work, and how they could be integrated into RDP operations. By “new and innovative” we mean actions either not commonly implemented in the past RDPs (but which have significant mitigation or adaptation potential), or actions which have already been commonly implemented in RDPs but which have significant additional mitigation or adaptation potential. The fiches were chosen (with the assistance of a range of stakeholders from across the EU) in order to provide actions that target a wide range of farm systems, GHG emission sources and adaptation pressures and are feasible to implement in RDPs. It is important to keep in mind that mitigation and adaptation are complex processes, while the fiches are relatively brief overviews that explain key points and are intended to provide inspiration rather than detailed technical guidance.
di interventi che riducono le
emissioni di gas serra in quanto
principale fattore di rischio di
cambiamenti climatici
Strategie di adattamento:
modificazioni dei sistemi antropici in
risposta a modifiche delle condizioni
di contesto per ridurne gli impatti o
per sfruttarne le opportunità