The Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon is commonly solved by implementing materials with optimal thermic and evapotranspiration properties which help decreasing the air temperature in dense urban areas. This approach has been applied in this study, testing six different materials (replacing the current Macadam) in one parking area in Bari (Italy), which provides a large-scale testbed, by means of a thermal three-dimensional non-hydrostatic simulation: impervious asphalt pavement (IAP), asphalt permeable pavement (APP), green pavement (GP), green pavement-asphalt permeable pavement (GP+APP), grey porous concrete blocks (GCB), and light concrete permeable pavement (LCPP). The highest-performance pavements in terms of potential air temperature (PAT) reduction were the GP (−1.22°C), GCB (−1.26°C) and LCPP (−1.22°C), which also showed a constant relative humidity, suggesting their UHI mitigation benefits. A comparison of the structural properties as well as the construction and maintenance costs of such pavements is also provided, finding the best mitigation strategy (GCB).

The need for improving urban road safety, livability, and sustainability is evident. Quantitative estimates and qualitative methods/strategies can be used by road safety practitioners to design safety interventions. This study proposes a flexible integrated design framework for safety interventions on existing urban road segments and intersections that integrates quantitative and qualitative methods. The proposed design framework is divided into four stages of the safety management process: End of Network Screening, Diagnosis, Selection of Countermeasures, and Economic Assessment. Pilot applications of the proposed method were performed on existing roads of the urban road network of the Municipality of Bari, Italy. Results from the application were useful to highlight some possible problems in the different stages of the design process. In particular, the discussed problems include a lack of crash and traffic data, difficulties with defining the road functional classifications, including rural-to-urban transitions, a lack of local inspection procedures, the recurrent problems from diagnosis, difficulties regarding the safety assessment of cycling infrastructures and sight distances, the criteria for grouping countermeasures into sets, and the choice of appropriate predictive methods. In response, appropriate solutions to the highlighted problems were presented. The usefulness of the proposed method for both practitioners and researchers was shown.

Permeable-pavement design methodologies can improve the hydrologic and therefore the environmental benefits of rural and urban roadway systems. By contrast, conventional impervious pavements perturb the hydrologic cycle, altering the relationship between the rainfall loading and runoff response. Impervious pavements create a hydraulically conductive interface for the transport of traffic-generated chemicals and particulate matter (PM), deleteriously impacting their proximate environments. Permeable-pavement systems are countermeasures to mitigate hydrologic, chemical, and PM impacts. However, permeable pavements are not always equally implementable due to costs, PM loadings, and design constraints. A potential solution to facilitate environmental benefits while meeting the traffic load capacity is the combination of two filtration systems placed at the pavement shoulders and/or pedestrian sidewalks: a bituminous-pavement open-graded friction course (BPFC) and an aggregate-filled infiltration trench. This solution is presented in this manuscript together with the methodological framework and the first results of the investigations into designing and validating such a combined system. The research was conducted at the laboratories of the Polytechnic University of Bari and the University of Florida, while an operational and full-scale physical model was constructed in Bari, Italy. The first results presented characterize the PM deposition on public roads based on granulometry (particle size distributions (PSDs) and particle number densities (PNDs)). Samples (n = 16) were collected and analyzed at eight different sites with different land uses, traffic, and pavements from different cities (Bari and Taranto, Italy). The PM analysis showed similar distributions (PSDs and PNDs), except for two samples. The gravimetric-based PSDs of the PM had granulometric distributions in the sand-size range. In contrast, the PNDs, modeled by a Power Law Model (PLM) (R² ≥ 0.92), illustrated an exponentially increasing number of particles in the fine silt and clay-size range, representing less than 10% of the PSD mass. Moreover, the results indicate that PM sourced from permeable-pavement systems has differing impacts on the pavement service life.

Aircraft veer-off is a lateral excursion from the runway. The cleared and graded area (CGA) outside a runway is provided with graded bearing capacity to stop veered-off aircraft. However, no precise design standards about the gradation of bearing capacity in the CGA are provided. This study attempts to address these deficiencies by proposing the division of CGAs into strips of specified widths and bearing capacities, decreasing toward the outside. The CGA division into strips is based on a risk assessment procedure based on historical worldwide veer-off accidents (1980–2016). Probabilities and consequences associated to side distances run by aircraft veered off from the runway centerline (CL) were assessed. Risks were computed by combining probabilities and consequences. Three CGA strips were proposed at different distances (30–50, 50–65, and $65–105\mathrm{m}$ ) from the CL. The California bearing ratios (CBRs) associated to each CGA strip were determined through a veer-off simulation model, considering different exit angles, soil properties, and other characteristics. Among the different considered combinations of CBRs compliant with current regulations, those deemed to provide the safest aircraft stopping (at given exit angles and weight conditions) were set to 17, 16, and 15 for each strip. Additional safety measures were proposed as well.