Homegrown fruits and vegetables are gaining popularity in many metropolitan areas with several facets connected to the wider urban agriculture phenomenon. At the same time, the relationship between urban food production and irrigation water is pivotal in terms of resource management. In this paper, we investigated water savings through the collection and use of harvestable rainwater from buildings’ rooftops to irrigate 2631 fruits and vegetables gardens in the urban area of Rome (Italy). The methodology makes use of existing geospatial data and data derived from satellite image classification to estimate food gardens’ irrigation requirements and harvestable rainwater from nearby buildings’ rooftops. The comparison of the annual harvestable rainwater with irrigation needs allowed for computing the proportion of water self-sufficient gardens as well as the amount of gardens whose water needs might be partially fulfilled with rainwater. Statistics were produced by land use type (horticulture, mixed crops, olive groves, orchards, and vineyards) and under the hypothesis that irrigation systems with low and high field application efficiency might be employed. We found that 19% and 33% of the gardens could be water self-sufficient for the low and high irrigation efficiency scenario, respectively. The remaining gardens, by using the available rainwater, could satisfy 22% (low efficiency) and 44% (high efficiency) of the water needs resulting in a reduction in the use of conventional water sources.

Site selection for waste disposal is a complex task that should meet the requirements of communities and stakeholders. In this article, three decision support methods (Boolean logic, index overlay and fuzzy gamma) are used to perform land suitability analysis for landfill siting. The study was carried out in one of the biggest metropolitan regions of Italy, with the objective of locating suitable areas for waste disposal. Physical and socio-economic information criteria for site selection were decided by a multidisciplinary group of experts, according to state-of-the-art guidelines, national legislation and local normative on waste management. The geographic information systems (GIS) based models used in this study are easy to apply but require adequate selection of criteria and weights and a careful evaluation of the results. The methodology is arranged in three steps, reflecting the criteria defined by national legislation on waste management: definition of factors that exclude location of landfills or waste treatment plants; classification of the remaining areas in terms of suitability for landfilling; and evaluation of suitable sites in relation to preferential siting factors (such as the presence of quarries or dismissed plants). The results showed that more than 80% of the provincial territory falls within constraint areas and the remaining territory is suitable for waste disposal for 0.72% or 1.93%, according to the model. The larger and most suitable sites are located in peripheral areas of the metropolitan system. The proposed approach represents a low-cost and expeditious alternative to support the spatial decision-making process.

This paper aims to assess the proximity of urban services through the lens of the 15 min city concept, using the Municipality of Rome as a case study. The question of whether Rome qualifies as a 15 min city is explored by examining proximity in terms of the “intensity” of urban services accessible within a 15 min walking or cycling distance. A simple model, based on GIS techniques, is implemented to measure proximity to urban services at the neighbourhood level. Furthermore, the proximity levels in urban areas characterised by similar socioeconomic conditions, referred to as the “seven cities” of Rome, are analysed to identify potential inequalities. Our analysis shows that the dense and walkable Rome known by tourists is not the place most Romans live in.

This article explores the integration of GIS technology with urban historical studies, focusing on one case study from the 18th century, the project Historical atlas of the modern Rome. The methodology employed in this project allows for effectiveness and accuracy in historical data acquisition and integration, which enables refined analyses of socioeconomic and environmental phenomena. The approach outlined in this article allowed researchers from different disciplines—city historians, archaeologists, demographists, economists, and so on—to interpret urban phenomenologies according to different thematic keys. These interpretations were derived from archival sources that complement each other and offer diversified insights into the urban context. The techniques described in the article are based on methods of data acquisition and spatial analysis developed in a GIS environment by exploiting the effectiveness of this technology in the quantitative treatment of cartographic and documentary sources.

Preliminary attempts to georeference maps of early twentieth century made by the Military Geographic Institute (IGM, the Italian geodetic agency) for the city of Rome and its surroundings, reported residual errors larger than errors observed on similar maps. Previous studies carried out on one or two century older maps of the same area, showed similar or even smaller errors (Baiocchi and Lelo 2005).Six sheets of the “City of Rome and its surroundings” map in scale 1:5 000 dated 1908 have been studied. The identified errors can be referred to the different system of geodetic projection and geodetic datum or to the derivation of some details from maps at smaller scale, but in this case historic documents seem to suggest a different explanation.Parameters useful to perform the transformation of the geodetic systems used in historical maps to modern systems are not known; for this reason until now the various attempts of georeferencing maps of this type were based on collimation of points recognizable on modern cartographies such as corners of historical buildings. This method has often given unsatisfactory results; therefore it was decided to proceed by determining the parameters for the transformation of geodetic datum.The history of geodetic systems used in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century is complex and, in the past, this has led some researcher to misinterpretations. For this reason a full explanation of geodetic systems used in Italy in this period is reported below. Since the parameters of the projection used for the maps in our case study are not known for sure, the reprojection was considered the only way for a correct georeferencing.