Francesco Pilla

Francesco Pilla
University College Dublin | UCD · College of Engineering

PhD

About

220
Publications
117,665
Reads
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5,808
Citations
Introduction
Francesco Pilla currently works at the College of Engineering, University College Dublin. Francesco does research in smart cities, low cost sensors, Data Mining and Geoinformatics (GIS). Their current project is 'iSCAPE: Improving the Smart Control of Air Pollution in Europe.'
Additional affiliations
February 2019 - present
University College Dublin
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
March 2011 - August 2011
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Position
  • Visiting Researcher
April 2010 - April 2010
Aarhus University
Position
  • Visiting Researcher

Publications

Publications (220)
Article
Full-text available
The Real-Time Spatial Delphi represents an innovative method tailored to navigate the complexities of uncertain spatial issues. Adopted in Future Studies contexts, this method excels in developing spatial scenarios and leveraging the collaborative insights of experts within a virtual environment to achieve a consensus regarding territorial dynamics...
Article
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Transport systems are pivotal in sustainable development, profoundly impacting social, environmental, and economic sustainability in urban settings. Integrating decision support systems becomes imperative to underscore the necessity for change and facilitate informed policy decisions based on current conditions. This study evaluates Budapest, Hunga...
Article
Full-text available
The spatial planning process is considered an extremely complex system, as it comprises different variables that interrelate and interact with each other. Effectively addressing this spatial complexity necessitates a multidisciplinary approach, as unified methodologies may prove insufficient. Specifically, in urban planning, it is increasingly cruc...
Article
Effective urban logistics planning plays a crucial role in effectively managing infrastructure and transportation networks, contributing to the mitigation of negative externalities associated with last-mile deliveries and fostering city sustainability. Among the various facets of supply chain management, selecting appropriate locations in urban are...
Article
Sustainability and CO2 reduction are vital topics nowadays. In urban and suburban contexts, road traffic is widely recognised as one of the primary sources of CO2 emissions. Thus, to reduce environmental pollution, there is an urgent need to replace vehicles with more sustainable transport modes. In this regard, electric bikes and scooters are emer...
Article
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Resource-based cities (RBCs) in China are at a historic juncture in their transformative development. Observing and assessing the role of the resource curse in urban expansion and greening is crucial for the sustainable development of these cities. This study proposes a new framework to extract urban boundary data from 2000 to 2020 in China. Utiliz...
Article
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Mobile monitoring provides high-resolution observation on temporal and spatial scales compared to traditional fixed-site measurement. This study demonstrates the use of high spatio-temporal resolution of air pollution data collected by Google Air View vehicles to identify hotspots and assess compliance with WHO Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) in Dubl...
Article
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Air pollution is a significant and pressing environmental and public health concern in urban areas, primarily driven by road transport. By gaining a deeper understanding of how traffic dynamics influence air pollution, policymakers and experts can design targeted interventions to tackle these critical issues. In order to analyse this relationship,...
Article
This paper presents a methodology aimed to enhance urban energy analysis through the utilization of geospatial data to collect and integrate not only building data but also data related to the urban context in which buildings are situated. Utilizing datasets like the GeoDirectory Building Energy Ratings (BER) dataset of Ireland, supplemented by dat...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In the Futures Studies context (FS), scenarios refer to speculative visions of potential future states or situations that may arise based on a combination of existing trends, emerging technologies, and variousfactors(Kosow and Gaßner, 2008). Scenarios provide a framework for exploring and anticipating various possibilities, enabling individuals,...
Conference Paper
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Spatial complexity, defined by a multitude of interconnected variables, is recognized as one of the most challenging forms to predict. Given the inherent unpredictability of the future and the limited utility of forecasting models for long-term predictions, this paper proposes an integrated approach for navigating various potential futures. For the...
Article
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Climate change affects Indian agriculture, which depends heavily on the spatiotemporal distribution of monsoon rainfall. Despite the nonlinear relationship between crop yield and rainfall, little is known about the optimal rainfall threshold, particularly for monsoon rice. Here, we investigate the responses of rice yield to monsoon rainfall in Indi...
Article
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Understanding the urbanization and transformation trajectories of resource-based cities (RBCs) is pivotal for China’s sustainable development goals. This study introduces a novel regression-based algorithm for assessing urbanization patterns. We delineated the urban boundaries of 335 cities and employed time-series nighttime light data from 2001 to...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
RT-GSCS is a web-based open platform facilitating dynamic spatial surveys and consensus-building. It supports multiple surveys, where users engage through a user-friendly map interface, contributing opinions in real-time. RT-GSCS employs a spatial consensus algorithm inspired by the Delphi method, visually representing experts' opinions on the map....
Article
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Urban transport system development often involves a central decision-making process by local government representatives or transport company managers. It is imperative to align these decisions with public preferences to ensure public acceptance and long-term sustainability. This study introduces an innovative decision-making model by integrating th...
Article
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Parcel lockers are considered an effective solution to address inefficiencies in last mile delivery. However,choosing the appropriate location is crucial to provide optimal service and improve logistic performance.Therefore, this research aims to assess the most suitable locations for parcel lockers in Dublin, the capital ofIreland, using a novel h...
Article
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Public transportation frameworks assume a critical role in the metropolitan region, especially in huge urban communities, where they offer a feasible answer for easing gridlock, moderating commotion contamination, and diminishing CO 2 discharges. This paper presents some novel Fermatean fuzzy Heronian mean operators based on Archimedean-norms, spec...
Article
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Parcel lockers have emerged as an effective solution to address inefficiencies in last-mile delivery. However, theselection of an appropriate location plays a crucial role in ensuring optimal service and enhanced logistic per-formance. To address this challenge, this work aims to define the best location for parcel lockers in the capital ofIreland,...
Article
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The Real-Time Geo-Spatial Consensus System (RT-GSCS) is a web-based open-source tool designed for the administration of real-time spatial surveys. One distinguishing feature of this system lies in the adoption of the RealTime Spatial Delphi logic as the main computational algorithm to achieve a convergence of opinions within a group of individuals....
Article
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Conventional urbanization transforms natural into paved landscapes, posing a significant environmental challenge. Detecting the changes in (im)pervious surfaces in cities, where patches are small and intermingled, is particularly challenging. This study introduces a novel approach to these changes by integrating Coupled Non-negative Matrix Factoriz...
Article
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Green roofs are essential for urban greening and climate adaptation, especially in densely populated areas. Analyzing runoff reduction parameters is crucial for effectively designing and implementing these systems. This study enhances traditional assessments using advanced sensors to gather meteorological and hydrological data from four green roof...
Article
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Coastal climate services play a crucial role in developing customised climate information for diverse end-users and stakeholders. To build climate-resilient societies, decision-makers should be empowered through easy access to powerful tools that enable timely adaptation to future and ongoing hazards. For this reason, fit-for-purpose climate servic...
Article
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Developing the quality of public transport has an efficient impact to attract more users to switch modes from private vehicles to public transport, which has a tremendous capability in reducing the traffic congestion, noise and CO2 emissions the urban areas. For this reason, policy makers and scholars aim to enhance the supply quality of public tra...
Preprint
Full-text available
The spatial planning process is considered an extremely complex system, as it is made up of different variables that interrelate and interact with each other. Effectively addressing this spatial complexity necessitates a multidisciplinary approach, as unified methodologies may prove insufficient. Specifically, in urban planning, it is increasingly...
Article
Full-text available
The evaluation of the severity of the factors influencing road accidents with a detailed severity distribution is critical to plan evidence-based road safety improvements and strategies. However, currently available studies use statistical and machine learning (ML) models to evaluate the severity of factors causing road accidents without a detailed...
Chapter
Developing the public transport system has been a difficult manner for policy makers and operators, however, it is a critical issue to get the real demand of different citizen’ groups towards improving the system. The issue is more crucial to handle with, in case one or more participants have no enough background towards the examined system, where...
Article
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This manuscript proposes the concept of Schweizer-Sklar operational laws under the consideration of the complex interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (CIVIF) set theory, where the Schweizer-Sklar norms are the essential and valuable modification of many norms, such as algebraic, Hamacher, and Lukasiewicz norms. Moreover, keeping the dominancy of the...
Article
Full-text available
This manuscript proposes the concept of Schweizer–Sklar operational laws under the consideration of the complex interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (CIVIF) set theory, where the Schweizer–Sklar norms are the essential and valuable modification of many norms, such as algebraic, Hamacher, and Lukasiewicz norms. Moreover, keeping the dominancy of the...
Article
Background: Soil spatial variability is a major concern when deciding how to collect a representative topsoil sample for laboratory analysis. Sampling design to capture site-specific variability is documented in the agricultural literature, but poorly understood for urban forest soils where soils may be characterized by strong horizontal and vertic...
Conference Paper
Coastal cities are confronted with the imperative to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Within the realm of adaptation strategies, ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) has emerged as a prominent solution for enhancing the resilience of coastal communities. However, a significant obstacle lies in the effective dissemination and comprehension of the...
Article
Due to the rise of e-commerce, there has been a significant increase in commercial transactions, playing a crucial role in driving economic growth. However, the delivery systems need help locating addresses and dealing with issues such as missed deliveries and exacerbating problems in last-mile logistics, such as traffic congestion and environmenta...
Article
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This paper delves into the realm of public transport system enhancement, a critical consideration for decision makers due to its profound impact on citizens' lives and government investments. The primary objective is to assess the quality of public bus transport supply and identify the most effective improvements to heighten passenger satisfaction...
Article
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For choosing the optimal option for multiple issues, the multiattribute decision-making (MADM) technique within a Fermatean fuzzy environment is a well-known and significant method. This paper presents a novel superiority inferiority ranking (SIR) approach for Fermatean fuzzy sets in group decision-making using multicriteria to reduce investment ri...
Conference Paper
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Urban logistics has become part of the citizens' life, who often use e-commerce options to buy goods and groceries. The constant increase of this phenomenon which has been witnessed in recent years led to a consequent increase in the externalities associated with it, such as air pollution, traffic, land occupation and accidents generated by the veh...
Conference Paper
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The Delphi-based scenarios (DBS) development implies the assumption of different choices, through the gathering of information and the assessment of alternative resolutions (Panpatte and Takale, 2019). During the last decades, the spread of environmental hazards has increased quickly, much to request different responses in order to develop a sustai...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The Delphi method is a structured communication approach used to gather and process expert judgments in order to make predictions or estimates about a specific issue. In the Futures Studies (FS) context, the Delphi method is combined with different methods, however, one of the main combinations is with the scenario method, forming the Delphi-based...
Article
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The Delphi technique is a commonly applied method for (among the various uses) achieving consensus from a group of knowledgeable experts. This approach is frequently employed to generate and prioritize ideas, identify potential solutions, and make decisions in various contexts through a series of iterative rounds. In the Futures Studies (FS) contex...
Article
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In the Future Studies context, the scenario development process is an established method for the identification of future projections, useful to avoid future threats and take different actions in the present. The development of future scenarios is often combined with different participatory approaches, one among many is the Delphi method, widely ad...
Conference Paper
Building energy use is one of the largest global demands, accounting for 36% of final energy use and 39% of energy and process-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Green plans are the recommended planning technique for reducing the energy demand of buildings without changing the current built environment. This study investigates the effect of ne...
Conference Paper
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Although the transport systems have improved in recent years, they are still leading to different issues for sustainability. Developing a sustainable future of transport becomes essential and since the future is characterized by various trajectories, there is a need for careful and detailed planning and management of alternative solutions. Among th...
Article
Nature-based solutions (NbS) can be beneficial to help human communities build resilience to climate change by managing and mitigating related hydro-meteorological hazards (HMHs). Substantial research has been carried out in the past on the detection and assessment of HMHs and their derived risks. Yet, knowledge on the performance and functioning o...
Article
Shared mobility solutions can respond to the social inclusion needs of communities, eliminating the costs of owning a private vehicle. In particular, bike -sharing services are an active mobility solution that especially favours sustainability since the bicycle is a transport mode with a low environmental impact and with positive effects on the hea...
Article
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Hyperspectral imageries are often degraded by systematic sensor-based errors known as “striping noises”. This study implements a spectral-based regression algorithm from highly correlated consecutive bands, i.e. left band, right band or both, to model and reconstruct the abnormal pixel values, stripe noises, in various bands of PRISMA (PRecursore I...
Article
Evaluating flood susceptibility, identifying flood-prone areas, and planning reasonable landscape patterns are important measures in promoting sustainable urban development and flood mitigation. To this end, this study evaluated the flood susceptibility using a neural network model depending on a flood inundation map created from satellite data fro...
Article
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The increasing level of marine plastic pollution poses severe threats to the marine ecosystem and biodiversity. Open remote sensing data and advanced machine learning (ML) algorithms could be a cost-effective solution for identifying large plastic patches across the scale. The potential application of such resources in detecting and discriminating...
Article
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The growth in e-commerce that our society has faced in recent years is changing the view companies have on last-mile logistics, due to its increasing impact on the whole supply chain. New technologies are raising users’ expectations with the need to develop customized delivery experiences; moreover, increasing pressure on supply chains has also cre...
Article
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Citizen science is advocated as a response to a broad range of contemporary societal and ecological challenges. However, there are widely varying models of citizen science which may either challenge or reinforce existing knowledge paradigms and associated power dynamics. This paper explores different approaches to citizen science in the context of...
Article
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Hydrological modelling to address the problem of flood risk corresponding to climate change can play an important role in water resources management. This paper describes the potential impact of climate change on an urban river catchment using a physically based hydrological model called Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The study area considered...
Article
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Changes in streamflow within catchments can have a significant impact on agricultural production, as soil moisture loss, as well as frequent drying and wetting, may have an effect on the nutrient availability of many soils. In order to predict future changes and explore the impact of different scenarios, machine learning techniques have been used r...
Preprint
Full-text available
This is a Masters Thesis completed at University College Dublin, Ireland in 2017 which involved augmenting an off-the-shelf electric bike with sensors to enable new services to be delivered to cyclists in cities. The application of primary interest was to control the cyclist's ventilation rate based on the concentration of local air pollutants. Det...
Article
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This article aims to analyse the performance of green roof in runoff reduction. A case study has been conducted through a deployed green roof at the custom house quay building in Dublin, Ireland. Modular green roofs have been deployed which have IoT scales associated to it for measuring the effective reduction in runoff. Hydro-meteorological variab...
Article
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Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the sca...
Article
Full-text available
Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the sca...
Article
Full-text available
Forest fires impact on soil, water, and biota resources. The current forest fires in the West Coast of the United States (US) profoundly impacted the atmosphere and air quality across the ecosystems and have caused severe environmental and public health burdens. Forest fire led emissions could significantly exacerbate the air pollution level and, t...
Article
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Investigating the impact of land cover change in hydrological modelling is essential for water resources management. This paper investigates the importance of landcover change in the development of a physically-based hydrological model called SWAT. The study area considered is the Dodder River basin located in southern Dublin, Ireland. Runoff at th...