Michele Capobianco

CAPOBIANCO · Innovation Management

italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Edge Intelligence (EI) is an emerging computing and communication paradigm that enables Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality at the network edge. In this article, we highlight EI as an emerging and important field of research, discuss the state o...

Gas loading and unloading processes are critical for the technical and the economic feasibility of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) transport at sea since they affect in a critical manner the time required for gas loading and gas unloading, the amount of compressed natural gas that can be safely stored and transported, the amount of energy required for...

Fuel Cells fuelled by hydrogen could be a viable solution to enable zero local emissions in environmentally sensitive areas. Nonetheless, hydrogen storage still represents a problem in terms of cargo volume. Even if the innovative types of pressure cylinders allows to reach an energy density higher than conventional intermediate pressure cylinders,...

In this white paper we provide a vision for 6G Edge Intelligence. Moving towards 5G and beyond the future 6G networks, intelligent solutions utilizing data-driven machine learning and artificial intelligence become crucial for several real-world applications including but not limited to, more efficient manufacturing, novel personal smart device env...

The focus of this white paper is on machine learning (ML) in wireless communications. 6G wireless communication networks will be the backbone of the digital transformation of societies by providing ubiquitous, reliable, and near-instant wireless connectivity for humans and machines. Recent advances in ML research has led enable a wide range of nove...

The number of cruise ships sailing is growing constantly worldwide, driven by a continuously increasing number of passengers. Higher attention to this ship segment runs together with more complex energy systems installed on board due to the needs of improving energy efficiency and reducing operational costs. For these reasons, ship Owners and Shipy...

Research into ageing and cognition has demonstrated the close relationship of sensory functioning and social communication to maintaining cognitive performance and mood in the elderly, yet in modern societies elderly people are increasingly isolated and under-stimulated, both physically and psycho-socially. This situation results in accelerated cog...

There is still no universal model for analysing and predicting coastal evolution and its governing processes on yearly to decadal time scales. Instead, depending on the nature of the problem and project objectives, there is a wide range of models available, each focusing on the problem complex from a specific standpoint. The present paper gives an...

Evolution of coastal morphology over centuries to millennia (low-order coastal change) is relevant to chronic problems in coastal management (e.g., systematic shoreline erosion). This type of coastal change involves parts of the coast normally ignored in predictions required for management of coastal morphology: i.e., shoreline evolution linked to...

A number of statistical techniques to analyze and model coastal morphological evolution over yearly and decadal (i.e., long-term) time scales based on field data are presented. After a general introduction to long-term morphological modeling, mainly linear methods are discussed, whereas nonlinear methods are treated in a companion paper (Southgate...

A number of techniques for non-linear analysis of time series data have been developed in recent years and applied in many environmental sciences. In this paper, some of these techniques are reviewed and their usefulness for coastal morphological data assessed, with examples in coastal morphology and related fields where these are available. The me...

The project “Multi-Agents-based Diagnostic Data Acquisition and Management in Complex Systems (MAGIC)” has defined a general-purpose architecture to setup and customise diagnostic systems for industrial applications. Such architecture supports the operation of distributed “Diagnostic Agents” based on a variety of “Diagnostic Methods”. The problem d...

In this contribution an European research project funded by the European Commission in the framework of the IST programme is introduced. The goal is to present the basic concepts, innovations and solutions of the project “Multi-Agents-based Diagnostic Data Acquisition and Management in Complex Systems (MAGIC)”. MAGIC is based on a multi-level-multi...

Industrial diagnostic systems aim at anticipating the occurrence of failures or, should failures have occurred, at detecting them and identifying their cause. Similar to a process control system, a diagnostic system is closely connected with a specific industrial application. In case of large and complex industrial systems, such intimate link trans...

In this contribution an European research project funded by the European Commission in the framework of the IST programme is introduced. The goal is to present the basic concepts, innovations and solutions of the project "Multi-Agentsbased Diagnostic Data Acquisition and Management in Complex Systems (MAGIC)". MAGIC is based on a multi-level-multi-...

In this contribution one of the concepts of the European Commission research project MAGIC is introduced. Focus is placed on the strategy of choosing diagnostic methods in relation with the characteristics of the industrial process being diagnosed. Normally, only a single diagnostic method is applied for each process or subprocess. The MAGIC projec...

Technologies are considered tools to increase the number of "available options" and to "enlarge the freedom of action" of society to achieve specific objectives. One such objective is sustainable development of the coastal zones. One way to achieve this is via integrated coastal zone management (ICZM): the integration of otherwise sectoral manageme...

A river basin-oriented approach was developed to support the sustainable management of human activities in a coastal area of Regione Abruzzo, Italy. Consensus and collaboration between the public, different sectoral and territorial administrations, and the economic actors was identified as a crucial prerequisite for the long-term achievement of sus...

Shore and shoreline evolution both due to natural and human-induced causes or factors can be variable over a wide range of different temporal and/or spatial scales. Our capability to understand and especially predict this variability is still limited. This can lead to misinterpretation of coastal change information, which hampers informed decision...

A recently completed European collaborative project focused on contributing to the improvement and harmonisation of present design practices for artificial nourishment schemes in Europe. An inventory of and a comparison between the major countries involved revealed significant differences between them regarding engineering methods and evaluation pr...

Models can play a fundamental role while moving from nourishment projects to nourishment plans, i.e., when nourishment becomes an integral component of a coastal management strategy. Planning nourishment in the context of a multi-years management strategy requires more significant prediction skills than available in the past and an awareness of dea...

The uses of beach fill in the countries of the European Union are highlighted and discussed with respect to the general situation, project type and objectives, design and evaluation procedures, legal framework, and financial aspects. As expected, significant differences were found among the investigated countries. In general, the study shows that i...

Many different technologies exist to adapt to natural coastal hazards. These technologies can also play an important part in reducing vulnerability to climate change in coastal zones. Technologies are available to develop information and awareness for adaptation in coastal zones, to plan and design adaptation strategies, to implement them, and to m...

Uncertainty plays a major role in Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). A large part of this uncertainty is connected to our lack of knowledge of the integrated functioning of the coastal system and to the increasing need to act in a pro-active way. Increasingly, coastal managers are forced to take decisions based on information which is surro...

After introducing soft defence techniques as an alternative to hard defence techniques, the need is emphasized to consider the coastal area as an integral system. By recalling the main driving factors for coastal management: conflict resolution, resilience and sustainability, we logically arrive at the concepts of ecological engineering and ecotech...

An 11-year long measurement time series of waves and profiles from Duck, North Carolina, was analyzed using canonical correlation analysis (CCA) in order to determine the covariability between waves and profile response. The main objectives of this analysis were (1) to detect simultaneously occurring patterns in the wave and profile data and, if po...

The current state of knowledge on technology transfer for coastal adaptation to climate change was assessed. It aims to inform coastal managers, planners, scientists and other interested actors of the process of technology transfer in coastal zones and of its importance when seeking to reduce coastal vulnerability to climate change. Moreover, it id...

The decadal evolution of the dunefoot position along 120 km of the Holland coast is analysed. Firstly, a new definition of dunefoot is introduced based on hydrodynamic and morphologic considerations, which is not affected by local and instantaneous processes occurring immediately before the bathymetric survey. The dunefoot evolution over decadal sc...

Long-term (>10 years) prediction of morphological behaviour in the coastal zone in response to both direct and indirect human interference and projected climatic change is an increasingly important issue in coastal management. As our recognition of the possible impacts increases, so does the need for more comprehensive model-based approaches to bet...

This paper introduces a possible approach to integrated modelling of coastal change, focusing on coastal land use and cover change. Some of the mostimportant open issues in the context of integrated modelling of coastal change are introduced. The paper focuses on methdological aspects. Specific reference is made to Physiographic Unit Modelling as a...

After having shortly discussed about the nourishment fundamentals, focussing the attention on the benefits and on the factors promoting the beach fills, some specific questions on fill design, on related processes and on the temporal aspects of such beachprotecting intervention were addressed and tentatively answered. In the second part, the physic...

A neural network is a system composed of many simple processing elements operating in parallel whose function is determined by the network structure, the connection strengths, and the processing performed at computing elements or nodes. "Knowledge" is acquired by the network through a learning process. The connection strengths, known as synaptic we...

The Bruun rule has been extensively applied for rapid assessments also in situations where "relative sea level rise" is caused by subsidence. This is inappropriate at least because subsidence is typically not uniform in space. At same time the application of coastline models is often inappropriate because of the abrupt sinking that is considered wi...

Forecasting long-term morphodynamic evolution requires of course an understanding of the morphodynamic system but also requires a clear definition of what forecasting means. Forecasting is a well-developed discipline in meteorology, where both theory and practice, successes and failures, have cross-fertilised themselves for decades now. With the pr...

This paper aims at stimulating the idea of looking back in the cause-effect chain that is originating long-term changes of coastal morphology. At present we are still trying to investigate long-term and large-scale morphodynamics by considering the repeated application of waves to the coastal systems. Well, maybe there is a simpler and more direct...

Con la presente comunicazione si intendono introdurre le problematiche di valutazione ed analisi di costi e di rischi legati al trasporto marittimo attraverso strumenti di simulazione. Alo scopo si fa riferimento al prototipo di SESTANTE (Simulation Environment for Ship Traffic Testing, ANalysis and Evaluation) realizzato nell’ambito del Progetto F...

Global climatic change is likely to take place and could eventually affect Mediterranean deltas and other lowlying coastal regions. This would have serious implications for the natural resources of these deltaic areas, as well as for human settlements and related economic activities. To achieve sound decision making, to prevent damages and to avoi...

After having shortly discussed about the nourishment fundamentals, focussing the attention on the benefits and on the factors promoting the beach fills, some specific questions on fill design, on related processes and on the temporal aspects of such beach-protecting intervention were addressed and tentatively answered. In the second part, the physi...

The beach fill situation in five European countries is highlighted and discussed with respect to the general situation, project type and objectives, design and evaluation procedures, legal framework, and financial aspects. As expected, significant differences were found between the investigated countries. In general, the study shows that it would b...

The closure concept is a fundamental cross-shore boundary condition for morphodynamics and other applications such as beach nourishment and sediment budgets. This paper examines closure at a range of scales, particularly from events up to years. At these scales, closure is primarily a function of direct external forcing (cross-shore redistribution...

The paper first introduces the context where the role and use of technologies is being examined, i.e. the European Demonstration Program on Integrated Coastal Management (ICZM). A reference scheme for dynamics of the coastal zone is shown and a number of sectoral issues are recalled. The third chapter concerns the classes of technologies which are...

In the field of modelling of long-term coastal morphodynamics, one of the fundamental questions that still remains to be answered, and to a large extent also properly formulated, is that of the role of chronology, or sequencing, of (effectively) random hydrodynamic forcing events. Chronology can refer to the effects on morphology on the timescale o...

Global climatic change is taking place and it will likely affect Mediterranean deltas and other low-lying coastal regions in terms of sea-level rise, salinity increase and changes in temperature and weather patterns. This will have serious implications because these deltas are very valuable in terms of natural resources and related economic activit...

The paper introduces the analyses performed on a set of wave and profile data with the aim to identify possible indicators of medium and long term profile evolution by taking particularly into account the role of the low probability aspects of the environmental (wave) forcings. Following the analysis of the data set, the work focused on the qualita...

This study assesses the feasibility of a configuration for a benthic underwater system, called ABEL (Abyssal BEnthic Laboratory), capable of operating both under controlled and autonomous modes for periods of several months to over one year at abyssal depths up to 6000 m. A network of stations, capable of different configurations, has been identifi...

Aspects of long-term mathematical modelling of coastal morphology are inventoried and discussed. They concern reduction techniques for input data, process descriptions and output data, as well as model concepts ranging from statistical extrapolation of the past coastal behaviour, via semi-empirical behaviour models, to formally integrated descripti...

A possible approach for the development of simple predictive methods of shoreface profile evolution is described. By application of a detailed process-based, cross-shore morphodynamic model and of some inductive assumptions we build simple descriptions which reproduce possible behaviours of the upper zones of shoreface profile as a function of time...

The present contribution briefly describes the application of a class of partial differential equations in the analysis, prediction and control of some aspects of coastal profiles evolution in the "medium term" period (order of years). Their potential use and practical justification lays mainly in engineering purposes which ask for the evaluation o...