Laboratory of environmental change and global sustainability

The course aims at introducing students, by means of one of the four monographic and multidisciplinary experiences, to the main issues concerning:
1) analysis of meteorological data, or
2) analysis of satellite environmental data, or
3) modelling the response of cropping systems to current and projected weather data, or
4) circular resources: waste and biomasses recycling and valorization by means of green chemistry principles and technologies.

The expected learning outcomes depend on the monographic experience selected by the student.
At the end of the experience concerning meteorological data, students must be able to perform an analysis of long series of meteorological data. Specifically they must be able to face data organization; quality checks; homogeneity checks and data homogenization; data analysis, with particular focus on spatial patterns and temporal trends.
At the end of the experience concerning satellite environmental data, students must be able to perform an analysis of satellite environmental data such as solar radiation, cloud cover or snow data. Specifically they must be able to face data organization; Data download; data analysis, with particular focus on spatial patterns and temporal trends.
At the end of the experience concerning cropping systems, students must be able to generate downscaled future projections of daily weather data and to use modelling tools able to predict the effect of genotype × environment × management interactions on the productivity of key food crops. This will allow performing predictions of how near-real time weather data affect crops productivity as well as analysing climate change impacts on food availability in the coming decades.
At the end of the experience concerning waste valorisation, students will become aware of how the current technologies can support the environmental sustainability. This will be achieved through practical demonstration on supercritical fluid extraction of added-value compounds from agri-food wastes. The extracts will be then characterized by advanced analytical techniques to identify and quantify the compounds of interest. Finally, the use of the extracts in applications of industrial interest will be assessed and subjected to group discussion.