I am an associate professor in Principles of Economy and Real Estate Evaluation, and a researcher with about 30 years of experience in research projects at national, regional and local levels. In the last 10 years, I have also been involved in various European projects.

During my academic career, my research has been primarily focussed on rural development and agri-food system dynamics. In particular, I examined the linkages between production, agri-environmental resources, valorisation strategies from a territorial perspective, and re-localisation of production-consumption chains. This work has resulted in 10+ scientific publications, several books and book chapters, about 10 conference papers and other academic contributions.

In recent years, my research focus has shifted to the evaluation of ecosystem services from a spatial planning perspective. Related to that, I am also studying how urban-rural relations can be enhanced taking into account the principles of sustainable territorial development.

Key research interests

• Sustainable planning and management of the territory and rural areas
• Agri-ecosystems and the main factors affecting their evolution
• Relationship between a farm and its external environment, with a focus on diffusion processes in innovation and knowledge
• Rural development
• Valorisation of agricultural products based on territorial characteristics

Core competences

• Sustainable planning and management of the territory and rural areas
• Evaluation of the ecosystem services
• Cost-benefit analysis, multicriteria analysis, evaluation of investments in real estate and public projects
• Capacity analysis and environmental services evaluation of rural areas
• Geographic data analysis

Current EU-funded projects

DESIRA – Digitisation: Economic and Social Impacts in Rural Areas

ROBUST – Rural-Urban Outlooks: Unlocking Synergies

See the list of all projects the group is involved in here

Some recent publications

Fantozzi, F., Gargari, C., Rovai, M., & Salvadori, G. (2019). Energy Upgrading of Residential Building Stock: Use of Life Cycle Cost Analysis to Assess Interventions on Social Housing in Italy. Sustainability, 11(5). http://doi.org/10.3390/su11051452

Bonelli, S., Rovai, M.Bonelli, S., Rovai, M., & Andreoli, M. , & Andreoli, M. (2018). A spatial multi-criteria analysis model to identify intervention strategies for the recovery of abandoned olive groves. The case study of Lucca Hills. In WORLD HERITAGE and KNOWLEDGE Representation, Restoration, Redesign, Resilience (Vol. unico, pp. 333–342). Roma: Gangemi Editore International. Retrieved from http://cdn.gangemieditore.com/import/materialiVari/WORLD HERITAGE and KNOWLEDGE – ATTI XVI Forum.pdf

Fastelli, L., Rovai, M., & Andreoli, M. (2018). A Spatial Integrated Database for the Enhancement of the Agricultural Custodianship Role (SIDECAR)—Some preliminary tests using Tuscany as a case-study Region. LAND USE POLICY, 78, 791–802. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.07.025

Rovai, M., & Andreoli, M. ( (2018). Integrating AHP and GIS Techniques for Rural Landscape and Agricultural Activities Planning. In Multicriteria Analysis in Agriculture. Current Trends and Recent Applications (pp. 69–98). Cham: Springer International Publishing. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76929-5_3

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