Special Session 14

Livestock housing systems and related facilities are of fundamental importance to guarantee optimal animal productions, improving animal health and welfare conditions, and minimizing environmental impacts. This special session wants to create a discussion forum on the new strategies for improving passive protection of animals from climate and other environment-related risks, for monitoring and control of animals and environmental conditions within the buildings, and for manure management systems.

Stefania Pindozzi is Associate Professor of Rural buildings and Agro-forest Land Planning, (AGR/10) at the Department of Agricultural Science, University of Naples Federico II. Before she was employed as a researcher for five years and as tenure track for the subsequent three years in the same department, where she works since 2009. She holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technologies for Environmental and Forest Management at the University of Tuscia in Viterbo (Italy) and she has completed graduate studies in Environmental Engineering, with honor, at the University of Naples Federico II. In 2017 she was granted FFARB funds from the Italian ANVUR agency. In 2018 she has obtained th e National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor. Since 2020, she is a member of the following centers: BAT Center – Interuniversity Center for Studies on Bioinspired Agro-Environmental Technology, hosted by the University of Naples Federico II, of the Interdepartmental Laboratory of Territorial Planning (LUPT), University of Naples Federico II, and the Task Force on Smart and Sustainable Mobility (SUM) of University of Naples Federico II. Her main research activities deal with: i) Manure management optimal strategies aimed at the reduction of environmental impact; ii) Ammonia emission assessment after animal manure application to the soil, with special attention to the implementation of innovative measurement techniques; iii) Land use change models for scenario analysis to assess ex-ante or ex-post landscape management strategies; iv) Implementation of spatial multi-criteria decision analysis combined with ecological indicators to support landscape management; v) Energy crop s spatial allocation and their potential environmental impact. Research activities are carried out in the open field or in small-scale experiments, as well as with the use of software (ESRI ArcMap, InVest, etc.) according to the different research purposes.

Andrea Pezzuolo is a researcher at the Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture, and Forestry of the University of Padova in the Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering field – Rural Buildings and Agro-forestry Land Planning. His main research activities deal with: Precision Livestock Farming, Automation and Sensor Technology; Bioenergy from Biomass, By-products and Biowaste; Rural and Livestock Buildings.
He authored several publications on national/international journals and conferences proceedings and published various papers on ISI WoS and Scopus Journals. He is referee for various international scientific journals.Andrea Pezzuolo is member of: Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering/Associazione Italiana di Ingegneria Agraria (AIIA); Interdepartmental Centre “Giorgio Levi Cases” for Energy Economics and Technology of University of Padova; Editorial board of Computer and Electronics in Agriculture (Associate Editor) Sustainability, Animals – “System and Management Section” (Associate Editor), Agri-Engineering, Biofuels Bioproducts and Biorefining and Research of Agricultural Engineering.

Marco Bovo is Researcher of Rural Buildings and Agro-forest Land Planning at the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna. He has graduated with honours in Civil Engineering and he holds a PhD in Structural Engineering and Hydraulics. His main research activities deal with: design and calibration of environmental monitoring systems for greenhouse gas emission measurement, modelling and analysis of environmental parameters in agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial buildings, thermo-acoustic optimization of building envelopes, LCA and CFD simulations, structural design of civil and rural buildings, PLF systems, energy production by renewable sources. He is member of the research team of the University of Bologna within the ongoing PRIN 2017 research project “Smart dairy farming: innovative solutions to improve herd productivity” and PRIMA Project “Self-sufficient Integrated Multi-Trophic AquaPonic systems for improving food production sustainability and brackish water use and recycling (SIMTAP)”. He is member of the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering (AIIA), European Society of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng), and International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR).