Prof. Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho (p)

In the current context of scarce resources to meet the growing demand for satisfying the diverse needs of populations, it is imperative to promote sustainable practices and the reuse of certain types of waste as resources for economic activities and domestic use. The question that often arises concerns the willingness of stakeholders to use reused resources in their daily tasks. This willingness to reuse is often linked to the attitudes and perceptions of stakeholders in these contexts. From this perspective, the objective of this study is to contribute further to the understanding of stakeholders' willingness to use treated wastewater, with a special focus on attitudes and perceptions. To achieve these objectives, special emphasis was placed on the results highlighted in the scientific literature. The results obtained highlight the main drivers and barriers to the effective reuse of treated wastewater. In addition, gaps in the literature, trends, and suggestions for future research are presented.

Acknowledgement: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No CA23104 (COST Action CA23104 Mainstreaming water reuse into the circular economy paradigm (Water4Reuse)), as supported by the COST Association (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). This work was funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia I.P., under the project CESAM-Centro de Estudos do Ambiente e do Mar, references UID/50017/2025 (doi.org/10.54499/UID/50017/2025) and LA/P/0094/2020 (doi.org/10.54499/LA/P/0094/2020).

Prof. Francesco Pagliacci (p), Matteo Zavalloni, Riccardo D'Alberto

The literature on urban expansion has mainly focused on its direct effects (e.g., soil conversion, pressure on ecosystem services, biodiversity loss), while largely overlooking indirect impacts on surrounding agricultural areas. In particular, little attention has been paid to how urbanization influences agricultural intensity, investment decisions, and the spatial reorganization of farming activities. This paper investigates how urban expansion affects the composition and intensity of agricultural land use in neighboring rural areas, drawing on von Thünen’s land-rent theory. The analysis focuses on the Emilia-Romagna Region (Northern Italy) and combines two datasets: ISPRA data on urban expansion and the iColt data on agricultural land use, classified into low-, medium-, and high–value-added categories. A regular 1 km × 1 km grid is used to harmonize spatial units, resulting in a panel of 12,443 cells observed in 2015 and 2022. The econometric approach relies on first-difference panel models with spatial specifications of urban areas, based on a queen contiguity matrix including first- and second-order neighbors. Results are consistent with von Thünen’s predictions: proximity to an increased extent of urban areas reduces low–value-added uses, increases medium–value-added uses, and favors high–value-added uses. Overall, urban expansion reshapes agricultural land use rather than simply reducing it.

Dr Luzia Antunes, Prof. Carlos Bacha (p)

Agriculture and livestock are not distributed homogeneously across the Brazilian territory. Among Brazil’s 27 states, the Southern Region, comprised of three states, layout over only 6.8% of the Brazil´s territory but accounted for 26.4% of the national Gross Value of Agricultural Production (GVAP) in 2017. Nevertheless, even within this region, agricultural and livestock production does not grow uniformly among or within its three states. For instance, between 1995/96 and 2017, the Southern Region faced a real increase of 71.6% in its GVAP, with growth rates of 90.4% in Paraná, 83.4% in Rio Grande do Sul, and only 20% in Santa Catarina. Several studies have examined the concentration and inequality of agricultural production distribution in the southern Brazilian states, but little attention has been paid to their spatial agglomeration and association. In this context, the objective of this article is to analyze the evolution of concentration, inequality, agglomeration, and spatial autocorrelation of the Gross Value of Agricultural Production, using municipalities in Southern Brazil as the unit of analysis for the years 1995/96, 2006, and 2017, corresponding to the three most recent Agricultural Censuses. To carry out this analysis, sixteen key indicators were employed to measure these effects, three of them refer to agglomeration, in addition to Moran’s I, used to assess the spatial association among GVAP of Southern municipalities. Results indicate that the intensity and trends of concentration, inequality, agglomeration, and spatial association of GVAP between 1995 and 2017 are not necessarily similar across different indicators. Nevertheless, the existence of concentration and inequality in the distribution of agricultural production within Southern Brazil during the analyzed period is unequivocal. The spatial distribution of GVAP per hectare reveals a persistent pattern of concentration, forming a high-productivity “arc” encompassing northern, western, and southeastern Paraná, western Santa Catarina, and northern and northwestern Rio Grande do Sul, creating a “strip” whose spatial extent changed between 1995/96, 2006, and 2017. However, some municipalities in Southern Brazil remain in lower productivity ranges, highlighting the uneven growth of this sector, measured by the Gini and Theil indices. The location quotient (LQ), the diversified agglomeration measure (ID, the inverse of the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index), and the agglomeration measure proposed in this study (referred to as IAD) confirm the existence of agglomeration phenomena as well as the LISA analysis has identified persistent clusters of high and low GVAP performance per hectare, reinforcing the existence of relevant spatial patterns in this variable.

Ms Cristina Margalejo (p), Dr Rosa Duarte Pac, Dr Cristina Sarasa Fernandez

Increasing awareness of climate change impacts on natural resources has strengthened public concern and authorities’ commitment to environmental sustainability and climate neutrality in Europe.
Recent literature has focused on the role of households in the European Union as drivers of environmental impact, identifying them as central actors in environmental policy design. In this context, shifts in demand, particularly those related to food consumption, contribute significantly to reducing environmental footprints and fostering the development of sustainable and resilient economies.
This provides the context for our research, which seeks to analyze the water footprint associated with food consumption in European Union households in 2018, distinguishing between processed and unprocessed foods. To achieve this, we develop an environmentally extended multi-regional and multi-sectoral input-output model for all the countries of the European Union. The study introduces a methodological contribution by disaggregating agri-food sectors into processed and unprocessed within input–output tables. This refinement allows for a more accurate assessment of the environmental impacts of consumption patterns.
The analysis examines the environmental impacts of three alternative dietary scenarios: (i) a reduction in processed and ultra-processed food consumption, replacing these products with nutritionally comparable non-processed alternatives; (ii) a transition towards the Mediterranean diet; and (iii) the adoption of nationally recommended dietary guidelines. The analysis evaluates the heterogeneous regional effects of dietary transitions on water use across EU member states.
Preliminary results suggest that reducing processed food consumption can significantly lower the overall water footprint of European diets, although impacts vary substantially across regions due to differences in production structures, trade dependencies, and consumption patterns.

Dr. Igor Sirnik (p)