Teachings and Professors

The concept of time and space. Methods and approaches in landscape history. The case of Italy from roman to medieval times. Timber production and forest changes, case studies from the Alpine area. Historical food production and landscape. Afforestation and watershed management on mountain areas. Nature conservation and socio economic changes.  The transformation of the landscape mosaic: case studies. The Italian National register of Historic Landscapes.  Landscape  and dry stone terraces: case studies.

Reading Material: Agnoletti M., 2013, Italian Historical Rural Landscapes, Cultural Values for the Environment and Rural Development, Springer Verlag / Agnoletti M., 2005, Landscape changes, biodiversity and hydrogeological risk in the area of  Cardoso between 1832 and 2002 (Regional Park of the Apuane Alps), Regione Toscana, Firenze. / Agnoletti M., 2000, Introduction: the development of forest history research, in Agnoletti & Anderson (EDS), Methods and approaches in forest history, CAB International, Wallingford and New York. 1-20.

Teaching will be based on a mixture of lectures, student discussions, student debates and other activities.

Antonio Santoro – University of Florence – antonio.santoro@unifi.it

Francesco Piras – University of Florence – francesco.piras@unifi.it

Traditional Knowledge (TK) consists of practical (instrumental) and normative knowledge concerning the ecological, socio-economic and cultural environment. As a dynamic expression of perceiving and understanding the world, it can give, and historically has given, a valuable contribution to science and technology, and more in general to the development of Human civilization.

This module aims to show how TKs systems can be used as a strategic tool for supporting the sustainable development of the territory.

After a short introduction about TKs Systems and their main characteristic features, examples will be given about TKs in the Agro-forestry chains. Particular attention will be paid to the pedagogical aspect of the “knowledge potential” and on its implication to personal and collective identity. The strategy of transition from Product design to System product design will be also introduced, applying the “community map” approach for establishing socio-cultural and economical priorities for community development, mainly oriented to increase the resilience in the development of local communities.

Compositional analysis of food: Moisture and Water activity; Crude fat analysis; Carbohydrate analysis; Protein analysis. Markers of genuine milk and cheese composition, milk thermal treatments by means of enzyme indicators (alkaline phosphatase and lactoperoxidase). Maillard reaction. Vegetable oil composition: triglycerides, fatty acids, minor polar fraction. Chemical physical characteristics of natural fatty acids: determination of fatty acid in 2-monoglicerides. Assessment of conformity to botanical origin. UV-VIS assay. Markers of virgin olive oil Markers of oxidation.

Food Technology: definitions, synoptic table of processes and unit operations in the food industry. Food Quality: ISO standard definition, customer expectations, food product specifications and quality profile. Food process analysis: conceptual steps, application to extra virgin olive oil case study.

The Sensory Evaluation Laboratory–environment. The subjects: recruitment, selection and training; Scaling procedures. Sensory test classification. Difference tests:  paired difference test, triangular test, duo-trio, ranking test. Descriptive methods: Descriptive Analysis, CATA, Similarity methods: Sorting and Projective mapping.  Hedonic tests: acceptability and preference tests.