ABSTRACT DI CONFERENZA INTERNAZIONALE. Colonia (Germania): Environmental Contrasts in Coastal Areas: the Artificial Neural Networks as a Strategic Method of Analysis.

The FP7 European project Secoa (Solutions for Environmental Contrasts in Coastal Areas) produced an elevated volume of data formalized in different complex matrices. Using statistical methods is now possible to explore the articulated picture of each data set complex world and hypothesize some tendencies useful to compare macroscopically the analogies and the differences between each area. The Artificial Neural Network methods give now the opportunity of creating a bottom-up model of this complexity that can be explored as a virtual hyper-surface of linear an/or non-linear, symmetrical and/or asymmetrical, regular and/or fuzzy relations between variables. The results of these explorations on the virtual hyper-surface can also be organized and displayed in the geographical space using GIS technology and Graph Theory, in other words the results of these explorations will produce a synthetic interpretation of some tendencies related to selected aspects of the so called SECOA human mobility.