INCREaSE 2019

The evidence about the climate change is now considered to be unequivocal. But if visible changes are occurring at an increased rate over shorter periods, then the time series of the hydrologic variables more directly related to the climate, as rainfall or temperature, should denote progressively more pronounced signs of such changes, under the form of trends or non-homogeneities. Though some studies were previously developed for mainland Portugal, the expectable increasing signs of the changes in the values and behavior of some hydrological variables makes it essential: (i) to ensure the soundness of those studies by using the most suitable models applied to time series as long as possible; (ii) to update such studies by continuously incorporating the more recent data. In the scope briefly mentioned, the paper presents an analysis on long-term rainfall trends at different time scales in southern Portugal. For this purpose, 62 rain gages with 108 years of monthly rainfall data were analyzed based on the nonparametric Mann–Kendall (MK) test coupled with the Sen’s slope estimator method. Further an analysis about sequential changes in trends of the rainfall series was conducted using the sequential MK (SQMK) method. The study shows that the rainfall is markedly decreasing. It also provides new insights about the within-the-year relative contribution of the wettest months of the rainy period.

Temperature and salinity changes can affect nutrient assimilation dynamics in primary producers. Green macroalgae use nitrate as a main source of nitrogen for their metabolism. Nitrate needs to be reduced by nitrate reductase, before amino acids synthesis. Our aims were to study the effect of temperature and salinity changes on nitrate reductase activity (NRA) in Ulva rigida and Enteromorpha clathrata, and to assess if this enzyme can be used as an environmental indicator for changes in such abiotic factors. The study of NRA was carried out using potassium nitrate as substrate and propanol as a membrane permeabilizer, letting the produced nitrite to exit the macroalgae cells into the assay medium, allowing its quantification through a colorimetric method. This procedure was carried out at five temperatures (10, 20, 30, 35 and 40 °C) and three salinities of the assay medium (0, 15 and 36 g/kg). Results show that both Ulva and Enteromorpha have maximum NRA at salinities of 36 g/kg, although nitrate reduction can occur in freshwater or brackish water, but at significantly lower rates. NRA varied significantly with temperature for both macroalgae, although Ulva showed maximum NRA at 30 °C, while NRA peaked at 35 °C in Enteromorpha. Likely adequate models were tentatively fitted to NRA-temperature data at different salinities. NRA is a suitable proxy of the effects of temperature and salinity changes on the ability of green macroalgae to uptake and metabolize nitrogen nutrients and can thus be the base for macroalgae proliferation models under climate change model scenarios.

The paper deals with the evaluation of meteorological droughts in eastern Slovakia. It is focused on description of method that is used to analyze and assess the river basin vulnerability through SPI index - standardized precipitation index (SPI). SPI index is applied for detecting dry and humid climate anomalies as well as could be used for characterizing the duration, severity and intensity of an extreme event period. SPI is a widely used index for monitoring meteorological drought. The paper presents result of applied index in the conditions of eastern Slovakia. The tools used in risk assessment include geographic information systems, which are an effective tool, in particular to simulate and model extreme events. These systems address different types of spatial analysis and allow thematic maps to identify vulnerable areas that are irreplaceable in water resource management.

The Bay of Algeciras (Spain) is one of the most industrialized areas in Spain. Furthermore, the Port of Algeciras moved about 100 Millions of Tons in 2018. Therefore, this region could be one of the most affected territories by air pollution in Spain. An exhaustive statistical analysis of the different monitoring stations has been carried out in order to find out spatial and temporal trends along the region. Also, the relationship of the different air pollutants and meteorological variables has been calculated. On the one hand, a descriptive statistical analysis has been conducted and, on the other hand, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed in each monitoring station in order to discover the most relevant features in each different location. We focused our analysis on monitoring stations located in Algeciras and La Línea, the two principal cities in the study area.One of the objectives has been to develop an estimation approach for any hypothetical damaged station using the other monitoring stations and the meteorological variables. Consequently, we have studied the leverage between all the variables and Ozone pollutant using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), together with Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) models and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) models to estimate air Ozone pollution in each monitoring station.The results show general trends and particular differences depending on the location of the monitoring stations and depending on several meteorological variables such as wind speed and wind direction that are in most cases the most relevant features to explain each pollutant concentration values. Examining the results of the proposed approach we can obtain robust estimations of each pollutant in each location as a function of the previously computed PCA variables and also the original ones. The regression analysis showed promising results (in Algeciras R = 0.857 and in La Linea R = 0,894) in order to have at our disposal a computational estimation tool in each different location. This kind of approach could be useful in the design of a robust sensoring network.

In the present study, we adopted the Hybrid Estuarine Sedimentation Model to simulate the estuarine and lagoon evolution in the South Algarve region due to projected mean sea level rise (MSLR) and sediment deficit scenarios during the 21st century. Thus, we forecasted morphological evolution of six large and medium size estuaries (Guadiana Alcantarilha, Arade, Gilão, Quarteira River, Alvor and a coastal lagoon system (Ria Formosa lagoon) due to the imposed scenarios of MSLR. The projected digital elevation models were used to identify the maximum tidal limits of each system by the year 2100. According to the results, in all cases, saltmarsh habitats and sand flats will be affected severely in response to upper-limit of RCP8.5 scenario of MSLR by 2100. The conjugation of the increase of the mud-flat area and the decrease of saltmarshes will result in the reduction of habitats and then of biodiversity. Habitats associated with the Ria Formosa coastal lagoon and the Guadiana estuary are highly vulnerable to the worst case scenario of MSLR (90 cm higher relative to the year 2011). Agricultural and aquaculture areas in all study areas will be affected due to the landward translation limits of the intertidal areas. Accordingly, it would be advisable to adopt measures to minimize the socio-economic impacts and loss of ecosystem services in the South Algarve due to climate change driven MSLR during the 21st century and beyond while taking adaptation actions to prevent the loss of environmentally sensitive habitats like salt marshes and sand dunes.

Golf is a key sector for tourism in Portugal and particularly in the Algarve, which has been recognized, on several occasions, as the best golf destination in the world. Beyond to the economic and social outputs, golf courses can have a positive impact in local environment, promoting habitats and local biodiversity. Today’s societies face the challenge of adapting to climate change, and decarbonization is a crucial aspect in all economic sectors. So far, there are few studies on the carbon emissions associated with golf activities, and the existing ones do not refer to the Mediterranean zone, where climate change will potentially be more damaging. This work intends to characterize the carbon emissions related to Ria & Cima Golf Courses in the Algarve (Quinta da Ria and Quinta de Cima), and to analyze their ecosystem services. Thus, it was made a characterization of annual consumption (of water, energy, fossil fuel, sand, fertilizer and pesticide) related to the maintenance operations (irrigation, mowing, aeration, verticutting and topdressing) in the various areas of the golf courses (greens, tees, fairways, and roughs). The most observed species of fauna and turf grass cultivars were inventoried. The ecological status of the lake water was evaluated seasonally. It was verified that is possible to improve the carbon balance and improve the environmental performance of golf courses. Also, the ecosystem services provided are important on preservation of biodiversity and habitats supply, mainly for aquatic fauna, during the months with water scarcity in Mediterranean.

The Irregular waste disposal is a problem that has spread since the Middle Ages. In Brazil, the National Solid Waste Policy requires that all Brazilian dumps be disable and replaced by landfills. Considering that each region has its specificities such as soil type, rainfall, declivity and other factors, there is a need to develop criteria and tools to find the best location for the implementation of a landfill. Multi-criteria analysis in conjunction with geoprocessing tools enables the integration of spatialized scenarios that guide decision makers to an appropriate choice. The present proposal aims to find the most suitable areas for landfills for local scale and for regional scale, making use of a multicriteria analysis with geoprocessing tools. As a result, we obtained best location maps for both local and regional scale. These were compared for similarities and definition of best working scale.

The scarcity of consistent and spatially well distributed hydrometeorological monitoring data is a global problem that seeks remote and reliable solutions to the reality of meteorological events. Likewise, the spatial estimation of precipitation acts as a precipitation analysis tool, considering that they present great spatial and temporal variation, so that many isolated precipitation events may not be recorded by the monitoring stations installed. In this sense, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) system provides images of rainfall monitoring in the tropics, using radar, microwave and infrared sensors. In this way the objective of the study is to evaluate the representativeness of the TRMM-3B42V7 product estimates in comparison to the observed data provided by ANA and INMET covering the entire area of ​​the Mirim Lagoon basin in Brazilian territory, through the performance of statistical coefficients. The 3B42V7 product data was accumulated in daily, biweekly, monthly and annual time intervals and excluded any faults, thus comparing only the comparable ones. In order to evaluate the statistical accuracy of the data, the following tests were used: Pearson correlation coefficient (r), Mean error (EM), Mean Square Error Root (REQM) and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NS). The results showed the daily event was not satisfactory as the other scales analyzed. It was concluded that for hydrological studies that use biweekly, monthly and annually scales, the precipitation data obtained by TRMM 3B42V7 satellite represents an information gain for the locations where there are no pluviometric and/or rainfall stations.

The water quality monitoring is one of the most important tools to synthesizing data for easier interpretation about pollution and multiple uses of the water body. Therefore, it can be used the multivariate statistical techniques, such as the principal component analysis, used to analyze interrelations between many variables and to explain them in terms of their common factors. Thus, the objective of the present study was to determine water quality variables using multivariate analysis techniques in the sub-basin of the Passo das Pedras stream, located in the Piratini/RS river basin. The study was carried out at three sub-basin sampling points (sector 1, sector 2 and sector 3), for which fifteen water samples were collected in precipitation events from November/2013 to Oct/2014. The values of temperature, dissolved oxygen (OD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total dissolved solids (STD), total suspended solids (STS), pH, electrical conductivity, turbidity, color, iron, manganese, calcium and magnesium, total kjeldahl nitrogen (NTK), total phosphorus, fecal coliforms, total coliforms, Escherichia coli, magnesium. From the results of the multivariate analysis, considering the two factors, whose variations explain between 50.74% and 60.37% of the total variance for sectors 1, 2 and 3, it can be classified as the indicators of each factor as pollution diffuse by aggregating physical-chemical variables common to the agricultural runoff. Thus, the variables with greater variance explained by the data and present in the first factor of each sector are: precipitation, drained volume and peak flow. These variables are also identified in the secondary factor, for the third collection sector, where the highest portion of the river basin is located.

In Brazil, the State of Rio Grande do Sul is a strong national grain producer and has been hampered in its plantations by the lack of precipitation, which in the State can be associated to the occurrences of the La Niña phenomenon. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the drought behavior using two meteorological indices, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Moreno Index (IM), specializing for the state of Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil. For the present study, 40 rainy seasons with a common data period (1913 to 2002) were selected. In relation to the drought assessment through IM, a quarterly and half-yearly scale was used. The first combination of three consecutive months to analyze was composed of the months of June, July and August and the second, for the months of December, January and February. The SPI values were calculated for the time scales of 6, 12 and 24 months, with each set of data (month and time scale) adjusted to the two-parameter range. The results showed that, for the Moreno Index, the quarterly scale, compared to the semester scale, showed a higher concentration of drought events. For the Standardized Precipitation Index, the largest sequences of dry months were classified according to the degree of severity of the drought as extreme intensity; the highest occurrence of severe drought events coincided in 85% with the La Niña periods and the highest incidence of severe and intense drought occurred in the 1943 to 1952.

Table olives, processed with a high NaCl content, have been a tradition associated with the Mediterranean diet in southern Portugal. This work aimed at studying the effect of various chloride salts on some physicochemical characteristics and antioxidant activity of cracked olives from Maçanilha Algarvia cultivar and their brines. Olives were successfully fermented using different salt combinations and levels F1 - 8%NaCl; F2 - 4%NaCl + 4%KCl; F3 - 4%NaCl + 4%CaCl2; F4 - 4%KCl + 4%CaCl2; F5 - 2.7%NaCl + 2.7%KCl + 2.7%CaCl2), wherein the sums of salt chloride concentrations were constrained to 8%. At the end of each experimental fermentation trial, samples were analyzed for water activity (aw), free and volatile acidities, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity. The aw decreased during the fermentation, from 0.963 to 0.959–0.962 and the free acidity values obtained (0.30–0.60%) were in accordance with the Trade Standard Applying to Table Olives, in all fermentations. When F1 or F2 brines were used, the table olives obtained presented similar total phenolic content values (1.44 and 1.43 g/kg, respectively) and antioxidant activities (268.52 and 239.90 μM TE/g, respectively, measured by DPPH● method), higher than those observed with the other final products from brines F3, F4 and F5. Besides, table olives produced in 4%NaCl + 4%KCl can be considered healthier, as they were prepared with half sodium and higher potassium contents than the traditional table olives obtained with F1. The regression analysis performed showed that potassium had no effect on the antioxidant activity, but sodium and calcium contents were positively and negatively related with it.

The perception of quality that the school meal consumer has is something that is normally not taken into account by economic operators. Therefore, the objective of this research is to identify the perception and evaluation of food safety and quality by the consumers of school meals. The study was made in two schools from Setúbal district, Portugal, through surveys, applied to school community, and by a direct observation. A total of 396 questionnaires were applied, of which 56% of the respondents were female and the average was between 10 and 14 years old. The use of school canteen is made by 50% of the respondents. It was verified that the attendance of school canteen was higher between the youngers and the with less academic qualifications. On one hand, the highest satisfaction is related to service (22%) and customer care (21%); on the other hand, the lowest satisfaction is related to flavor/seasoning, which was also more often referred to in content analysis. There is an association between the frequency of the school canteen use and the perception of food safety. The importance of food safety influences the choice of meals and is associated with their importance in health.

While carrots are such a popular and cheap raw material, known for its importance in the human diet, as a source of carotenoids, it was chosen to be the object of this study. Since carrot consists of water, protein, cellulosic substances and pectin, the addition of apple pectin as a thickening agent it was a flawless choosing. Elderly people, which represents a growing part of Romanian population, suffer of many illnesses, especially related to the digestive tract, like dysphagia, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which could induce malnutrition. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of steamed coupled with ohmic heating or microwave in obtaining carrot purees. Minimal processing of purees is much more necessary than for other types of products, because of the preliminary processing of the carrots (grading, washing, sorting, peeling, slicing, grinding). The samples with or without pectin were analysed by physico chemical, rheological, textural and laser confocal microcopy point of view. The rheological properties reveal some expected results that the carrot puree is non-Newtonian fluid. The results demonstrated that the antioxidant activity of the carrot purees was not affected by the processing. Textural parameters such as cohesiveness, springiness and chewiness slightly increase with the hydrocolloids addition. So, this study could be a base to develop some new technologies in the field of the carrot puree making.

The interest in organic farming products is growing, in response to concerns about traditional agricultural practice, food safety, concern for human health, the environment, and animal welfare. Consequently, consumption of organic products has been increasing, through the consumer’s appreciation of the non-use of pesticides and fertilizers, genetically modified organisms or growth stimulants. The objective was to understand the motivations and attitudes of organic products consumers, regarding, consumer’s profile, purchase motivations, attributes associated to this products, and trusted purchase places. A survey was carried out in a food distribution chain in Almada, and online, focused on buying and consumption habits of biological products, as well as their perception about them. Results show that the organic product concept, 2 latent factors (1 – Product dimension and 2 – Economic dimension) account, respectively, 49.1% and 14.3% of the variance. Regarding the profile and motivation of organic products consumers, the results show that who buy these products, is defined as being predominantly female (73%), and with a higher degree of studies (76%) of respondents reported being consumers of organic products. The purchase frequency of these products occurs every week (44%), in large shopping areas (45%). The main reasons for buying these products are related to health (75%) and environmental benefits (61%), in line with the previous studies on this topic. There is a statistically correlation between the motivations for health benefits and environmental concerns (rs = .346, p < .001).

Pear peels are seen as potentially valuable for their low-cost beneficial components content such as polyphenols. These may reveal acrylamide (AA) mitigation effect and thus their application in a susceptible food matrix, such as bread, should be considered. Aiming to assess the AA reduction potential of Rocha pear peels in bread and the effects on its sensory quality, two types of bread highly consumed in Portugal - wheat (WB) and rye (RB) – were assayed with the extract of these by-products, in two forms aqueous [a] and dry [d]. Eight bread batches were produced (4 WB; 4 RB); each composed of one control sample and five replicates added with extract. The process included controlled fermentation, and cooking in a traditional oven (TO) and convection oven (CO). Hedonic evaluation was made to samples of each batch. Overall, slight differences were observed for WB and RB hedonic evaluation between the control sample and those with both extract forms. Lower scores were observed in both bread types baked in CO, with [d] comparing with the control; for bread with [a], oven influence varied; higher scores for WB in CO and for RB baked in TO, comparing with the control. Regarding AA reduction, the highest mitigation rate was accomplished by the [d] in WB cooked in a CO, 27.3%. However, for RB the best formulation was obtained with [d] in the TO, 19.2%. These results support the importance of selecting the best baking process according to the varieties of bread and AA reduction.

This work presents the changes in the physico-chemical properties of pumpkin puree, aiming to find the best drying technique to obtain pumpkin powder. For that, pumpkin purees were pretreated by microwave (210 W and 315 W) for 3 min or ohmically heated at 17.5 V/cm for 2 min, followed by different drying methods: combined microwave (210 W and 315 W) and forced convection (100 °C) drying simultaneously. The samples of pumpkin puree (Cucurbita maxima) with 92.82 ± 0.1% moisture content, were dried until powder moisture reduced to 8.0 ± 0.3%. Drying time decreases with increased microwave power from 18 min up to 16 min for the samples pretreated by microwave and ohmic heating. A thermal pretreatment such as microwave or ohmic heating is an essential operation in the processing of fruits and vegetables. It not only contributes to the inactivation of polyphenoloxidase, peroxidase, but also could induce some changes in: carotenoids, polyphenols or antioxidant capacity. The results of qualitative analysis showed a product improvement due to ohmic heating pretreatment as compared to microwave technique. Free radical scavenging capacity for samples pretreated by microwave is lower (20.64–28.32% DPPH inhibition) compared to the ohmic heating (36–40.32% DPPH inhibition).

Currently there is a growing interest in food safety, increasing the consumers demand level and thereafter the rising attention of the producers and authorities. The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) System is of compulsory application since 2006 and can effectively ensure food safety and quality, contributing to expand markets, and improve the manufacturers’ management level. The objective of this project was to implement the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points system to the goat’s cheese production process of a small cheese plant. To guarantee the safety of cheese production, the biological, chemical, and physical hazards that may exist in cheese production were identified. Twenty-five of the total hazards identified in this study were considered as significant, having been subjected to a Decision Tree to determine the Critical Control Points (CCP), which are milk reception, salt reception, cardoon reception and pasteurization. After that, the critical limits, monitoring processes, corrective measures, records, and verifications were established. The results of the hazard analysis showed that most of the chemical hazards could be effectively controlled by an effective supplier selection. Concerning the main microbiological hazards – Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus – specific control measures must be implemented, namely temperature control, particularly in the pasteurization process. Hazard analysis provided the necessary basis for a rational choice of these specific control measures.

The objective of this study consisted in the evaluation of determinants for quality and food safety perception by the consumers from one restaurant in Torres Novas region. 101 questionnaires were applied at lunch period, between 12 h and 15 h. The sample was collected at two different times, before (Moment 1) and after improvements (Moment 2) were introduced. To evaluate the consumer’s perception, concerning several determinants of quality and food hygiene, a Likert scale was used scoring between 1 and 5. It was observed that the restaurant is mainly chosen by the Health menus −55%, Customer service − 12%, Menus with good value for money −10%, Food safety and hygiene −7%, Pleasant environment −5%, and Other aspects 12%. In terms of restaurant evaluation, these same criteria had the following results: the higher rated aspect for the consumer is food safety and hygiene −57.4%, followed by the healthy menus criteria −50.5%, and staff service −38.6%. Concerning the degree of agreement for the referred criteria, evaluated with the Wilcoxon test, there were no statistically significant differences (p > .05), between moment 1 (M1) and moment 2 (M2), except for the variable: Food safety and hygiene. Z = −3.101, p = .002. Additionally, the present study permitted the construction of 4 factors (latent variables) based on the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), namely: Food, Environment, Service and Overall Satisfaction. Each factor corresponds to an equation that permits a comparison between subjects, based on the standardized values.

Seafood is highly perishable. Freezing and frozen storage of seafood is a widely and increasingly used and efficient method that allows for prolonged shelf-life with only minor changes in terms of products’ quality. Notwithstanding, even at freezing temperatures (−18 to −20 °C), undesirable effects might occur, particularly in case of inadequate storage conditions (temperature abuses) that might occur during distribution and commercialization. There is growing interest in studying application(s) for naturally occurring antioxidants such as the compounds found in herbal green tea (Camelia sinensis). In this study, the aim was to assess the effect of green tea extract treatments on physicochemical properties of frozen blue jack mackerel (Trachurus picturatus) fillets during storage under constant temperature and time-temperature abuses. Freshly obtained fillets of blue jack mackerel were immersed in aqueous extracts of dried, commercial herbal green tea for 0 min (control), 5 min and 10 min, quickly frozen in a blast air freezer, glazed before vacuum packaging and storage at −18 °C. During storage, half of the fillets were subjected to random time-temperature abuses (20–240 min at 5 °C) while the remaining fillets were kept at constant freezing temperature. Physicochemical parameters (pH, texture, colour, free fatty acids content, PV, TBA-RS and TVB-N) were measured at start and after 1, 2, 4 and 7 months of storage. Preliminary, potentially detrimental changes in terms of physicochemical quality were minimized by treating fillets with green tea extract. Implications and possible applications of findings are discussed in light of published literature and further research is pondered.

Castelão is a Portuguese native grape variety commonly used in the south of the country to produce white, rose and red wines. This work reports a study on the transformation of anthocyanins of Castelão grape variety during the preparation of a rose wine. The grapes were collect at Quinta dos Vales (Estômbar – Lagoa, Algarve) vineyards. The rose wine was prepared at Quinta dos Vales by following a pre-fermentative maceration process at 4 °C during 5 h. The anthocyanins were analysed in grape’s skin and in prepared wine by LC-DAD-MS. The total phenol contents of skin extracts and wine were made by following the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The quantification of individual anthocyanins was performed by HPLC-DAD using traces obtained at 520 nm and malvidin-3-O-glycoside as standard. The anthocyanins identified in the grape skin were: delphinidin-3-O-glycoside, petunidin-3-O-glycoside, peonidin-3-O-glycoside, malvidin-3-O-glycoside, malvidin-3-O-acetylglycoside and malvidin-3-O-coumarinoglycoside. The most abundant anthocyanin in the skin is malvidin-3-O-glycoside, (1.1 mg/g of dry skin). Its content relatively decreases during wine preparation. The major anthocyanin in wine is malvidin-3-O-coumaroylglucoside (12.7 mg/L). Although the same anthocyanins were identified in grapes and wine, the results show a significant effect of the maceration and fermentation processes on the anthocyanin profiles.

Typical models of underwater sonars are frequently discussed within the context of signal processing, with little regard to refraction effects induced by the watercolumn and amplitude/frequency dependence of backscattered energy on bottom type; such models are also valid only for monostatic configurations. In this work a sonar is viewed as a ray tracing problem: to provide accurate predictions of sonar performance (for different sonar configurations, different frequencies and different bottom types) the TRACEO beam model is used to calculate ray trajectories from the source to the bottom, and from the bottom to the receiver; backscattering models are used to compensate for propagation losses along the backscattered path. Predictions of this sonar model are presented for different bottom types and different sound speed profiles.

In SONAR systems designed for measuring deep ocean bathymetry a monostatic configuration, with the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) collocated and close to the bottom, is generally assumed to be the most effective. These systems rely on the backscattered component of transmitted acoustic signals, e.g. side scan SONAR, multibeam SONAR. Through the application of a ray tracing acoustic propagation model, TRACEO, and a bottom scattering cross section model, this work tests several geometric configurations of Tx and Rx to investigate which is the most effective. The models were used to calculate the total attenuation suffered by the transmitted signals at various ranges for three different geometric configurations of Tx and Rx. These were: (1) Monostatic, with the Tx and Rx both 100 m from the bottom; (2) Close Bistatic, with Tx 200 m from the bottom and Rx 100 m from the bottom; and (3) Far Bistatic, with Tx near the surface and Rx 100 m from the bottom. Synthetic results show that the best configuration, in terms of transmission loss, is the Close Bistatic case. These results were then evaluated using the SONAR equation to determine each configuration viability for implementation in a SONAR system, given various settings of amplifier on the Tx side and pre-amplifier at the Rx side, with the goal of producing a detectable signal at the receiver. This evaluation confirmed that the geometric configuration with the highest viability was a Close Bistatic configuration, followed by the Monostatic, and finally the Far Bistatic.

In recent years the development of technologies which enhance the perceptual experience of the physical environment has progressed significantly. Along with this advancement rose also the curiosity and acceptance of people toward interacting with computer-generated elements and nowadays this interesting concept called Augmented Reality (AR) is starting to be present in nearly every aspect of humans life. Although AR is predominantly known for its entertainment, gaming character, within the time it has transformed into a publicly available, scalable tool which can be used in a more serious context. In 2015, a collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Changing Places Group, and the German city of Hamburg introduced a practical use of AR in urban planning. This case study presents a project Finding Places (FP) - an idea of applying games into an AR-assisted participatory method in regard to solving a complex, sensible urban challenge, resulted in creating a unique decision-making tool with entertaining, which may have a chance to grow into a consequent, urban development practice. First of all, it introduces the reader with the subject of moderation methods of urban participatory events, applied game, and the Geospatial AR (GeoAR) through. Secondly, through case’s study analysis and following discussion examine the efficiency and usability aspects of such aided planning approach. The goal of this work is to show the possibilities that instruments like the GeoAR could give in the context of urban planning and to encourage diverse city stakeholders to experiment with innovative, resource-saving, digital tools.

The tests of gas detectors, mainly toxic gas detectors, are important when a company, whose develop this type of product, wants to insure the functionality and quality of their equipment. In this sense, it is fundamental to have a system capable of performing the test autonomously, ensuring the quality and repeatability of the results.Depending on the type of gas and on the characteristics of gas detection, there are some solutions in the market but most of them are customized solutions that make the product development more expensive. The option of constructing a chamber for the testing of gas detectors is related with the fact that, on one hand test chambers with the necessary characteristics are not cost-effective and on other hand by lack of rigor and safety in the simplest chambers. So, it is intended to develop an automated standard solution that could be adapted for different type of gas detection, changing only the type of inputs – the sensors.The objective of this work is to present the development of an airtight chamber capable of performing the necessary tests to attest the correct functioning of a gas detector used in Addressable Fire Detection Systems. The test chamber prototype will be described in terms of hardware and software, as well as the tests performed for two types of gas detection, Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). The chamber is controlled by a computer through a graphical user interface generated by LABView Software. The experimental results show that this chamber is certainly an important equipment in the preparation of gas detectors for approval in an accredited laboratory.

The applications dedicated to the spa and leisure are in huge demand due to the latter growth in developed countries. This type of applications has been designed to manage activities at hotels, health spas and leisure venues. Usually appointments are booked quickly and efficiently via a series of flexible grid control screens or through an availability search, where the system automatically finds available times. This paper presents a solution for the problem of “Concept Spa & Leisure” application. Nowadays it generates thousands of records daily, which leads to increase data on database. Currently, the application is facing a performance challenge due to the amount of data involved in the booking process. The objective of the present work is to propose a dedicated notification framework to optimize the Concept Spa & Leisure application. The main goal of this framework model is to reduce traffic on wire between client application and database server. This would be achieved by using as much as possible data stored locally, rather than requesting it from database every time it is needed. The search engine process is speedup by keeping as many data as possible within the client application. A message broadcast framework will be created to maintain local data synchronized with database. The main idea is to have a parallel system to keep watching data changes on database and as soon as data change, a message will be sent to processes to inform that current data held is out-of-date and must be refreshed before use in client application.

Artificial Intelligence and Smart Systems are having an increasing impact on our day to day lives and on how our cities handle our ever-growing needs. Smart systems are systems capable of making decisions based on data received from different sensors and performing actions based on those decisions. These (smart) actions could and should be different for each user depending on their characteristics and needs. Interfaces or interactions with users that employ a “one-size-fits-all” policy should not be considered as contemporary solutions and are not how future interfaces are expected to behave. The user should be “eased in” to the presence of any technology, where the technology adapts to the user, and not the other way around. This paper presents an integrated framework for human attribute classification, which describes people in a non-intrusive way, forgetting the person as soon as he/she ends the interaction so as not to compromise their privacy. With this initial stage of the framework, it is possible to predict a person’s age, gender, height and facially expressed emotions, as well as recognize objects in their possession, e.g., “dog”, wheelchair, cane and suitcase, which can help to characterize their needs. Practical results are presented.

Internet of Things (IoT) applications present significant challenges regarding security, safe operation and power management. In the hardware part of each IoT device, CMOS memories occupy a significant percentage of the Integrated Circuits’ silicon area. With device scaling down, performance and reliability challenges exist, namely caused by parametric variations such as Process (P), power supply Voltage (V) and Temperature (T) variations and Aging (A) or, in a general perspective, PVTA variations. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel, on-line, PVTA-aware performance sensor for CMOS SRAM memory cells, sensing and signaling performance degradation, caused e.g. by PVTA variations. The detection strategy consists on the active monitoring of the bit lines, during the read and write operations. In the presence of PVTA degradations, read and write operations have slower transitions, which indicate performance degradation, thus increasing the probability of error occurrence. Hence, when transitions do not occur during the expected time frame, an error signal is flagged to the output due to a slow transition. The sensor’s correct operation is demonstrated using SPICE simulations for 65 nm and 22 nm technologies, allowing to show its effectiveness on monitoring performance and aging degradation on SRAM memory blocks.

This paper presents the free MILAGE LEARN+ App for mobile devices and computers (iOS, Android, Windows and OSX) that allows students to access educational content in online, blended or flipped learning. This app is a tool to support students in the autonomous solving of problems implementing a pedagogical model that includes gamification, self and peer assessment. In order to motivate and include all students, the MILAGE LEARN+ App incorporates gamification features with different levels of complexity of exercises to support students with greater difficulties in learning and also include more advanced students. Educational videos are available with tutorials and resolution of exercises to give immediate feedback to students. The MILAGE LEARN+ App also includes a self and peer assessment scheme that aims to stimulate the student’s autonomous work, to revise content for the storage of knowledge in long-term memory and to identify key steps in the resolution of exercises.This paper shows the application of the MILAGE LEARN+ in a class of “Introduction to Programming with Visual Basic” to students of Mechanical Engineering.

The combination of batteries and ultracapacitors improves the peak current characteristics of the electrical energy storage system, minimizes battery degradation significantly, and ensures greater flexibility thanks to digital control. In a wide variety of applications, this technology additionally contributes to extremely high levels of reliability while enhancing the capacity of development effort.In cooperation with an industrial research partner, engineers from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau have invented a novel kind of Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS). By combining a battery and a double-layer capacitor stack (ultracaps), an electric energy storage system has emerged that improves peak current characteristics, extends the battery lifetime considerably, and ensures greater flexibility thanks to digital power control. It therefore improves reliability in the most diverse applications, especially, for high-load power tool drives, E-Bikes, electric vehicle applications or professional drones.

The methods of tracking the maximum power point used in photovoltaic systems try to set the duty cycle value (δ) for the DC/DC converter that connects the generator with the load, so as to maximize the power delivered by this generator. This approach ignores the fact that the performance of the converter also depends on the service cycle (δ) with which it operates, so that the value of this variable that maximizes the power delivery of the generator does not always correspond to the value that provided by the maximum power delivery to the load. In this paper a comparative study is made, based on the well-known algorithm “Perturb and Observed, P&O” of the performance obtained by measuring the output power of the generator, as it is traditionally done, and at the output of the converter, considering the characteristics of it, that is, its dependence on δ.Using a boost converter for the connection between the photovoltaic generator and the load, the performances obtained for different atmospheric conditions (radiation and temperature) and different load profiles are shown. The results obtained are analyzed to quantify the loss of performance derived from the classic approach and the convenience or not of developing systems that determine the optimum duty cycle that maximizes the useful power, that is, to the output of the DC/DC converter.

Nowadays, utility grids bear certain losses and inefficiencies. For example joule losses in transport lines, control effort when matching supply and demand, and difficulties in admitting intermittent power sources. This work presents a new scheme that palliates all of them, improving the efficiency of the grid. The scheme is focused on matching supply and demand in an end-to-end approach, turning the grid in an Internet of Energy where each user (producer or consumer) can buy or sell their energy without intermediaries at any time. The scheme establishes a decentralized control of the grid which means lower balance error and control effort. The access for intermittent power sources is opened up which foster distributed generation, therefore joule losses decrease. The requirements are a storage device for each user and the availability of ICT technologies. This contribution explains the scheme and analyzes its implementation.

Non-axenic microalga Chlorella sorokiniana was cultivated in batch cultures, and its total sugar composition was determined. The microalga under study showed a total sugar concentration of 21.44 ± 0.46% (w/w). The effects of freeze-drying, oven-drying, freezing and thawing, chemical and the combination of hydrothermal and chemical pretreatments were evaluated. In the combined pretreatment different concentrations of H2SO4 and reaction times were also optimized. It was possible to determine that the sugar extraction yields more significant were 59.5% for the lyophilization, 6.2% with 6 cycles of freeze and thawing and around 100% for 2 and 4% (v/v) of H2SO4 at 121 °C for 30 min. Some of the methods that were described in this study are interesting to facilitate cost-efficient conversion of microalgal biomass into biofuels.

Biofuel production using microalgae attracted much attention because it can be cultured using CO2 and sunlight. With high carbohydrate content, microalgae have the potential to be used as a fermentation feedstock for bioethanol production. In present work, chemo-enzymatic saccharification of Chlorella sorokiniana microalgae were investigated. Chemical hydrolysis of the biomass followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and was also evaluated the effect of combining the two enzymes and the sequential addition. The effect of α-amylase concentrations was analyzed in ranged between 50 and 8000 U/g of biomass and for amyloglucosidase between 90 and 600 U/g of biomass. The higher concentrations showed the highest conversion of reducing sugars. The α-amylase concentration 8000 U/g of biomass presented a conversion of 43.06 ± 2.92% (w/w), while amyloglucosidase with 600 U/g of biomass obtained 76.57 ± 6.42% (w/w). The combination of two enzymes simultaneously was more efficient than the sequential addition for low enzyme concentrations (α-amylase 50 U/g and amyloglucosidase 90 U/g) with a total reducing sugar of 22.78 ± 3.06 and 16.92 ± 2.06% (w/w), respectively. On the other hand, using the higher enzymes concentrations, no difference was observed between the two addition strategies, 58.9 ± 3.55 and 57.05 ± 2.33% (w/w) for the sequential and simultaneous, respectively. Both strategies didn’t present advantage, since the amyloglucosidase enzyme alone produced slightly higher results. Even thought, the obtained results showed successfully performed saccharification of microalgal biomass and clearly point to microalgae use for saccharification and subsequent bioethanol production.

Renewable marine energy can be an important contributor to achieving the goal of CO2 reduction for 2050 established by the Kyoto protocol. However, the infrastructures that exploit renewable energy sources have a spatial impact on marine landscapes that must be taken into consideration. This impact determines public perception of renewable energy projects. This study analyses relevant case studies of marine energy infrastructure that have dealt with this impact from different disciplines. The objective of this work is to create an inventory of spatial solutions to the impacts generated in marine landscapes. This catalogue will be a useful tool for decision-making when facing a multidisciplinary process of marine spatial planning related with energy production. In order to be validated, the inventory must achieve the following goals: (i) encouraging multidisciplinary processes of comparison, (ii) enabling Research by design methodology (iii) addressing integration in landscape, (iv) awareness of socioeconomic and cultural values and (v) including data-informed results. Two impacts related to the field of landscape architecture in each collected sample have been considered relevant for this catalogue: visual impact and spatial footprint. Formal features and numerical indicators visually describe these impacts, as well as the innovative strategies that these projects propose to deal with them. These features are: element configuration (“anatomy”), stability systems and dynamic systems. They are represented by synthetic drawings. The chosen indicators are: energy output, distance to shoreline, sea depth, area of device, and height of device. These are included in a radial chart. In addition, a label with basic identification data has been attached to each sample. The quantitative information in the catalogue makes the different projects comparable, while the graphic representation give a qualitative point of view about the spatial consequences of this data. Both are necessary to promote future multidisciplinary marine energy projects.

The search for sustainable energy alternatives has been increasingly important, not only because the depletion of fossil fuels, but also due to the necessary reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases. The use of renewable energy has contributed to the mitigation of this problem, but this doesn’t always adapt to the requirements of energy demand. The energy of biomass, in particular by the combustion of vegetal biomass, is a form already in use and with broad application, from domestic heating equipment to thermoelectric power plants. An alternative energy source is the refuse derived fuels, RDF, which offer a double benefit, given they provide an energy resource and avoid the occupation of landfill space. However, the use of biomass or RDF has limitations, due to the fuel quality. As received, it presents low heating value, low adiabatic flame temperature and low density. The improvement of the properties of these fuels may be obtained by torrefaction. This is a low-temperature pyrolysis process, where the heating gradient, top temperature and process duration must be controlled. In this study, an experimental prototype was developed for torrefaction trials. During the torrefaction experiments the heating rate and maximum temperature were controlled, and were measured sample temperatures, mass decay and also the composition of the gases released. Later, the higher heating value, density and hydrophilicity of biomass and RDF samples, as received and with various stages of torrefaction, were measured, confirming the advantage of applying this thermal process in the improvement of the biomass and RDF fuel properties.

The organic agro-wastes and other wastes and by products from food industry, for bio-energy generation, are cheap materials, most of them, friendly to the environment, and renewable in the meaning of ability to replace partly or totally the fossil fuels. In this study was performed a series of pretreatment processes with corn Stover as an agricultural cultivation waste, transforming to its more easily digestible state, and then were properly applied techno-engineering conditions intending to convert their biomass content into bio-ethanol as an energy carrier, and other usable chemicals, as well. It was preliminarily characterized each of considered wastes, and then was carried out a series of laboratory scale tests, performing such treatment processes leading to energetic values profit (biogas test), and reaching to such chemicals as Ethanol, Xylitol, Polylactic Acids, etc. By applying simulation techniques using two computer software’s that operate with coherent values, performing the process economy evaluation, adapting proper prices and capacities of the equipment (Albania) production capacity. This process was realistically applicable, as it was shown through performed experimental ethanol production on a laboratory scale. Comparing the generated theoretical simulation results and their validity with experimental data, result the best data fit through process algorithmic modeling. Conclusions resulted were optimistic for the bio-ethanol production capacity, cost estimation, and optimal yield production.

During the initial project phase the decisions have a greater importance on a building, so it is necessary that different designers can use a centralized information model, allowed by Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology. The study evaluates the capabilities of BIM on the use of precise and updated information related to the construction solutions of exterior walls and floors, throughout the management of the building life-cycle, namely, in the perspective of an energetic simulation. The work carried out involves the creation of a BIM model and the establishment of a library of parametric objects representative of current walls and floors. The information introduced in the model, together with the parameters, concerning physical proprieties, added to the walls and floor objects, are used in the development of sustainability tasks supported in the BIM model. The main advantages are identified when comparing alternative constructive solutions, and shown BIM ability to support decisions by stakeholders during the development of a project.

Residential buildings have considerable potential in terms of improving energy efficiency and the energy of HVAC systems. The European Commission has recognized this aspect since 2003, and has required countries to prepare specific regulations and legislation. In order to contribute to the thermal energy efficiency of typical residential buildings located on southern Spain and Portugal, a research team composed with members of Seville and Algarve Universities, is developing work to meet the 2020 targets and provide almost null energy consumption buildings. To do so, the use of HVAC systems should be minimized and preferably eliminated from the building. Both countries have to apply and respect their national regulations regarding energy efficiency, however, the scope goes far behind and it aims to produce real requirements to reduce the demand of energy on this type of buildings. Some solutions are presented hereby.

Fires originating in chimneys and issues relating to air pollution originating from heating devices, pose serious problems to cold climate countries. Modern solutions for chimney systems have become significantly safer. This mainly results from the use of modern materials and innovative solutions in chimney construction. The use of the air space in the structure of chimney systems, evacuating smoke from solid fuel heating devices, is gaining popularity. The air space is located between the chimney cladding and the insulated exhaust duct. The atmospheric air from above the roof, which is subsequently used in combustion process, is fed to the hearth through this layer, in the direction opposite to the flow of flue gas, so called counter current. Another aspect is the improvement of fire safety level. This is due to the fact that the air flowing along the airspace recuperates the heat from flue duct and by doing so reduces the temperature of chimney cladding. This article presents the analysis of operating properties in the aspect of research conducted to enhance eco-friendly effect and safety of chimney systems designed for solid fuel heating devices. Thus, it was pointed out that the research performed as a part of chimney certification do not reflect real life conditions in case of chimney fires. However, the use of the air layer in the chimneys improves their fire safety parameters and allows heat recuperation from flue gas at the level of 4.3% of thermal efficiency.

Ground source heating and cooling is well established in many parts of the world providing a highly efficient source of low carbon heating and cooling. In view of its efficiency, it is more economic to run a heat pump almost continually - maintaining the minimum base heat load, than it is to install a much bigger heat pump capable of reaching peak load for only short durations. It is for this reason that heat pump technology is most efficiently operated when integrated with other traditional or alternative energy sources. The combined approach can be further enhanced by the application of other technologies, such as energy from road asphalt which can significantly improve the efficiency of heat pumps. Three UK case studies are provided which demonstrate the efficiency which can be realized, as well as highlighting some of the practical issues which may be encountered during the design and installation of such systems.

The study determines the ideal relationship between: Structures, Processes and Relational Mechanisms, which support a better Green Information Technology Governance in the organization. At first step, it executes a review about theoretical and referential framework, where research questions guide hypothesis. The causal relation for theoretical constructs is validated with the proof, using a case study for a public university of Ecuador: The National University of Education (UNAE). The model is testing with quantitative methods using structural equations, where two of the three hypotheses are not supported statistically, thus: in hypothesis one, no significant relationship was found between the structures and the Green IT Governance; nor between the processes and the Green IT Governance. Instead, hypothesis three is supported statistically where a significant relationship was found between relational mechanics and the Green IT Governance after qualitative data was collected through a focus group, and triangulation was applied.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the main Spanish and Portuguese containers ports observing if they are operating below their production capabilities during the period between 2008–2017. To achieve this, one possible method is to calculate DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) efficiency, the scale efficiency targets, and in order to consider the variability across different samples a bootstrap scheme has been applied.The results showed that the DEA Bootstrap-based approach cannot only select as suitable a unit which accords with a port’s actual input capabilities, but also provide a more accurate result. The bootstrapped results indicate that all ports have no need to develop future investments to expand port infrastructure. The proposed DEA Bootstrap-based approach provides useful implications in the robust measurement of port efficiency considering different samples.The study proves the usefulness of this approach as a decision-making tool in port efficiency. This study is one of the first studies to apply bootstrap to measure port efficiency under the background of Spain and Portugal case. In the first stage, two models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) have been used to obtain the Pure Technical, and the Technical and Scale Efficiency, both the input-oriented option: Constant Return Scale (CCR) and Variable Return Scale (BCC). In a second stage, the bootstrap method has been applied in order to determine efficiency rankings of Iberian Peninsula container ports taking into consideration different samples. Confidence interval estimates of efficiency for each port are reported. This paper provides useful insights into the application of a DEA Bootstrap-based as a modelling tool to aid decision making in measuring port efficiency.

Eco-efficiency has become essential nowadays as it advocates the use of maximum production capacity with the lowest possible environmental impact. In this respect, the study of the Ecological Modernization Theory (EMT) and the World System Theory (WST) supports the understanding of the relation between development and environment. This article analyses the relationship between eco-efficiency and economic, political and technological aspects of the development of countries using EMT and WST as the foundation. The research was conducted in two stages: the first focused on the construction of an eco-efficiency index through Data Envelopment Analysis, with the inputs: energy use, capital and labor force; and the outputs: income and CO2 emissions; the second uses multiple regressions with the eco-efficiency index as a dependent variable, and indicators often used as proxies of EMT and WST as independent variables. The results show: (a) developed economies are more eco-efficient than developing economies; (b) the number of researchers, the economic complexity index and the position in the world system (WSP) have a positive and significant relation with eco-efficiency; (c) although all WSP blocks were positively related to eco-efficiency, the coefficient values differed; (d) the number of researchers was positive and significant but R&D expenditure showed a significant and negative relationship; and (e) GDP per capita showed an inverted u-shaped relationship. It is important to highlight the difficulty of comparison with previous studies, since it seems that this is the first research that analyses eco-efficiency explanatory factors related to economic, political and technological aspects of a nations’ development.

In the imminent future, cities have to face not only an increasing urbanization but also the negative consequences of natural and human disasters. From this point of view, a city should be considered as vulnerable to climate change and other natural negative events. Thus, the challenge of a city consists in remaining on a sustainable development path. To reach this object the concepts of smartness, sustainability and resilience for a city should be intertwined. Starting from the analysis of a bright city as an integrated approach, the aim of this study consists in propose a first framework of an index which should include sustainable, smartness and resilient indicators. Integrating and measuring these three concepts in a unique index allows city’s policy makers to understand and manage natural and anthropogenic risks. Comparing dimensions/indicators with the common characteristics of the bright city concept, efficiency, diversity, and networking are the main characteristics while technology, governance, and social vulnerability are the prevailing dimensions. Flexible and resilient actions should be developed by cities to prevent and implement initiatives against negative environmental events which will be becoming common in the next years.

In the year 2017, about 89% of the total energy consumed in the US was produced using non-renewable energy sources and about 44% of tenant households were cost burdened. There is currently limited research on holistic approaches to housing policy that integrate housing affordability and environmental considerations. The objective of the current study is to utilize data and empirical analyses to explain green building policy content, adoption, and determinants in the context of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program. We employ 2010–2016 data to test a conceptual model of state innovative capacity and explore the magnitude of associations between state characteristics and the incorporation of green building incentives into the LIHTC program in 50 US states. With a clear focus on savings from increased energy-efficiency, states increasingly adopted green building incentives between 2006–2010 but lost the initial momentum and started to fluctuate since 2010. The magnitude of governments’ financial resources, a holistic approach to green building, and citizens’ liberal ideology are among the strongest correlates of adoption controlling for income and population. To shift toward a sustainable future, policymakers should take a holistic, steady, and evolutionary approach to green building with an emphasis on simultaneous diversification, decentralization, and decarbonization of energy generation and seek complementary policies that raise the cost of carbon-intensive technologies in affordable housing. To facilitate the integration of green building with affordable housing policy, researchers should explore innovations in the policy process and measure the effectiveness of green building policies.

Sustainability policies must have a strong educational component, since they must remain in time and be accepted as part of the reality of the new generations. The necessary care of the environment has opened a window of opportunities for engineers and scientists, since the vast majority of products must be redesigned or adapted to a new regulatory framework stricter with the care of the environment. These new opportunities require qualified engineers, however, we are seeing how technical qualifications have fewer and fewer students (at least in Spain). To correct this contradiction, the authors have devised a project that consists of the construction of a solar vehicle by pre-university students, to later carry out a public competition in which to reward the best projects. In this way, the authors intend to motivate these students to enroll in technical degrees, while promoting ecological awareness and giving visibility to the social and educational work of university research groups.This paper describes the project carried out at the University of Huelva together with 15 institutes in 2018, as well as some of the results obtained in it.

The present work is part of the Project for Scientific Research and Technological Development “Accessibility for All in Tourism” focuses on modal interfaces designed according to the concepts of “Universal Design” and “Age Sensitive Design”. In this project 851 surveys were carried out for elderly tourists, who arrived in Algarve (Portugal) through the international Airport of Faro, in the summer of 2018, with a view to understanding their preferences and needs in terms of mobility. It presents the characterization of the senior tourist in Algarve, according to: gender, age, academic qualification, situation in the relation to the profession, nationality, disability and/or disabilities that affects mobility and the need to use technical aids to move. It analyses and compares, from the point of view of sustainable mobility, the mobility of the elderly tourist, by gender and age group, in the country where they reside and in the Algarve region. This information is useful for local authorities and for transport operators in order to make the mobility of elderly tourists, in Algarve, more sustainable from a social, economic and environmental standpoint.

The role of cities in sustainable development is increasingly prominent so much so that they have been defined as “the cornerstone of a battle to defend the planet”. Moreover, since the raising number of people living within a city will reach the figure of 5 billion by 2030, cities should prepare themselves through developing efficient planning and best practices. In this light, a large number of environmental assessment tools and frameworks have been developed to moving towards sustainability the cities. More recently the focus has been moved on neighborhoods and districts interpreted as the building blocks of cities and as the more adequate level for trigger and enhance citizens participation. The identification of the neighborhood as a basic planning unit results in various theories and models aiming to create better and more livable urban environment. The increasing awareness of the inadequacy of a development model based on a unlimited growth is pushing towards the concept of sustainable development and on the importance of the local level. In this framework, aim of the paper is to present an assessment framework developed in coherence with the CAT-MED urban model and tested in the Casal Bertone neighborhood in Rome.

Origin-destination (OD) matrix estimation is an important field in urban and transportation planning frameworks. This matrix gives information on the transportation made between different points of an area. This information is contained in a target OD matrix, which is a result of the data collection phase. The information comes from a sample survey. The purpose of this study is to analyze the mobility in a city performing methods based on soft computing. In order to avoid underfitting due to the high dimensionality of the problem a feature selection stage has been applied and the estimation of the OD matrix was carried out using a hybrid approach based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). The methodology consists of a resampling strategy with crossvalidation using different quality indexes to compare the different approaches in order to achieve the generalization capabilities of the best models. The results obtained prove that the proposed approach could be an effective tool to estimate OD mobility.

The growing scarcity of water leads to the need for adoption of practices, techniques and technologies that provide more efficiency in its use. This problem affects systemically on the demand and supply of this element and on its conservation. Of these practices, it can be highlighted the system of treatment and reuse of greywater, i.e. from wastewater of water consumption in buildings (sinks, showers, bathtubs, kitchen sinks, washing machine), which can be treated and reused for non-potable uses. This article therefore aims to estimate the consumption reduction achieved using storage equipment, treatment and reuse of greywater. The results show that the average monthly consumption of non-potable uses will reduce from 13,200 L to 8,880 L, a 32,73% decrease. Analyzing the total consumption of a regular residence, there would be a reduction from 15,600 L to 11,280 L, i.e. 27.69% less. It is concluded that the deployment of this system, therefore it can present high initial cost, is viable, since it greatly reduces the water consumption of the residence, which is a way to encourage the use of this technology, and to get financial incentives by Governments and public campaigns about this practice.

The Colebrook [1] equation is considered the standard for the calculation of friction factor for turbulent flow in commercial pipes, but it is implicit, and therefore it must be computed by iterative methods. Although such iterative computation quickly converges, the computational time in large pipe system simulations can be reduced using an accurate explicit correlation. A review of the up to date literature identified 30 different explicit correlations. In order to determine which correlation is the best alternative to Colebrook’s, both accuracy and computational burden were compared. The accuracy of each explicit correlation was compared against Colebrook’s correlation using the mean and maximum relative errors and the coefficient of determination. Also, the computational time of each equation was measured using the tic and toc functions in GNU Octave software. It was found that the iterative computation of the Colebrook equation demands about 2.6 times the computational time of the slowest explicit correlation. The correlations with the best balance between accuracy and computational burden are, in decreasing order of accuracy and increasing order of speed, correlations by Serghides [13] (Eqs. (17), (18), (19), and (20)), by Shacham [8] (Eqs. (10) and (11)), by Brkić and Praks [33] (Eqs. (53), (54), (55), and (56)), and by Fang et al. [19] (Eq. (28)).

In the use phase, buildings are high resource consumers, especially energy, water and even nutrients. The relationship between these resources is inseparable, and the nexus energy–water–food (or energy–water–nutrients) is currently recognized as the essential connection for the sustainable development of mankind. In the current scenario of climate change, “nearly zero energy” buildings begin to enter the reality of cities in many parts of the world, but “zero buildings” in general (and not just with regard to energy) should integrate and enhance constructive solutions in the future. Taking into account the water–energy nexus, reduction of water consumption in the building cycle is also reflected in significant energy efficiency, considering the reduction of energy needs to heat sanitary hot water and to pressurize water in buildings and also in public systems, in abstraction, pumping and treatment of water and wastewater. The design of “nearly zero water” buildings should be based on the 5R principle, which can be summarized as follows: Reduce consumption; Reduce losses and wastes; Reuse water; Recycle water; and Resort to alternative sources. This paper is a short review of techniques for increasing water efficiency in buildings, based on the principle of 5R, analyzing several solutions for “nearly zero water” buildings, with special focus on the use of efficient products, the harvesting of rainwater and the reuse of greywater. The first two technologies are already well technically dominated, while the reuse of greywater, although not a novelty, still lacks certain developments with a view to their generalization, especially with regard to health and quality control issues.

The work presented has the scope of the analysis of environmental sustainability, and more specifically, in agriculture. Agriculture is a fundamental sector in the Spanish economy and even more in the region of Andalusia, being the main exponent the cultivation of olive grove. However, despite the mechanization achieved in most of the cultivation processes of this crop, as well as the permanent progress related to the application of chemical products (fertilizers, pesticides, etc.) there is an important digital divide between the farmer and his farm. In this sense, aspects such as having a rapid and detailed monitoring of the state of the farm such as humidity data, health status of each plant, soil erosion, anticipated production data of each plant…also evolution that may has as a function of climate parameters and in short or long term the type of tillage. All these are factors to which current Geomatics tools can provide coverage with adequate accuracy. Thus, the development of technologies that allow the detailed monitoring over time of an olive grove, both at the level of the plot and individual olive, represents a very important advance in agricultural practice. The objective of this work is to analyze how geomatic tools can help to approach these items. In this sense analysis of series of physical and environmental parameters that must be integrated into a geolocated database. Then, the main advance of this work is by the use of spatial data mining possible to analyze the behavior of the farm in advance.

Ria Formosa lagoon is a coastal system located in the South of Portugal. Represents a valuable socio-economic resource for the country, due to tourism, fisheries, salt extraction and aquaculture, namely shellfish production. Ria Formosa produces 80% of consumed shellfish in Portugal, mainly grooved carpet shell Ruditapes decussatus. The physical environment to bivalve’s production includes not only the sea water in which the stock is grown, but also the substrate on they are placed, and phytoplankton and nutrients availability. Growth of bivalves is also correlated with the current velocity. The food depletion at the benthic boundary layer can be alleviated, and growth rates increase, with the breakdown of vertical velocities gradients through turbulent mixing by waves and currents. The main objective of this work was to define the best location to shellfish beds in this coastal lagoon, considering growth requirements, physical conditions and 3 hydrodynamic indicators: average current velocity, maximum flood current velocity and residence time, which were calculated using time series of water level and longitudinal component of velocity variations time series, which covered complete tidal cycles. For this purpose we defined 12 stations in the main channels of Ria Formosa using scientific diving methodologies. The combination of the considered variables, suggested that Nave Pegos, Culatra, Cações, and Bela Romão stations and surrounding areas are the most suitable for shellfish beds. This study was based in an ecohydrological approach, integrating physical and hydrodynamics variables with biota requirements, to define the best locations to shellfish beds.

The Algarve region produces about 30 000 tons of dehydrated sewage sludge per year (period 2013–2015; 20% dry matter), a figure that will increase by around 50% in the coming years, with the new activated sludge treatment systems of Companheira (Portimão) and Faro-Olhão. More than 70% of this sludge is transported in trucks further than 200 kilometres out of the region for additional treatment due to its lack of microbial quality (usually Escherichia coli > 1 000 MPN/g Original Matter (OM) and/or Salmonella is present in 50 g OM), leading to high carbon emissions and high management costs. The aim of this work was to integrate the management of this by-product with local treatment and to create valorisation solutions, e.g. use in agriculture and/or as a secondary fuel in the industry. According to the data collected, the sludge is not sent directly to agricultural soils, only because of its values of microbiological parameters, which exceed the legal Limit Value. It was found that considering the fertilization needs of the agricultural crops and the restrictions imposed, all the produced sludge can be incorporated in the soil locally. Dewatering is a critical stage for sludge treatment with major impact on sludge management costs, thus its optimization is required. Furthermore, the adoption of complementary sewage treatment technology, such as solar drying, that allow a properly stabilized product, which can be applied directly to agricultural soils, or opening new opportunities for its valorisation, can promote economic and environmental sustainability, in a circular based economy.

The adequate knowledge of trace elements background levels before their supplementation to biological systems is essential. The characterization avoids trace element overdosing which affect the biochemical reactions during anaerobic digestion and thus the biogas production. The aim of this research was to evaluate the accumulation and removal of trace elements (B, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Se, V, W and Zn) in a fixed-bed anaerobic reactor, with poultry slaughter sludge as source of inoculum, fed with a synthetic substrate that simulates the fraction soluble of sewage. Total concentrations of the trace elements in the influent and effluent wastewater were monitored and compared over the reactor operating period. In addition, the bioreactor performance parameters (volumetric methane production - VMP and COD removal efficiency - ε) were also investigated to assess trace elements content effect. It was observed that total concentrations for the trace elements Co, Mn, Mo, Ni, Se, V and W were below detection limits. The highest removal efficiencies were 93%, 67%, 67%, and 60%, respectively, for Fe, B, Zn, and Cu. A relationship between total concentration and reactor performance was not found, which suggests that concentrations approximately up to 250, 23, 5000, and 300 μg.L−1 for boron, copper, iron, and zinc, respectively, did not affect the overall anaerobic digestion functioning.

A water and air mixture model is validated via experimental data in a newly rebuild laboratory apparatus where the main variable compared was the pressure gradient along the pipe in a bubble flow pattern. The experimental apparatus presents a constant circular cross-section of 0.032 m of diameter and 3.815 m of length. The flow set-up was ascendant co-current and 30 pairs of superficial velocities of liquid-gas were measured. A numerical solution, using the mixture model, was implemented to predict the pressure gradient and void fraction of the two-phase flow for a one dimensional, steady-state, isothermal, no phase transition, no mass transfer and constant specific mass and viscosity conditions. The pressure gradient numerical results of the mixture model agreed with experimental data within an relative error envelope inferior to 2%.

Groundwater depletion is a global issue with numerous localities impacted by abstraction rates exceeding recharge. This can have major local and regional impacts, including the reduction of baseflow to surface water features, subsidence and deterioration of water quality. Construction dewatering operations are usually temporary in nature; however, the impacts of dewatering can be just as severe as more permanent operations. This is especially pertinent when abstracting from groundwater resources that are already strained, or when abstractions are proximal to natural or manmade ‘sensitive’ sites. Groundwater recharge systems are increasingly being designed and utilised in construction dewatering operations. When feasible, these systems have the potential to reduce the net abstraction and zone of influence of the dewatering operation. This paper presents the key concepts, considerations, advantages and disadvantages of groundwater recharge systems, together with relevant recent case studies.

Energy plays an important role in the water sector. In fact, energy consumption by this sector accounts for nearly 44% of municipalities’ energy costs in developed countries.To minimize adverse environmental and human health impacts wastewater can undergo three treatment levels before discharge or reuse. Since it is an energy intensive process, wastewater treatment represents the largest share of water-related electricity consumption in developed countries.According to the literature, there is a potential for improvement and energy savings in wastewater treatment facilities. Indeed, International Energy Agency states that, the energy consumption in the water sector can be reduced by 15% if this potential is harnessed. Consequently, energy audits can provide valuable information about those facilities, allowing to assess their energy performance and to identify energy-saving opportunities.In this paper the results of internal energy audits conducted in two “small” wastewater treatment plants, located in the North of Portugal, are presented and analyzed. The results, 13% and 22% savings, show that simple energy audits, which can be implemented by company members, should not be considered as a cost, but rather as a step to a more efficient energy use, reducing energy costs and environmental impacts.

This paper presents first steps for the development of a 3D Farm Management Information System (FMIS), which involves a simulation model of a virtual olive tree plantation based on the fusion of real data from different sensors. It may be used for several purposes ranging from improvement of the irrigation system, plant growth estimation with procedural modeling to remote sensing and precision agriculture applications. The main aim is the simulation of several environmental impacts, such as the use of pesticides, improvements for an optimal distribution of irrigation systems, etc. In the initial stages proposed in this paper, the main aim is to set the base for irrigation systems, for which we describe possible applications of existing technologies.

Saline water presence in waste water sewers is frequent, with larger impact in coastal zones. Its presence is due to marine water infiltrations, industries discharges with saline effluents, leachate discharges or marine water utilization in sanitary systems in countries with freshwater scarcity. In Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP), saline influents change the microbial characteristics of biological reactors and cause large impacts on several types of biological treatments, such as activated sludge processes. Almargem WWTP is located in the left margin of Almargem River, close to Ria Formosa Lagoon. The objectives of this work were to understand and quantify saline intrusions at Almargem WWTP. Four seasonal sampling campaigns in spring, summer, autumn and winter were performed at Almargem WWTP influent in different tidal cycles (semi-diurnal high tides and low tides) and in spring tides and neap tides. The concentration of chloride and sulfates in the waste water were quantified and the conductivity was measured continuously on each campaign. The results showed that Almargem WWTP influent had a saline composition with values that reached 19.9‰ and intrusion flow rates that can reach 29% of the total influent. Annually, about 14.6% of the Almargem WWTP inflow is water from saline intrusions. The salinity values varied with the daily tide and showed a significant correlation (p < 0.05) with the typical concentration of seawater sulfates, indicating that the saline water mass intrusion may originate from the marine systems closest to the sewers network, namely the Ria Formosa and the river Gilão estuary.

The ECH2O-ÁGUA is being developed by the Portuguese Association of Water Resources (APRH), with the objective of promoting the adoption of practices of responsible consumption and efficient use of water, in order to meet the household and school/professional environment and needs, in a sustainable way. In a context of problems of water scarcity worldwide and drought phenomena, APRH aims to contribute to a more informed and conscious society regarding the responsibilities and changing potential towards a paradigm of governance of water towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The project is developed through the mobilization of experimental communities that are testing devices for more sustainable use of water, while these keep being optimized by a company leader in innovation that is interested in promoting its profile of social innovation. It is intended to cover a various range of ages and profiles (children, young people and adults) and promote the testing of the new equipment. Along with the testing phase, contests in schools are being launched to compare water footprints and stimulate behavioral attitudes of water savings. An electronic application for mobile phones and tablets is being developed to calculate the individual Water Footprint. The results for a critical and informed choice of different technological options inherent in consumption patterns can be achieved through the direct involvement of citizens in the changes in the patterns of consumption at local level through experimentation. By promoting social innovation and technological innovation, we promote a durable influence and sustained patterns of production and consumption, within a circular economy perspective.

Construction and demolition wastes (C&DW) are often deposited in landfills and dumpsters in urban perimeters, causing weighty environmental and social impacts. The reuse of C&DW in innovative concrete formulations is a good solution for both problems. Recycled aggregates (RA), prepared from C&DW, generally show lower quality properties than natural aggregates. This reuse has been extensively studied mainly in conventional concrete, although there are few studies regarding the incorporation of RA into the sprayed concrete and the information is almost non-existent. The use of sprayed concrete is a flexible, economical and fast construction method, but it requires specialized skilled workers and a high degree of mechanization. It is fairly common to use this technique in new construction structures such as vaults, tunnels, canals, reservoirs, swimming pools and sewers. In Algarve, sprayed concrete is used in the construction of more than 70% of all swimming pools. Under the project SPOOLs – sustainable pools, whose objective is to develop more sustainable pools, it was developed a composition of sprayed concrete that incorporates RA. This paper presents the results of strength and durability from several mixtures of hardened concrete and the prescription of the optimized composition, regarding the existing regulations. At the same time, there were also assessed the consequences upon the quality of the sprayed concrete when the operator, through the dry projection method, adds different amounts of water.Significant environmental savings would be gained if part of the required materials for this production, would be replaced by recycled material, such as RA.

Concrete is one of the most widely used construction materials in the world. The production of Portland cement, an essential constituent of concrete, leads to the release of significant amounts of CO2. The global production of concrete represents more than 5% of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide every year, mainly from the production of cement. The replacement of cement by fly ash and other industrial waste, such as steel slag, is a good example of how resource conservation can be improved and contamination can be reduced. Future trends predicts an increment of the demand for steel, worldwide. The steelmaking process produces slags, ranging from 10 to 15% per ton of steel, however its reutilization is still reduced, being deposited in landfills. The technical feasibility of replacing a large part of the cement with blast furnace slag gave good results, nevertheless, it is crucial to study the short and long term shrinkage evaluation. Shrinkage crack reduction is an important factor on the durability point of view, as well as on its strength. This study, conducted by the TEP-951 Cadiz research group, presents laboratory test results on the total and autogenous shrinkage of medium strength concrete, with partial replacement of cement by slags. Different slags were tested, namely ladle furnaces slags (LFS) and ground granulated blast furnace slags (GGBFS). The results hereby presented do not reveal significant divergences on the concrete shrinkage, for both slags. The percentage of slags used on both mixtures is the same and correspond to 25%.

The global production of concrete represents, every year, more than 5% of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, mainly from the production of cement. This negative factor can be improved by incorporating supplementary cementitious materials in order to replace cement. In the last few decades, research has been conducted on what it is known as Ultra High Performance Fibber Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC). The term includes a broad range of materials such as defect-free, dense particle, engineered composite, multi-scale particle and fibber-reinforced cementitious materials, with enhanced properties. UHPFRC has better mechanical and durability properties compared to normal strength concrete. Other benefits of using UHPFRC on a structure includes the reduction of concrete sections, concrete formwork, labour, equipment and time of construction. Despite of the benefits associated to this material, the UHPFRC is still struggling to be universally applied, mainly due to its high cost and its high environmental impact. UHPFRC cost is higher than normal concrete, due to a very high powder content and steel fibber addition. However, the production of UHPFRC using locally available materials, under normal curing conditions, should reduce its cost and turned it into a more attractive construction product.In this paper, the fresh and hardened properties of a specific UHPFRC composition are presented. The mixture replaces a significant percentage of cement by slags, and the results reveal the viability of the proposed mix. The environmental performance of the mixture confirmed the improvement on the material sustainability and allowed the identification of some potential future studies.

The conventional construction (ceramic/concrete brick, reinforced concrete and steel) is responsible for high energy consumption and waste production. The present work aims at the production of earth bricks without going through a burning process (adobe), a material considered more sustainable, with the addition of biopolymers. It was studied adobe produced with sandy soil from Bauru-SP (Brazil), stabilized with two different biopolymers, castor oil (OR) and used cooking oil (OVU), and clay soil from Barra Bonita-SP (Brazil). With the Bauru soil, 4 traces of 6 adobes were produced: 0% biopolymer, 2% OR, 4% OR and 2% OVU. With a mixture of 60% of the Bauru soil and 40% of the Barra Bonita soil, another 3 traces were produced: 0% of biopolymer, 2% of OVU and 4% of OVU. Physical and mechanical characteristics of the soils and adobes were determined. The addition of biopolymers in all traces improved the performance of adobes in relation to water (reduced water absorption), but impaired mechanical performance (reduced compressive strength). The trace that less reduced the resistance was 2% OVU with the mixture of the two soils.

The “Fivicemento” is a new construction material developed in the Construction Department of the Civil Engineering School of the Polytechnic University of Madrid consisting of a cement mortar with recycled glass, of small thickness, reinforced by a wire mesh, which is an important innovation in the materials field for its multiple applications in industry, housing construction and agriculture especially for emerging countries due to the ease of obtaining the raw material and simplicity of utilization.The use of Fivicemento allows to reduce the extractions of raw materials from nature, siliceous quarry sands for the manufacture of glass, as well as to reduce the impact of packaging waste on the environment, reducing the volumes of these wastes that are incorporated into the systems of treatment of domestic garbage, valuing 100% of the last glass waste by transforming it into glass cements, avoiding, in addition, releasing toxic elements to nature.In this communication a calculation algorithm is developed that allows in a simple way to determine the resistance to compression of the Fivicemento over time, based on its constituent materials, by means of the genetic algorithms technique and the simulation of the microstructure originated in the process of interaction of the different microstructures.

The Social Movement of Workers’ Struggle (MSLT) defends the right to housing - guaranteed by the Federal Constitution of 1988 - for the low income classes and seeks to promote the right of access to land for the most vulnerable population in the municipality of Bauru/SP (Brazil). The movement works together with the New Canaan Settlement claiming access to housing in areas that are not fulfilling its social function. Based on the problem of the Brazilian housing deficit, this study presents the projected production of Housing of Social Interest (HIS) developed in an academic discipline of the Paulista State University “Júlio de Mesquita Filho”. The project is based on the assumptions of sustainability indicators for an ecological neighborhood, * qualified in the architectural, urban and landscape areas, covering the instruments of the City Statute (2001) and integrating housing with the local ecosystem. The project deals with a redetermination of space and its relationship of power against the need of survival of the population in situation of risk of reintegration of possession and loss of access to decent housing. In this way, the insertion of new construction materials into the project becomes fundamental, as they allow access to alternative means of construction, in contrast to the hegemonic system of conventional materials, as well as to promote the socioeconomic emancipation of these populations.

Recent earthquakes have highlighted the vulnerability of existing buildings, generally realised without any measures against the effects of seismic actions. The need for maintenance and rehabilitation of historical centres and the preservation of the original architectural characters of building are among the major challenges in civil and structural engineering. Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM) composite systems represent one of the most recent and promising solutions for strengthening and retrofitting masonry buildings. The present work aims at investigating the mechanical behaviour of a sustainable composite made by a natural hydraulic lime mortar (NHL) reinforced with flax fabrics tested in tension, with focus on the crack propagation pattern and on the assessment of the textile-to-matrix bond stress. The assessment of the bond stress at the interface between the reinforcing element and the surrounding lime mortar is carried out through a model capable to predict spacing based on bond-slip law. The result underlines that by increasing the reinforcement volume fraction no significant reduction in terms of tensile strength is observed. The experimental evidence is also confirmed by the analysis of the bond stress conducted by investigating the crack pattern.

The University of Algarve, in consortium with Saint-Gobain Weber Portugal and Cristal Construction- Materials and Civil Construction Works, is developing a new concept of sustainable swimming pool (SPOOLs – sustainable pools project), more environmentally friendly, increasing energy efficient and reducing maintenance costs. The Algarve is a popular touristic destination in Portugal and in Europe. It receives millions of international and national tourists annually. Algarve is known by its warm and sunny climate and the people appreciate the houses and hotels with swimming pools, preferably surrounded by grass and trees and thus providing a pleasant green ambience. The construction, installation and maintenance of swimming pools is relatively recent, existing in large scale only in the last 50 years. During this period, the construction technologies evolved significantly and nowadays there are different solutions. Most of the existing swimming pools in Algarve, correspond to small swimming pools, built in residential areas and therefore in most cases there is no available data about the design and technical specifications. Within the scope of the I&DT project SPOOLs, an online questionnaire about the typology and durability of swimming pools in the Algarve was elaborated, for which more than 100 responses were obtained. From the analysis of the results it is possible to make several considerations about the durability and construction pathologies. The results hereby presented validate the conclusions, regarding the major swimming pools pathologies, as well as their sustainability.

The work presents existing technologies/alternatives of materials, energy and water management that can be used for more sustainable buildings, helping to reduce costs and environmental impacts. The aim was to encourage the reduction of energy consumption, adequate water management and more sustainable material choices in new or existing buildings. For this, a diagnosis of existing technologies and alternatives in the mentioned themes and tested in fictitious studies was carried out in the first stage of the work. The second stage of the study consisted of analyzing among the technologies and/or alternatives diagnosed from the methodology which can be applied in a fictitious case study of housing, its implementation and/or maintenance and viability analyzing, finally, environmental indicators, social and economic. The results showed that the best evaluated technologies/alternatives were in Energy: ventilation and natural light; in water management: double-action sanitary basin, flow restrictors, aerators with constant flow, and minicistern systems; and in Materials: bamboo, wood, soil-cement brick, earth, steel frame and wood frame, aggregate with ash from rice husks, aggregate with ash from sugarcane bagasse, glass, phase change materials, aggregate with residues of construction and demolition, Portland cement and cement with blast furnace slag; which can be used in the civil construction sector, and provide socio-environmental and economic benefits, encouraging new studies and its for public/private buildings, aid in the elaboration of public policies to reduce costs and improve the quality of buildings.

Civil engineering works are a generator of development for society, but also contribute greatly to the ecological detriment of the terrestrial ecosystem. Therefore, all design, project and execution of work must be contemplated inescapably from the point of view of sustainable development. In this sense, it is necessary to use methods that lead us to make decisions a priori regarding the sustainability of construction projects throughout their life cycle. Bearing in mind that, in each phase of the life cycle of a project, diverse and varied impacts are generated that affect its environmental, economic and social sustainability. This paper proposes a methodology to estimate the impacts generated by a project throughout its life cycle through the assessment of the most representative sustainability indicators, which will serve as a starting point for the realization of a simulation model through system dynamics. The system dynamics tool will make it easier to make decisions in the planning stage, in terms of selecting alternatives for a civil engineering project that present the best conditions for the achievement of sustainable development.

Currently, the construction industry consumes annually an average of 40% of resources, producing about 40% of solid waste and pollution. In this context it becomes imperative for the building sector to move towards a sustainable dimension. This need for sustainability is further amplified in territories such as the islands, which are often particularly vulnerable to climate changes and over-dependent on fossil fuels and energy imports. Therefore, it is essential that the islands are able to manage their resources in a sustainable way, in order to become increasingly efficient, self-sufficient and be able to protect their environmental heritage. In this context, the prospect of a circular economy is the best path to sustainable development in the construction sector. The present paper aims to illustrate two lines of research implemented on the island of Sardinia (Italy) with the aim of analyzing the sustainability of the production and use of local building materials in the island construction sector. In particular, the research lines study the chain of load-bearing energy-efficient timber panels and that of recycled aggregates for concrete buildings.

The TreeHaus is a design for a net-positive, regenerative housing development inspired by the way trees collect and distribute resources in the forest. The goal of the project is to create a building that strengthens its surrounding environment and municipality by imagining it as a constituent of its contextual ecology. The TreeHaus will harness energy from the sun, harvest water from the rain, and cycle resources and information throughout its community in the same way that plants and trees do through networks in nature. The TreeHAUS design will be presented here as a case study in truly regenerative, bio-inspired housing development.

Efficient use of available resources, through the conversion of produced waste into secondary raw materials, has become a priority of the EU’s Waste Policy. Most notably in the Building Industry, the use of recycled materials depends mainly on its application. It is for this reason that the non-structural concrete precasts are such an attractive opportunity, mainly due to their less stringent requirements. The use of bibliometric tools has allowed analysing, quantifying and visualising the conceptual and social aspects of the scientific field “precast concrete with recycled materials”; as well as identifying longitudinal trends in the most prevalent research topics in this field and its connection with other areas of study. Accordingly, this communication shows the first bibliometric analysis of the area of study under investigation. Through said analysis, it has been found that the interest in this field has been growing (number of industry-related publications) due to the negative environmental impacts linked to the sector. In addition, it has allowed us to identify possible gaps concerning the use of recycled materials in applications for which, at present, no published material exists.

In the construction sector, the development of innovative material has been adopting sustainability strategies to reduce the negative impacts of this industry. One of the most relevant strategy over the last years has been the incorporation of waste on building materials. In this context, used rubber and rice husk are both waste materials generated by different industries with significant environmental impacts.This research set out to assess the potential of composite materials made of rice husk and recycled rubber agglomerated with polyurethane for mitigation of vibrations to use in building construction. Two formulations with similar density and thickness were developed with different percentages of rice husk.The determination of mechanical and vibro-acoustic properties of both formulations were conducted. The first part of this paper is focused on the assessment of the static behaviour of the mixtures by different mechanical tests (compressive stress at 10% strain and compressive creep tests). Finally, the dynamic behaviour was evaluated through transmissibility tests for different loads and excitation frequencies using appropriate laboratory test equipment. From the resulting transmissibility curves, it is also possible to calculate the dynamic transfer stiffness of the composite materials.The results obtained are very promising and suggest that these composites will be adequate for vibration mitigation. At the same time, these materials can successfully contribute to generate waste recovery opportunities for the construction industry.

In this paper, an investigation of the durability of rubber concrete mainly the effects of temperature and its reaction to heating and cooling cycles was carried out. Three rubber concrete (RC) formulations with volume percentages of 10%, 20% and 30% were made by replacing the gravel with rubber granules. The measured parameters are density, porosity, compression, sclerometer and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV). The effect of varying the temperature from 20 °C to 300 °C on the behavior of RC was also studied. Finally, the volume and mass of samples were measured on each heating and cooling cycle. The results showed that the incorporation of rubber in concrete reduces the compressive strength values, these latter remain compatible with the use of the composite in the field of lightweight construction concretes of “Class II”.

The use of engineered nanomaterials (NMMs) in the construction sector has been steadily growing throughout this century. In contrast to the added value that NMMs offer the different materials, nowadays they are considered a newly emerging risk. The limited knowledge about this topic is due to the use of the so-called industrial hygiene “precaution principle”.This situation hinders the management of occupational risk prevention by technicians and, consequently, exposes workers to the emerging risk. This paper identifies the products used in construction that contain nano products, in order to inform users of any possible labour risks present during utilization.

The rehabilitation of structures is a key element in the reduction of construction and demolition waste. There are currently many techniques to reinforce structural elements in order to prolong the life of constructions, among which is the wrapping of columns and pillars with high performance fabrics. The reinforcement through wrapping presents some difficulties, such as the presence of sharp edges in the columns or pillars and the inefficient use of the fabrics. This paper proposes a new experimental wrapping reinforcement technique that overcomes these problems.

Rehabilitation of existing structures is rapidly increasing. Today, it is estimated that, in developed countries, half of the existing bridges have over 50 years old. Bridge structures, like others, deteriorate with time due to abnormal floods, foundations erosion, ground movement/subsidence, lack of maintenance, overloading, environmental effects, inadequacy of design and construction. Maintenance is necessary to preserve the load capacity design of the bridge and ensure the safety of those using it. Rehabilitation implies to guarantee service level considering the new conditions and actions. In concrete bridges, corrosion of reinforcement and spalling of the concrete cover, may lead to loss of strength and unserviceability. Corrosion is initiated mainly by chloride contamination or exposure to atmospheric CO2, although others pollutants can also contribute. However, is often exacerbated by the reduction of concrete cover, low quality of the concretes for certain aggressive environments, and poor compaction and curing. Bridge rehabilitation process should be preceded by assessment and evaluation of the structure, to determine its actual strength condition and to select the proper rehabilitation techniques and materials. This kind of processes involves the intervention of several experts.The case study hereby presented is the concrete bridge over the Foupana river, in the Algarve. The paper focuses on the inspection, assessment and rehabilitation, and it presents two rehabilitation strategies: major repair versus replacement. Also multiple constraints imposed by economic, social and environmental aspects are highlighted by the authors, since they greatly influenced the rehabilitation procedure and outcome.

The collapse of a school building can be very dramatic, as it was the case of a school building in San Giuliano di Puglia (Italy) that has collapsed after the 2002 Molise Earthquake, or the Mexico City’s Enrique Rébsamen School, that collapsed after the 2017 Puebla Earthquake, killing many children. With this problem in mind, a computer software was developed for managing the seismic safety of school buildings in the context of the PERSISTAH project. The software complies three different modules: a school database, which is georeferenced, and the outputs can be displayed in the Google Earth; a module where it is possible to select the seismic action, which is used for the seismic assessment of the existent school buildings; and a structural performance evaluation module. In this paper, several computer strategies that were implemented in the developed software are explained and used for the seismic assessment of existing school buildings. The adopted analysis method (the N2 method) is based on the Eurocode 8 principles and rules, namely keeping in mind what is established in the Portuguese national annexes of the NP EN 1998-1:2010 and of the NP EN 1998-3:2017. Examples of the application of the developed computational strategies are presented. It is possible to conclude that when using dedicated computer routines, it seems to be possible to assess the nonlinear structural seismic behavior of a high number of buildings in a very fast way and with a high level of accuracy.

The soil-steel bridges and culverts constitute a more and more popular structural solution for the transportation investments. The span of soil-steel bridges is typically ranging from 3 to 25 m, therefore they can be used as an effective alternative for short-span bridges. Analyses of soil-steel bridges under seismic excitations are so far limited. Up to now, the analyses concerned the behaviour under static and dynamic loading. The design codes and calculation methods related to the soil-steel bridges and culverts treat the seismic excitation in the limited range. The analysed bridge was constructed as a shell structure assembled of corrugated steel plates. The bridge span is 17.67 m, clear height of 6.05 m, the thickness of corrugated steel plate of 0.007 m, corrugation depth of 0.14 m, corrugation pitch of 0.38 m. To reduce the impact of a seismic wave on the soil-steel bridge, the EPS geofoams were applied. Therefore, three numerical models were created. The first model (model I) does not contain the geofoam and two next models (II and III) include the use of EPS geofoams with different densities and Young modulus. Numerical analysis was conducted using the DIANA program based on the finite element method. This paper presents the results of a numerical study of the soil-steel bridge under seismic excitation (El Centro record). The obtained results can be interesting for bridge engineers and scientists dealing with designing and analysis of bridges situated on seismic and mining areas.

The application of concrete in road construction continues to be intense and, in view of the existence of a negative sustainable impact of this material, the development and knowledge of new types that minimize such actions is imperative in the face of new concerns in the context of sustainability.The engineering works have, over time, a significant technological evolution that has provided a better serviceability to the users. As a result of this growth, the characterization and performance of these products and systems, both built and under development, are issues that have preoccupied several sectors of construction civilization, which demands more intense studies about deleterious configurations.This work presents the study of drainage concrete for road pavements, require knowledge of physical and mechanical characteristics of materials. In order to evaluate the behavior of pavements, experimental tests were carried out with several compositions.The rigid pavements with drainage concrete after their construction undergo under the action of traffic and atmospheric conditions. The degradation process occurs over the lifetime of the pavement and may be reduced if it is well constructed and well maintained. In this way it is fundamental to understand which are the tests that must be carried out. In the case of concrete, we have the workability, tests of resistance to compression and bending, permeability tests, compressive strength tests, wear resistance tests, and absorption by immersion tests.

One of the goals of the PERSISTAH project is the seismic assessment of primary school buildings existing in the regions of Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain). One of the building typologies existing in Algarve is the so called “P3 Schools”. Each school is composed by a combination of independent modules, which can be combined in different manners, depending on the number of classrooms of each school. Unfortunately, no structural designs were found, which was a common issue identified for some of the Algarve school typologies. So, no information was found about the geometry, details or even the materials used in these school buildings. Also, no destructive or semi-destructive testing could be carried out. Fortunately, the architecture exhibits apparent reinforced concrete columns and beams. For this reason, a campaign of non-destructive testing was carried out in different schools in order to allow the seismic assessment of these school buildings. The adopted procedures are presented in detail is this paper. A pachometer was used to identify the position and the number of rebars. A correlation between the results of the Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity test (UPV) and the results of the Schmidt hammer test procedure is discussed.

The main objective of the present work is the prediction of the paths of noise propagation between interior spaces of buildings, generated by internal sound sources, using an alternative experimental methodology. With this methodology, it is intended to obtain more rigorous results, with a certain solution of sound insulation, in relation to the contribution of each one of the sound paths, in comparison to the direct sound measurement. The proposed methodology is based on the use of a vibration measurement of the elements separating internal spaces (floor, ceiling, walls) to estimate the sound field in the receiver space, together with the sound measurements to estimate the sound field in the emitter space. The proposed method is validated through tests carried out on existing buildings in comparison with the results obtained from the classical measurement of acoustic insulation. The study cases were carried out for different types of constructive solutions and different types of buildings. The analysis of the study cases exposed the existence of an acceptable similarity between the results obtained through the two methodologies.

Landslides represent constant threats in mountainous regions with high rainfall and inappropriate anthropic occupation. The city of Cubatão, São Paulo State (BR), is historically affected by geotechnical disasters (23 occurrences between 2000 and 2016) and is an example of this scenario. The goal of this paper is to present a methodology of a hazard mapping considering three factors: geotechnical disaster, triggering rain, and anthropic occupation. Firstly, the disaster occurrences were spatially distributed in a GIS software to know the geology, geomorphology and geotechnical characteristics. Each one received a weight according to its recurrence, resulting in the environmental factors. Secondly, the social factors included attributes regarding population density, elderly population and poverty index. The sum of both factors resulted in the socionatural criteria. The statistical analysis of the rainfall thresholds considered the accumulated amount of 7 days, 3 days and the day of the event and their occurrence probability. Both socionatural criteria and trigger criteria received a ranking from one to five, indicating very low, low, medium, high and very high exposure. The grades composed a square matrix and the combination of both socionatural and triggering criteria resulted in eight hazards classes. As final comment, accumulated rains of three days were the one that led to higher hazard ratings.

Shallow sloped embankments, vertical concrete structures or steel retaining walls, are methods typically used in the construction industry to provide support to road, rail, basement and many other projects which require safe and stable open excavations. These traditional methods have disadvantages in terms of cost and sustainability. For example, a vertical wall is expensive to construct and requires the use of non-sustainable concrete or steel materials. Alternatively, whilst a shallow embankment is less costly and is more sustainable, a larger tract of land is required, which may not be available in an urban environment. This paper describes the Stable-EarthTM technique which was developed by OGI to provide a safe and stable, steep sloped solution, with greater flexibility than the methods described above. This technique combines groundwater management, slope reinforcement and erosion control. The soil embankment is strengthened using a combination of pore water pressure relief and soil reinforcement with anchors or soil nails. This enables steep soil batters to be constructed, resulting in a structure which is more cost-effective, environmentally sustainable and visually attractive. This paper will present two case studies where the Stable-EarthTM technique was used on construction projects in the United Kingdom. 1. The construction of a steep road embankment in County Durham, England. 2. An open excavation with steep batters required for the construction of a storm water tank in Royton, Manchester, England.

Since 1983, schools were designed to sustain earthquakes in the region of Algarve (Portugal), according to the Portuguese national seismic code (RSAEEP), which is still mandatory. There is also the possibility of using the national annex of Eurocode 8 (EC8), which is the NP EN 1998-1:2010, to design new buildings. According to the EC8, school buildings are classified in importance class III, relating to the consequences associated with an eventual collapse, namely to a high incidence of persons. Therefore, the EC8 establish a higher return period, and consequently a more demanding seismic action for these buildings, which is not considered in the RSAEEP. This is one of the reasons why school buildings that were built in the last decades probably do not comply to the more recent EC8 seismic security levels. In this context, seismic retrofitting solutions that upgrade the seismic security level should be tested. In this work, the seismic assessment of a reinforced concrete (RC) primary school building is presented, and the effect of the addiction of steel bracings is studied (using a pushover analysis), in the context of the PERSISTAH project, which aims to assess the seismic risk of primary school buildings in Algarve (Portugal) and Huelva (Spain).

The assessment of the seismic safety of ancient buildings is of especial importance in the scope of the conservation and rehabilitation of the built heritage in the Algarve region, besides the own security of the users, since it is one of the areas of greater seismic risk in mainland Portugal. However, it is increasingly evident the poor quality of the construction materials often used and especially the natural degradation they have suffered over the years. Thus, based on the large number of existing buildings, there is a motivation to study the seismic vulnerability of a typical building of the region in order to evaluate if it presents an appropriate seismic behavior and may constitute a sustainable solution for the future. The goal of the present work is to verify the seismic safety of a masonry structure in this case an ancient building located in Tavira, based on a non-linear static analysis (pushover), using for this purpose the commercial software 3Muri. The pushover analysis considers the evolution of the structure versus the lateral actions, representing its behavior in all phases of request and displacement, through capacity curves, until it reaches collapse. The structural modeling procedure of the case study is based on macro-element methodologies that simulate the response of masonry panels using simplified formulations of resistance domains for the critical sections of each macro-element.

According to the architectural parasismic concepts, the lesson brought by the last seismic events shows that a building is really parasismic only if it is the product of a close cooperation between the architect and the civil engineer as of the early phases of the design. However, the majority of the Algerian architects do not use any device tools during the earthquake designing process. This is mainly due to the inadequacy of these tools to the professionals implied in the designing process, especially the architects. They are confronted to problems and situations to which they have to find the most suitable solutions in matter of design. Their basic mission is to get hold of the maximum amount of information concerning the constraints that will serve in facilitating the designing process. Hence, the architects’ experimental skills as well as know-how are essential. The used approach in our research is based on the seismic vulnerability index method combined with fuzzy logic. The basic model is applied on seismic vulnerability assessment during the early phase of project design. The proposed method can be considered as a toolset of prediction, description, information, dialogue, decision-making, control and validation of the architectural project during the design process. The results obtained by using the designed SeVA-Tool (Seismic Vulnerability Assessment device) are very interesting. These results are included 100% in Max-reference and Min-reference of expert knowledge. Our objective is to contribute to the development of new measurement tool to save human lives against the seismic hazard.

The present paper describes a new footbridge that will stand over Faro marina to connect margins and to offer a new pedestrian and cycle mobility in the noblest part of the city. Besides the important aesthetical issues, pedestrian accessibility and boats circulation were considered during general design decisions.The 59.6 m span and 2 m wide steel bridge is a double truss with both chords in arch shape and will be raised between the Faro historic center and the Ria Formosa lagoon area. The latter aspect was in the origin of the client main demand: “transparency”. This condition, lead to a project with slender elements, requiring special attention to the dynamic effects, namely horizontal and vertical vibrations and the maximum accelerations of the structure to avoid risks on structure safety and in pedestrian comfort.This paper presents the two solutions designed during contest phase and the detailed structural analysis for the winner solution.

The promotion of dry-stone vernacular heritage as a pole of attraction of sustainable tourism has a key role on its preservation. Moreover, the outreach prevents the loss of the technique, since the knowledge becomes accessible for people. In the same way, this interest on vernacular heritage has a favourable impact on rural areas, where devalued and non-profitable terrains can be attractive for the society with new uses. Dry-stone technique only uses stones without other joining material. The shape and the appearance of those constructions varies from one place in function of various features. Based on the structural principles of dry-stone technique, they had to adapt to the material, the surroundings and the necessities. The methodology proposes the analysis of formal and structural differences and similarities of dry-stone walls located on different Iberian Peninsula areas. Three areas of study are chosen to perform the comparison: Northeast and Southwest of Iberian Peninsula. In the Northeast, the study is focused on the Terra Alta region (Spain) and, in the Southwest the study analyses the North of Seville region (Spain) and Algarve area (Portugal). This study evidences the differences and common features for the conservation of that heritage, which are common all over the world. Following, the study focuses on the context of conservation, dissemination and formation of this vernacular heritage, both in these specific areas and in the international context. Finally, a protocol is proposed to design promoting actions in the context of sustainable tourism linked to the dry-stone heritage.

Social Networks (SN) role in the present time is changing the way information is shared among customers. In tourism, such behavior is recurrent and its impact on customers’ perceptions, expectations and preferences is understudy. In addition, SN are updated constantly by their users regarding their surroundings, events, and provide a way to be in contact with friends, relatives or service providers. During these contacts customers’ experiences during their journey are shared on SN and dynamic interactions and dialogs occur. As a result, tourism organizations adopted similar behaviors, turning SN in an important vehicle to interact with customers while promoting and communicating their products and services. However, from the customers’ perspective, not all behaviors are same, an example can be found among cohorts’ behavior, which varies regarding the information they search, share, and value. Thus, the present study intends to identify cohorts’ SN behavior and its characteristics, in order to contribute to the definition of strategies for tourism companies. The methodology employed a quantitative approach. The data was collected using a convenience sample of 1317 customers using SN when searching for information about tourism products and services. Descriptive statistics and correlation analysis were made to identify behaviors and the most relevant characteristics during SN usage. Findings revealed centennials to attach greater importance to the information shared about events in social networks, but on the other hand, it was also found that little importance is given to the dissemination of information about transports.