Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Water Energy Food and Sustainability (ICoWEFS 2021)

COVID-19 has heightened all factors leading to food insecurity globally. Currently, governments and food charity organizations are working to alleviate the outbreak’s adverse effects on food security. To combat the heightened food insecurity, the focus needs to be on safely reopening workplaces for the purpose of increasing household incomes, expanding the food supply distribution network, and providing food for children who typically receive subsidized lunches at school. Concern for food safety has risen during the pandemic due to the hypothesis that the disease stems from a similar strain of coronavirus found in bats. Regulating safe food is difficult due to stay-at-home orders but is more important now than ever. Production, accessibility, and sustainability are taken more seriously because of COVID-19 to ensure there is enough food available while keeping society healthy and safe. COVID-19’s effects on the food supply chain vary drastically within developed and developing countries. Overall, in more developed countries, the food supply chain remained resilient to delays, understaffing, and demand switches thanks to increased automation within the supply chain and innovations within the “consumer” stage. Due to the dependence on labor-intensive methods in developing countries, the supply chain has been detrimentally affected at all levels. Through different integrations of technology, developing countries will rely less on labor and be better prepared to withstand similar situations in the future. This paper reports the results of the research done to investigate various ways in which community and government assistance can counteract the effects of COVID-19 on food.

A region is considered food secure when all of its four pillars are met: accessibility, affordability, safety and utilization. Unfortunately, developing countries such as Bolivia presents a very high food insecurity index, due its high levels of poverty. The paper aims to discover relevant factors that people with an average income for the region, located in peripherical areas, considers at the moment of acquire their family basket, especially fruits and vegetables, and how their environment affects their purchase decision regarding fresh and healthy food. The study was performed on Cochabamba – Bolivia during the time of the pandemic crisis of 2020.

In developing countries, women are the backbone of rural economies. Overlooking the needs of female farmers and their limited access to relevant information are among the key components hampering agricultural productivity development and poverty reduction. ICT based-knowledge transfer has transformative potential to enhance female farmers’ productivity, to build adaptive capacity and enable access to critical information. However, this can be successful only if women’s special needs are recognized. In the FoodAfrica project framework, the rationale for a gendered approach to video-mediated knowledge transfer in arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), where the roles of women and men in agriculture are strongly gendered, was developed.

The world population is growing at a rapid pace. Economic advance is increasing the global demand for food and diversified diets. Agricultural production contributes to the pollution of the environment. Given the limitation of water and land resources, a dietary change is necessary to contribute to food security and ensure the care of the planet. Sustainable and healthy eating, among which the Mediterranean diet is identified, could be the answer. Leaving the parental home to live independently during young adulthood is likely to influence food choice behavior towards the development of unhealthy and unsustainable food choice patterns. This paper draws on a small scale, mixed-methods qualitative study made with young Portuguese and Spanish millennials in 2019 to question the eating practices and perceptions when experiencing transition to adulthood. Based on food diaries and semi-structured interviews, results show that often participants choose the Mediterranean diet. Millennials express interest in continuing to prepare the homemade and traditional dishes they ate before becoming independent, arguing that they are accustomed to flavors, identifying traditional food with healthy food and valuing the affective memories with their family of origin. Overall, millennials’ food practices transversally claim for a water-energy-food nexus, embracing SDGs.

The world population is increasing along with the need for food. However, the way in which we grow and consume food has environmental, economic, and social implications, which are the pillars upon which the concept of sustainability is built. Third-level students will become the generation that will be working and starting families soon, therefore the aim of the current study is to explore the views of Irish third-level students regarding sustainable diets. For this reason, semi-structured interviews were used to collect data on the understanding of sustainability, sustainable food and diets of students (n = 7) from different courses (Environmental, Human Nutrition and Marketing). Moreover, the barriers they faced when trying to follow a sustainable diet were explored. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data showed that the perception of sustainability depended partly on the course they were studying. Sustainable diet consisted of foods which are local, healthy, without packaging, and producing minimum waste when consumed. The barriers they faced, regardless of their studies, were linked to the lack of information on the packaging in relation to sustainability and when living independently versus living with their parents. For the future, it is suggested to incorporate sustainability and sustainable diets in the learning of students across courses. Moreover, it is suggested to explore the views on sustainable diets of adults from different age groups.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) express the ambition to achieve targets by 2030 for the Planet, as defined by the United Nations (UN). Under a similar perspective, the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus approach highlights that these three elements are intrinsically interconnected. Consequently, they should be evaluated and managed in an integrated way. The agro-industrial sector makes extensive use of the most demanded natural resources, and plays a major role in both frameworks. Therefore, proposing an integrated view for this sector, dealing with both the UN SDGs and the WEF nexus is relevant and promising, but challenging. This short note provides a proposition on the connections between the SDGs and WEF nexus for the agro-industrial sector, based upon available literature. Finally, the overall expected benefits are to impact the decreasing of the water used volume (ensuring its availability, and quality), the energy efficiency-enhancing (stimulating the replacement by clean energy sources), and to avoid food wastage and contamination during the process.

Luanda presents a growing scenario of island housing, with its neighbourhoods comprising a significant percentage of the precarious income population living in a confined regime, in backyards behind houses and buildings making shared use of spaces for everyday use such as the kitchen and bathroom. This scenario is ignored by official institutions and has been aggravating the general picture of existing urban poverty and the lack of access and availability of quality and quantity food for this population. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the diagnosis and analysis of the phenomenon of this “new dwelling” in the city of Luanda, which we call new island housing. It is viewed from the perspective of comfort in housing and the importance of the practice of peri-urban agriculture considered as residual rural practice existing in many of the city’s neighbourhoods and in the lives of the residents of this island-dwelling and these neighbourhoods. It is intended to understand how to integrate this reality into the panorama of housing supply in the city of Luanda in order to discuss quality housing, healthy food, decent work with a fair salary and a sustainable environment in the neighbourhoods, all within a framework of sustained economic development and social development of families.

Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from livestock raise the increase of temperature worldwide. They contribute 14.5% of global emissions while enteric fermentation is the largest contributor (39.1%). The main objectives of the current study were: a) to determine the socio-productive characteristics at the household/farm level and b) to estimate the GHG emissions of dairy farms. This study was conducted in the Andes of northern Ecuador. Sociodemographic information and characteristics of the farms were obtained through field surveys. In order to estimate GHG emissions, the Cool Farm Tool program (version 0.11.36) was used. The probabilistic technique of cluster sampling was performed, with the support of a key informant, while the survey lasted some 45 min each. Hereby, we surveyed 73 mestizo people, being 54.79% male and 45.21% female, with an average experience in milk production of 23 years, distributed in 20 homes in 15 communities. The average values have been of pastures with 3.1 ha in 5.07 ha of farm, with a herd of seven animals, a milk production of 33 l/day and a price of 0.37 dollars/liter. The estimate of GHG emissions indicated that 81% of livestock emissions derived from enteric digestion. Methane from enteric digestion is higher for some species (ruminants) than others, demonstrating that changes in diet potentially improve such scenario. Most of the emissions originated from the management of pasture residues, occupying 82% of the total. These may be compensated by directly incorporating such residues or its compost and using it in soil.

According to development theory, in the 20th century, the concept of sustainability emerged with three important variables, stability, resilience and adaptability; giving them an economic approach based on productivity, efficiency and effectiveness without neglecting the perceptions of equality and common welfare. Sustainable organic agriculture is a production system that largely avoids or excludes the use of synthetically compounded fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators, and food additives. Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is a small sector of all agricultural production in the world. In Latin America, between 70% and 100% of cocoa exports correspond to fine or aroma cocoa, making this region the first producer of this variety at an international level according to the International Cocoa Organization. This paper looks for evaluating the economic sustainability of cocoa production, both in organic and conventional agriculture. An economic analysis was carried out based on a mathematical programming model that projected the maximizations of production and income in Fortaleza del Valle Corporation in Calceta Ecuador. The results show a greater economic sustainability of organic farming compared to conventional agriculture. The higher profitability of organic agriculture was due to the lower requirement of labor and a greater appreciation of the market for organic products that awarded a price higher than conventional prices. Furthermore, the higher profitability of organic agriculture and the use of environmentally friendly inputs in the production process make the farms competitive. Additionally, the environmental results in terms of reducing carbon emissions suggest that the organic system is more effective in mitigating climate change.

Seaweeds are one of the most sustainable and feasible natural sources to the imminent food shortage, due to their nutritional profile. Seaweed aquaculture is an important tool for seaweed food safety and maintain the nutritional value. The specie Gracilaria gracilis (Rhodophyta) is an edible seaweed, which can contribute to a balanced diet. The objective of this work was to evaluate the nutritional profile of G. gracilis in semi-controlled aquaculture (SCA), located in the estuarine zone of the Mondego River (Figueira da Foz, Portugal) compared to specimens harvested in the natural environment (SW). G. gracilis that presented good growth rate in the aquaculture system (4.70%/day), and its biomass, analyzed by Weende method, showed that SCA had different nutritional profile than SW. A fresh weight of cultivated G. gracilis showed some differences in moisture (SCA = 85.49% ± 0.02; SW = 86.04% ± 0.01), ash (SCA = 3.96% ± 0.01; SW = 4,10% ± 0.01), fat (SCA = 0.01% ± 0.00; SW = 0.01% ± 0.00), fiber (SCA = 0.79% ± 0.01; SW = 0,68% ± 0.00), protein (SCA = 2.07% ± 0.01; SW = 2.54% ± 0.01) and carbohydrate (SCA = 7.69% ± 0.02; SW = 6.64% ± 0.01). These results support the importance of G. gracilis aquaculture cultivation, maintaining the seaweed nutritional quality, when compared to the wild specimens obtained from the sea. Thus, promoting an eco-sustainable way of cultivating seaweeds for nutritious food purposes and even promoting the global food safety.

The rice irrigation by continuous flooding is highly water demanding, in comparison with most methods applied in irrigation of other crops. This is due to a significant deep percolation, and the need for surface drainage of water from the basin. Currently, rice irrigation in basins with precision land leveling requires much less water than it was used in the past; nevertheless, there are still some recognized problems, like water scarcity, environmental impacts on water quality and agroecosystems and the methane emissions to the atmosphere. Saving water in rice production becomes a priority, to safeguard its economic and environmental sustainability. This study was elaborated, under the MEDWATERICE project, aiming to experiment the alternative wetting and drying flooding (AWD), using rice cultivar “Ariete” and the drip irrigation techniques applied in three rice cultivars, “Ariete”, “Teti”, and “Crono”. The field experiment was installed in the Lis Valley, during the 2020 campaign, on farmer’s fields. The AWD results showed that there is a potential of saving 10% of irrigation water, with no significant yield impacts, allowing additional 28 days with non-flooded soil. The precise land levelling is a priority to reduce the water level above soil surface. The drip irrigation essay, innovative in this area, uncover problems with soil lateral wetting and fertilizers leaching in a light soil, explaining yield losses. However, the maximum plot yield, makes glimpse a potential good performance. In the next season experiment adjustments of the distance between row crops, position of drip lines and the fertigation plan, will allow to prove this potential.

Rice, which is strategic for food security in some countries, is traditionally grown under continuous flooding, thus requiring much more irrigation water than non-ponded crops. Fresh water shortage issues and steadily increasing competition for water (human consumption, agriculture) make the accurate and up-to-date assessment of the spatial distribution of rice cultivated area and crop condition (health, water requirement) key information for stakeholders including policy makers, rice farmers and consumers.In recent years, remote sensing data, such as images obtained from satellites and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), are offering attractive routes to acquire field data in a fast and easy way. Those data are applied to extract e.g., Vegetation Indices (VI) such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) or the Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI).This work is embraced by the international project MEDWATERICE that focus on improving the sustainable use of water in Mediterranean rice agro-ecosystems. It concentrates on the Lower Mondego region (Portugal) and aims at the increased understanding of the usefulness of remote sensing tools for rice agriculture, for the local conditions. This includes investigating: 1) NDVI trend during the rice cropping season, and its spatial variability, using Sentinel-2A data; 2) Comparison between VI estimated from Sentinel-2A and UAS data. Preliminary results show that Sentinel-2A data are potential useful tools for monitoring paddy fields, but the full understanding of the relation between the signals obtained from Sentinel-2A and UAS data still requires the analysis of longer paddy fields monitoring campaigns.

This paper aims to analyse the rice production system in the lower Mondego Valley, in Portugal, in order to understand the main concerns of farmers and risk perception. A field survey was conducted and rice production systems as well as marketing systems were analysed. A study on the worries was also made and a correlational attempt was done, considering different types of risk. The results show a production system strongly oriented by agricultural policies and agri-environmental measures. The perceived risks mainly arise from rice production costs, prices and their relative instability which results from the uncertainty about the evolution of worldwide demand and production, and from the effects of global changes. However, the choices made by farmers, who possess sound knowledge of agricultural policies and marketing systems, are not completely correlated with their risk perceptions.

Hydroponics and vertical farming are unconventional methods that forgo the typical large growing area, in favor of faster and more space efficient growing methods. Hydroponics, also known as soilless agriculture, is a method of farming that replaces standard soil with a nutrient rich solution in which the roots of plants are submerged. This method boasts much higher plant yield as the nutrient solution can be formulated specifically for each plant type. Vertical farming is the use of vertical elevation in farming allowing for a larger surface area of growth in confined spaces. Plants are grown on walls or in stacked rows like library books. These two methods are gaining increased popularity due to the need for faster and more space efficient farming methods to feed the rapidly growing world population. Everyday improvements in technology are making these formerly expensive methods cheaper and more efficient as plants can be monitored to ensure they stay in ideal conditions on an ongoing basis. The goal of this student project was to design, build, and test a self-sustaining hydroponic unit for the urban gardener. This unit will allow people to grow their own vegetables and herbs within the city. The hydroponic system was constructed and used to test the practicality of a small-scale gardening unit for home use. The system presented in this article can be used to grow the most expensive spice in the world - saffron - but the eleven-week time frame of this project was a limiting factor in testing the potential of this system to grow a bulb flower. The total cost of this project was USD 217, 45% of which was the cost of plexiglass.

Plants with one or more consumable parts are considered edible. Although many plants have been classified as edible (about 27 thousand species), few are used as food. Nonetheless, to overcome food scarcity and excessive dependence on the same plant species, humans have always consumed wild plants, either through direct intake, or as spices, condiments, or oils. Thus, edible wild plants are part of a cultural and genetic heritage assigned to different geographical areas, as well as important sources of essential oils, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and special flavours. Therefore, edible wild plants have been the subject of a growing interest, not only due to their nutritional and medicinal value, but also as a way of diversifying eating habits and of promoting biodiversity and ecological sustainability.The Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula is characterized by rocky cliffs, sandy dunes, and maritime pine forests, where several halophyte wild plants flourish and thrive. Different endemic species such as Corema album (“Camarinha”), Crithmum maritimum (“Funcho-do-mar”), Eryngium maritimum (“Cardo-marítimo”), Helichrysum italicum (“Perpétua-das-areias”) and Otanthus maritimus (“Cordeiros-da-praia”) prosper in these sand-dune environments and are known to present important bioactive compounds, which also show relevant antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties. Here, we review on the several special features and characteristics presented by this group of autochthonous plants, that show great potential, both in terms of agri-food applications, as well as in terms of cosmetics and other biotechnological uses.

In the next 30 years a sharp increase in the world population is expected, which determines the need of an increasing food production, linked to a high nutritional pattern, to ensure human health. In this context, as bread wheat is one of the most produced cereals worldwide, its mineral enrichment through agronomic biofortification is of great interest. Under this framework, considering that zinc deficiency triggers some pathologies in the human population, this study presents an agronomic workflow for Zn enrichment of bread wheat and aimed to evaluate the technological quality of the related flours (whole and refined bread wheat flours), to create an innovative product, with added value and capable of supplying nutritional deficiencies in zinc. Tests were carried out after three foliar applications of Zn-EDTA, in three different concentrations, in Paiva and Roxo varieties of Triticum aestivum L. Therefore, an analytical determination of ash and moisture contents, Zn, Ca and K on bread wheat flours and scanning colorimetry were carried out. Whole bread wheat flours submitted to the workflow of Zn enrichment revealed, relatively to refined flours, higher contents of ash, Zn, Ca and K. Nevertheless, in the scanning colorimetric analysis, two transmittance peaks were recorded at 550 and 650 nm in the regions of the visible spectrum, in which the whole flour presented lower values. The obtained data is discussed, being concluded that whole wheat flours resulted in flours nutritionally more interesting, allowing the design of innovative and functional foods produced from Zn enriched flours with added value.

In the human body, Ca is required in high quantities, being crucial for bone synthesis, specific metabolic features, and tooth mineralization. However, its deficiency can trigger osteoporosis and rickets development. To avoid Ca deficiency, agronomic biofortification is a strategy that can improve this nutrient enhancement in food crops providing, in the long term, its intake and physiological use in the human body. In this context, being Solanum tuberosum L. one of the most important staple food crops worldwide and a primary source in human diet, this study aimed to develop a technical workflow for Ca biofortification of cv. Agria and assess some related quality parameters. The technical workflow was applied during the production cycle, through four foliar sprays with solutions containing calcium chloride (3 and 6 kg.ha−1) and calcium nitrate (0.5, 2 and 4 kg.ha−1). The accumulation kinetics of Ca in the shoot was carried out and, at harvest, the average index of Ca enrichment in the tubers varied between 5% and 40%. Naturally enriched tubers with Ca showed minor changes in dry weight matter content and colorimetric parameters. It was concluded that potato tubers naturally fortified with Ca can be used as raw material for further processing into functional food products, thus adding product value.

Deficiency in selenium (Se) intake has been associated with the occurrence of various diseases. Rice, being the staple food for many populations, it has enormous potential to reduce this micronutrient deficit. The growing demand for efficient, bioeconomic and sustainable strategies to increase Se contents in rice is therefore justified, as it is our the study of the technical and nutritional implications inherent in its production and industrial processing for baby food products. Thus, the natural rice Se enrichment constitute an added value of its food chain and constituted the aims of our study. The technical workflow was implemented, using one commercial variety of rice (Ceres) and one advanced line of INIAV National Rice Genetic Improvement Program (OP 1505). Five Se concentrations (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100g Se.ha−1) were tested in the forms of sodium selenate and selenite by foliar application. After grain harvesting, the application of Se showed 2.0–8.4 and 1.3–12.6 fold increases in OP 1505 and Ceres, respectively. Selenium did not reveal significant changes in the size of the biofortified grains. The color of the whole and refined flours showed two peaks at 550 nm and 650 nm, with the refined flour having the highest value. Total protein increased in both cultivars when selenite was applied mainly in the Ceres cultivar. In a context of innovation, Se biofortification of both rice cultivars can be used for development of functional food products, namely baby food products.

The human metabolism requires Fe to support growth and the immune system. Iron further plays an essential role in the synthesis of oxygen transport proteins (namely, hemoglobin and myoglobin), while its deficiency can lead to anemia. Zinc also plays major physiological roles, working in multiple basic biochemical functions in the cells of the organism, with its deficiency triggering multiple systems, namely gastrointestinal, central nervous, immune, and reproductive. Considering the physiological impact of these both micronutrients, this study aimed to develop a technological workflow for biofortification of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum L.) fruits (variety beef heart) in Fe and Zn, following an organic production mode. The experimental field was selected considering the edaphoclimatic parameters and the protocols for tomato growth according to the organic production mode. Four foliar applications were carried out during the production cycle, with a mix of two products (Zitrilon – 15%) at a concentration of 0.40 and 1.20 kg.ha−1 and Maxiblend with two concentrations (1 and 4 kg.ha−1). At harvest, Fe content showed a 1.8–2.5 fold increase, whereas Zn content showed increase of 34%. Morphologic parameters did not vary significantly in biofortified tomatoes. It was concluded that direct consumption of tomato (variety beef heart) production, through the organic mode, can mitigate the nutritional zinc and iron deficiency, supporting the maintenance of public health.

As nowadays there is a growing concern about micronutrients deficiency in human food products, agronomic biofortification is being considered an enrichment potential technological option. In this context, to surpass limitations of Zn intake, ensuring proper level of this element for growth and maintenance of human health, this study aimed to develop a technological workflow for Zn enrichment of grapes (Syrah variety of Vitis vinifera) and assess the related quality. A foliar application of zinc oxide (ZnO) or zinc sulfate (ZnSO4) (respectively, at a concentration of 30% and 60% - 450g ha−1 and 900g ha−1) was carried out. At harvest, Zn enrichment in grapes revealed a 1.6 fold increase relatively to control. In Zn biofortified grapes, the analysis of the color parameters, through the Cielab system, a low luminosity, low contribution of green and greater input of blue (as indicated by L, a and b parameters) was found. Concerning to firmness, penetration force and hardness of the pulp, no significant differences were found between the control and treated samples, which additionally pointed that fruit texture was not affected. Sensory analysis of the grapes further pointed a positive response to biofortified grapes. It was concluded that biofortification of grapes can mitigate the deficiency of zinc without negative effects on quality.

In the next 30 years, scarcity of food resources for a growing population will be linked to specific nutritional requirements for keeping public human health. In this framework, target minerals increase in the edible part of plants, through foliar spraying, can minimize the development of some pathologies, but to guarantee consumers acceptance and industry processing, quality must be monitored. In this context, considering that a lack of Ca can promote osteoporosis, this study aimed to develop a workflow for Ca enrichment of Rocha pears and assess its nutrient contents. Rocha pears were submitted to seven foliar sprayings with CaCl2 and Ca(NO3)2 at different concentrations (Calcium nitrate at 0.1, 0.3, 0.6 kg.ha−1; Calcium chloride – 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 kg.ha−1) and the implications on Ca accumulation, as well as some quality parameters upon storage for 3 months with and without a bath in a solution with 1.3% CaCl2 determined. During fruits growth, Ca accumulation in the shoot was measured at four different periods, and at harvest. It was found that increases of Ca contents in Rocha pears varied between 12.8–21.1%. After 3 months storage, some minor changes occurred in the quality parameters, namely: slight decrease in L parameter and dry weight, but bath with 1.3% CaCl2 did not reveal negative impacts in the fruits. It was concluded that, under the designed workflow, Ca enrichment of Rocha pears can be achieved, while post-harvest emersion with 1.3% CaCl2 did not compromise its quality.

Fresh and ideally ripe fruits contribute to nutrition, dietary diversity, and consequently to consumer health and are therefore imperative to ensure their quality. Fruit quality check is conventionally conducted by visual inspection performed by humans, which is time-consuming and may also become inconsistent. Cost-effective and accurate sorting can be achieved by automated sorting. We have proposed a deep learning-based technique that detects the quality of fruits with an accuracy of 89.5%. This process has two major aspects, first is the fruit recognition task, subsequently followed by detecting the quality of the fruit, which is a good/bad classification of the recognized fruit. We have curated a database of the 12 most commonly used fruits in India. However, to operate for fruits outside our database, we have employed a transfer learning approach. To facilitate this, we have used the Siamese network with triplet loss, which finds a similarity between the fruit and gives us the closest match. For each fruit, based on the availability of data, we have developed models by using a deep learning approach and machine learning models on extracting image-based features. This technique presents an automatic approach for the detection of spoilage in fruits efficiently.

Bee products, including bee pollen, are known for their therapeutic and nutritional properties due to the presence of several nutrients (essential lipids and amino acids, fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins and bioelements) as well as natural antioxidants, such as flavonoids (e.g.: kaempferol, quercetin, and isorhamnetin), phenolic acids (chlorogenic acid) and catechins. Therefore, given its health beneficial properties, bee pollen is considered a valuable dietary supplement to the human diet, being currently marketed, and used as a food supplement. Nonetheless, the chemical and antioxidant properties of pollen can be altered by several factors, such as improper storage, type of sample handling and processing and sample ageing. Thus, we have evaluated the influence of different processing and conservation methods (freeze-drying, drying, and freezing) in the amount of total phenolics and antioxidant capacity present in 1-year samples, submitted to the different storing procedures. Total phenolic content (TPC) was estimated spectrophotometrically by using the Folin-Ciocalteu method and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR); while the antioxidant capacity (AC) was determined by the ABTS (2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) and DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) methods, that measure radical scavenging activities. Different solvent extraction procedures (ethanol and acetone based) were also applied to the several samples prior to analysis. The results showed that the antioxidant activity and total phenolics reduce considerably after one year of storage, especially when bee-pollen is submitted to freezing procedures.

Increasing the shelf life of food is a constant challenge in the food industry. In recent years, edible coatings and biodegradable films have been considered one of the most promising technologies to achieve this goal, ensuring microbiological safety and food protection from the influence of external factors. The potential assessment of algae polysaccharides as a substitute for petroleum-based plastics has been the focus of many scientific efforts. Films derived from alginate, agar and carrageenan have been widely studied, due to their gelling properties and film-forming ability, which are already well established, however, there is scarce information regarding films derived from porphyran, a sulphated galactan which is produced by the red macroalgae belonging to the Porphyra taxonomic genus. In the present study porphyran was extracted using a Soxhlet system and water as a solvent, following precipitation and washing with isopropanol with a yield of 26.63 ± 0.29% for the semi-refined porphyran, with 67.74 ± 4.13% of D-galactose and protein not detectable by p-Benzoquinone assay. The antioxidant capacity was evaluated through different methods: the DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity, 6.49 ± 1.2% and 13.83 ± 1.5%, respectively, the HPSA scavenging activity, from a ΔAbs of 0.089 ± 0.004 to 0.069 ± 0.008, the ferric reducing/antioxidant power, FRAP, 0.4 ± 0.003μg mL−1 equivalents of ascorbic acid and the total polyphenols content, QTP, 1.2 ± 0.006 μg mL−1 equivalents of gallic acid.

Food packaging is important to the modern society, to ensure healthy and safe distribution of food to the consumers. Also, packaging is the way that food producers can communicate with the consumer, being an important marketing tool. However, packaging, mostly plastic packaging, when wrongly managed, has been identified as one of the biggest environmental problems facing today, including the marine plastic litter problem. This study intends to present an overview of the existing methodologies to design sustainable packaging, which could prevent the environmental problems from packaging life cycle. Most methodologies are based on life cycle assessment (LCA) or combine life cycle assessment with indicators from sustainability spectrum. Nevertheless, the drawbacks of life cycle assessment are related with the incomplete inclusion of environmental impacts related to littering, as well with the missing indicators to measure packaging circularity. In the future, the food packaging must clarify the dichotomy food-packaging study strategy, to quantify the impacts from plastic litter in the short term and to relate circularity as an impact category, where the management of end-of-life phase must be mandatory.

Seaweeds have long been used by populations on the coast of Portugal as fertilizers or food during periods of scarcity. Both uses have decreased dramatically since the introduction of chemical fertilizers and horticulture food. Even so, in the past decades, globalization has brought new interest to the consumption of these organisms, raising interest on algae as a healthy and tasty food. Much scientific research is underway on the properties of seaweeds, and it is proven that past uses are well-founded.S. Martinho do Porto, in the Centre of Portugal is the only location where the commercial harvesting of seaweeds still takes place. Gelidium corneum is harvested because this species produces high-quality agar, a much sought-after phycocolloid, which is used in the food industry as gelling or thickening agent. However, the species shows other properties that have been disregarded by the seaweeds’ industry. There are also some invasive species, namely Asparagopsis armata, which is causing considerable ecological problems to local ecosystems.Thus, the Mar2020 project Limo do Cais was approved to study the sustainable use the algal biomass from S. Martinho do Porto taking into account its industrial potential. In this way, the properties of G. corneum are being studied, to increase its commercial value. As to A. armata, it shows important antimicrobial properties that are being studied aiming the use of the algal biomass in the pharmaceutical industry.Thus, past uses of seaweeds will be discussed, as well as new potential uses that scientific research has uncovered.

Seaweeds have a great variety of compounds with different properties and benefits to human health. Marine macroalgae provide a high nutritional value along with low caloric value, poor in fat, and with the presence of polysaccharides that behave as fibers with no calories. This is not widespread, but some macroalgae and by-products are used in various applications, inclusively in food products. Under the project MENU - Marine Macroalgae: Alternative recipes for a daily nutritional diet, six native seaweed species were collected in Praia da Tamargueira, Buarcos, Figueira da Foz, Portugal: Ulva spp. (green seaweed), Chondrus crispus, Gracilaria gracilis, Mastocarpus stellatus, Porphyra umbilicalis (red seaweeds) and Bifurcaria bifurcata (brown seaweed) to further biochemical characterization. Polysaccharides’ monomeric composition was determined after sulphuric acid hydrolysis, derivatization to alditol acetates, then analyzed by gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID), whereas protein content was quantified following colorimetric Bradford method. Results showed red seaweeds presenting the highest polysaccharide profile followed by the green macroalgae and then the brown seaweed species. In the case of protein content, Porphyra umbilicalis was the seaweed with the highest content, followed by Ulva spp., Gracilaria gracilis, Chondrus crispus and Mastocarpus stellatus. The brown seaweed Bifurcaria bifurcata presented the lowest protein content.

A large quantity of water is used in the production process of the coffee industry, with a specific production of wastewater up to 20 L/kg of coffee berries. Considering that the current world production of berries is around 10 million metric tons, a huge volume of wastewater is generated, characterized by suspended solids, and high concentration of soluble organic matter, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). It is a great threat to the soil, surface, and groundwater environment if this wastewater is discharged without treatment. Hence, the treatment of coffee processing wastewater (CPWW) is essential through innovative, sustainable, and eco-friendly techniques. Although conventional biological treatment methods proved to be very efficient, economic constraints and challenges to operational strategies are the limitations. Recently, studies started to test Advanced Oxidation Processes to treat CPWW. Among them, Fenton and solar photo-Fenton process already demonstrated good efficacy to remove recalcitrant molecules. The current presentation reports the findings achieved when these two processes are applied to treat CPWW for COD and color removal. The two sets of runs were carried out with the same operative conditions. The results evidenced similar performances for COD and color removal, except in one case where a better removal was achieved with the solar photo-Fenton process. This pushes further tests to clarify some features and optimize the operative conditions since the solar-driven processes can be efficiently exploited in the countries where the solar irradiance is high, exactly where the coffee berries processing is usually carried out. In this way, the sustainability of wastewater treatment will be enhanced using sunlight.

Animal production leads to effluents with high loads of macro and micronutrients, and therefore with a huge potential of water bodies eutrophication. Conventional wastewater treatments are expensive, energy-consuming, release greenhouse gases (GHG), and produce a residual sludge. The use of microalgae for wastewater treatment allows recovery of nutrients (N, P, COD), minimize GHG emissions, and can significantly reduce costs relatively to conventional treatments. Microalgae have been used in the bioremediation of various effluents, such as sewage, manure, brewery, dairy, urban, among others.In this work, piggery effluents were remediated by combining a physico-chemical pre-treatment with biomass ash and bioremediation with microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris, Chlorella protothecoides and Tetradesmus obliquus). The mixture of piggery effluent with biomass ash was stirred and fractionated by decantation to yield a liquid fraction and a solid precipitate. The fortification of the liquid fraction with olive-oil mill wastewater was also evaluated. Microalgae grown in the pre-treated effluent, in semi-continuous mode reached productivities of 258 and 237 mg L−1day−1 for C. vulgaris and T. obliquus, respectively. Both microalgae reached nutrient removal efficiencies of 100, 100, 90, and 100% for N, P, COD, and BOD5, respectively. The microalgae composition was evaluated in terms of protein, sugar, lipid, and ash contents.The produced microalgae biomass and the solid precipitate were tested as biostimulants for the germination of wheat and watercress seeds with positive results. In particular, fortification with C. vulgaris biomass produced an increase of 86% in the germination index of watercress seeds.

3D food printing is the process of manufacturing food products using a variety of additive manufacturing technologies. Similar to the industrial systems, the food is also produced in a layer-by-layer fashion. Most commonly, food grade syringes hold the printing material, which is then deposited through a food grade nozzle.The selection of additives considering the desired rheological and sensory properties of food products is decisive for the success of 3D food printing, as well aspects related with shelf life and increased functionality of the food. The food can be customized in shape, colour, texture, flavour or nutrition, which makes it very useful for designer gourmet meals. This paper intends to provide a current state-of-the-art of 3D food printers and which will be the future trends. Not only the technological issues will be discussed, but also the nutritional, food safety and sustainability of raw materials issues will be taken into account for a better understanding of this particular industry.

In the last years, road mobility has been changing driven by environmental, energetic, and economy concerns, leading to a growing research and development of new anti-emissions technologies, better fuel management systems and the emergence of new fuels. These concerns encourage to consider the use of biofuels in engines. This work aims to understand how the engine with actual evolved technologies are affected by the use of biofuels. This paper will focus on evaluating several biofuels blends on a 2019 performance diesel EURO VI heavy-duty truck, as to review some injection parameters and fuels properties effects. It was also reviewed the respective fuel properties, standards, and emissions expectations. With the objective of preparing a fuel consumption measurement and a performance analysis, an experimental procedure was developed based on the homologation cycles and processes of heavy-duty truck on a chassis bench roll, testing the following samples: B7, B15, B100 and a HVO15. The powertrain performance results reveal that the fuel which presented higher power values was the HVO15, followed by B0, B7, B15 and B100. On fuel consumption, the smaller results were obtained for B7 and B15, without reasonable differences, followed by B100 and then HVO15, at which, in some measured engine regimes, reveal extremely high fuel consumption. To evaluate the fuel economy performance of neat biodiesel compared to fossil diesel on a real road use, three buses on their daily utilization were analyzed. In this experiment, the biodiesel buses had an increase on fuel consumption about 4,5%.

In Spain there are large rural areas where the primary sector is an important source of economic income and emissions generated must be taken into account because they are quite hazardous, especially emissions produced by manure and slurry. Anaerobic digestion is applied to process this waste, and sometimes mixed with other feedstocks, which in this case were carried out with grape waste (anaerobic co-digestion). Results obtained in anaerobic co-digestion of pig manure with grape waste were 50% higher than anaerobic mono-digestion of pig manure, referred to methane yield (207 NL/kg VS versus 138 NL/kg VS, respectively) employing an Organic Load Rate (OLR) of 1.27 g VS/LD d and 1.36 g VS/LD d, respectively. The feasibility analysis from a big pig farm was developed to use the biogas obtained to produce energy and the digestate characterized to evaluate its quality.

Co-digestion and pretreatment approaches were tested using batch tests for the enhancement of anaerobic digestion (AD) of swine wastewater (SW). AD was evaluated in mesophilic conditions to understand the effects of the addition of rice straw (RS) to the medium. The results showed that an increase in the SW/RS ratio led to higher cumulative methane production until 30 wt.% RS. The cumulative methane productions for SW/RS 70:30 and 50:50 were 903.66 ± 111.0 mL, and 625.55 ± 55.1 mL, respectively, which represented an increase of 41.3% and 17.8% compared with the control (525.78 ± 18.77 mL). Kinetic modeling translated well to methane production in the different treatments. The hydrolysis constant and maximum methane production were higher in the 70:30 SW/RS ratio, while the addition of higher quantities of RS increased the duration of the lag-phase. Electrochemical pretreatment was performed to increase the bioavailability of suspended particulate matter in SW at 10 mA cm−2 and two temperatures (30 °C and 45 °C). Final methane production increased by 8% and 19% in the two pretreatments, respectively, when compared to the control. The pretreatment at 10 mA cm−2 and 45 °C showed the best performance but delayed the time for stable methane production. Kinetic modeling confirmed these results as the parameters obtained for the second pretreatment group were better than the control. These findings support the potential of both enhancement approaches to enhance energy recovery via AD in swine farms.

This study focuses on evaluating the effect of combined alkali-thermal pretreatment on the methane potential of the date palm empty fruit bunch (EFB). For this purpose, the Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) tests were conducted with substrate:inoculum ratio of 2, the alkali pretreatment was tested with 6% (w/w) (ratio weight of NaOH/weight of VS) and with the thermal condition at 50 °C for 10 min. The anaerobic digestion experiments were conducted at mesophilic conditions (37 °C). The combined alkali-thermal pretreatment result (144 NmL/gVS) was better than the alkali pretreatment one (132 NmL/gVS), knowing that the methane potential for the control test was only 118.5 NmL/gVS. Furthermore, the kinetic study was applied for all experimental results to explore the best fitting and process parameters (Modified Gompertz, Logistic function Transference function and First-order function). The Transference function corresponds to the higher µ and R2, which allows concluding that this model is the more adequate to the kinetic modeling fitting.

Decarbonisation is at the core of energy and climate policy in the European Union. The European Green Deal reasserts the European Commission´s commitment to tackling climate and environmental challenges to reach a carbon-neutral society by 2050. Biomass is part of our low-carbon future. The use of biomass from pruning fruit trees to obtain biofuel pellets can be an interesting alternative in Southern Europe, generating added value in rural areas and favoring the development of the circular economy and green economy. Sustainable use of biomass replaces fossil fuels. Size fractionation and washing proceed to demineralization of the plum wood residues with high efficiencies. These biomass pretreatments reduce the ash content in the wood biomass with bark or debarked in water treatment and increase and reduce the ash content in different size fractions. The ash content has been studied in different treatments for plum biomass (with bark, without bark and fractionated at 3.15 and 8 mm). In turn, a washing treatment was carried out at room temperature with different times (5, 30, 60 and 180 min), together with a washing at a temperature of 45 ºC for the 8 mm fractionation.The results obtained have confirmed that the debarking, fractionation and 30 min washing treatments are the most efficient for reducing the ash content of plum biomass.

Since many years the anaerobic digestion (AD) process has been confirmed as an effective technique for converting organic material into methane-rich-biogas. Nonetheless, the complex lignocellulosic biomass (LB) structure impedes the ability of microorganisms to degrade and convert these compounds into biogas through AD. In this context, a pretreatment step is necessary to enhance LB degradability in order to achieve higher biogas production rate and yield. H2O2 of LB (such as pepper plants and eggplant) is a promising approach to increasing the production of biogas in AD among the different pretreatment methods.This study reports the effects of hydrogen peroxide pretreatment (H2O2) on the C/N ratio and volatile fatty acids (VFA) of pepper plant and eggplant.The optimal concentration of H2O2 for the use of pretreated pepper plant and eggplant plant was 3% and 1%,respectively reaching 709,5 ± 3,5g N/kg dry matter and 509,3 ± 2,93g N/kg dry matter.The results showed that the concentration of soluble total nitrogen (STN) of LB increased from 46,0g ± 0,98 g N/kg dry matter to 61,5 ± 1,41 g N/kg dry matter of pepper plant at 3% (H2O2) and from 45,5 ± 0,48g N/kg to 60,7 ± 1,11 g N/kg dry sample of eggplant. Finally, the maximum VFA concentration was reached at 2% of H2O2 in pepper plant (160% higher than the value observed in the raw material) and at 3% of eggplant (238% VFA higher than the original substrate).

The present work studied the thermal gasification of olive pruning. Olive pruning from agricultural processes went through a pre-treatment of grinding and pelletizing in order to standardize the raw material. The tests of the experimental process were carried out with a fixed bed gasifier, downdraft type, with the raw material of olive pruning pellets and the oxidizing agent atmospheric air. The main idea of the present work was to study the influence of the gasification temperature, on the quality of the synthesis gas produced, in a temperature range between 650 to 800 °C. The pre-treatment of grinding, with a 6 mm sieve, transformed the olive pruning into particles smaller than 0.85 mm and pelletizing on pellets with a diameter of 6–16 mm. This raw material was studied in terms of elementary analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and calorific value. During the performed tests, several samples of synthesis gas were taken for further characterization through gas chromatography. The results of the tests carried out allow to demonstrate that relatively lower temperatures favor the production of gas and the calorific value, mainly due to the capitalization in light hydrocarbons. The temperature with the highest lower calorific value was on the range of 650 °C, with 5.35 MJ.kg−1, with a gas flow of 26.3 m3.h−1.The thermal gasification process is a viable alternative for the energetic recovery of lignocellulosic waste, namely olive pruning pellets.

Investments in renewable energy have taken a center-stage discussion among policymakers and several incentives are now provided to landowners to encourage them to install photovoltaics on their land. However, such investments remain below their potential and thus insights into what affects potential investors’ decision are needed. This study focuses on landowners who are willing to install photovoltaics on their farmland and analyzes the effect of various factors on the amount of money they would pay in order to install photovoltaics on their land. According to our analysis, landowners’ personal view on the profitability of the investment, the degree to which they agree with the installation of solar parks in a location visible from their residence and the hectares of the dry and irrigated land they own, explain the amount of money the landowners would invest in photovoltaics. The findings of the present study may be particularly useful to policymakers and may help them prepare practical and attractive propositions for potential investors thereby improving the existing investment environment for photovoltaics on farmland.

Renewable energy production is undergoing an unprecedented expansion across Europe but investments are still required in order to transition to a sustainable energy future. A deeper understanding of the factors affecting landowners’ decision to invest in photovoltaics and the barriers preventing such investments is critically important for policymakers and energy developers. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the economic and environmental factors affecting the decision to invest in photovoltaics as well as to investigate the barriers inhibiting such investments among landowners in a Greek rural area who are willing to invest in photovoltaics. Results obtained via structured questionnaires show that the investment decision is highly and positively affected by economic advantages. In specific, earning a stable income, reduced electricity costs and low taxation on investment are the most important economic factors. The respondents are also driven by their desire to contribute to flora and fauna conservation as well as to the reduction of air pollution which is caused by conventional energy production. However, high interest rates on bank loans for renewable energy investments along with high initial capital requirement prevent respondents from making such investments. The results presented in this paper not only assist a more thorough understanding of the factors and barriers affecting investments but also consist a basis for improving the relevant policies to facilitate the implementation of investments in renewable energy.

The main objective of the work was to perform the energy recovery of cork boiling wastewater (CBW) through anaerobic digestion process. The experiments were performed in reactors of work volume of 6 L and different substrate and co-substrate ratios, with temperature control and mechanical agitation, for obtaining greater biogas and biomethane amounts. The operational temperature was mesophilic (38 °C) with the agitation of 15 rpm being carried out for five minutes three times a day. The reactors were fed with different ratios of Inoculum (IN), CBW and cow manure (CM). Two different mixtures were made, namely IN: CBW and IN:CBW/CM, for ratios of 1:2 and 1:2/1 respectively, with agitation being performed 3 times a day and without any agitation.. For tests IN:CBW no continuous agitation and with agitation there was no significant biogas production. For the IN:CBW/CM mixture with continuous agitation in the ratio 1:2/1, there was no biogas production due to the high conductivity and excess production of volatile fatty acids. For IN mixture: CBW/CM no agitation had an accumulated production of 10 L of biogas in 33 days. With the tests carried out, it can be concluded that the process of anaerobic digestion of CBW can be a viable alternative for energy recovery.

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are becoming more energy intensive due to a growing urban population, an increment in the contaminant load to be treated, and a stringent regulatory and environmental protection standard for effluent quality and water reuse. As the energy demand in the water sector will continue to grow in the forthcoming decades, benchmark the energy performance of WWTPs is essential to improve their energy efficiency. Typically, the specific energy consumption of WWTPs is expressed through two common key performance indicators (KPIs): energy consumption per cubic meter of treated wastewater (kWh/m3) and per unit of chemical oxygen demand removed (kWh/kg COD rem). The first KPI (kWh/m3) is the most applied due to its reliability and accuracy as the volume of wastewater is measured continuously whereas, for example, COD concentrations are determined discontinuously. In this paper, these KPIs are used to compare the specific energy consumption of fifteen WWTPs located in the north of Portugal; these values are also compared against similar facilities and types of treatment found in literature. Despite the use of specific energy consumption indicators allows a simplified, yet quick, assessment of energy performance of WWTPs, the results show that is possible to identify some worse performances. In addition, results show that the joint utilization of several KPIs allows more complete and reliable conclusions.

Plastic films used in products packaging represent a significant amount of plastic waste that requires to be recirculated, despite the advantages that these films provide such as longer shelf-life for food products or performance enhancement for many other products. The recycling process for post-consumer plastic waste often requires washing and dewatering procedures to be carried out before the material can be reprocessed and transformed into a new product. The dewatering procedure, in particular, is an intensive energy-consuming process due to the need to remove moisture from the material. Centrifugation is typically used for dewatering, many times supported by air dryers, resulting on a significant high energy consumption and a larger foot-print to install this equipment.This work describes a novel approach for dewatering shredded films that have been washed to remove contaminants from post-consumer use or post-industrial.The dewatering system is based on a compression stage in which the material is being pressed to remove the largest amount of water, forming a cake that is dismantled afterwards for transportation to the following recycling step. Consequently, this dewatering approach is fully comparable with the pre-existent ones, providing a throughput of 1,5tonnes/hour with a significantly reduced energy consumption, economic advantages and a quite smaller footprint.

An accurate thermal characterization of the envelope components is essential to achieve a reliable evaluation of thermal behaviour and energy efficiency of buildings. In lightweight steel-framed (LSF) building components, the major thermal performance concern is related to the unwanted significant thermal bridge effects originated by the high thermal conductivity of steel. The application of thermal break (TB) strips in the steel stud flanges is one of the most currently used thermal bridge mitigation strategies. In this paper the thermal performance of ten interior LSF walls configurations are measured, using the heat flow meter (HFM) method under laboratory-controlled conditions. Three TB strips materials and three TB locations (inner, outer and both sides of steel stud) are assessed and a comparison with the thermal performance of a reference wall without TB strips is made. Regarding the TB strips materials, it was found that the best thermal performance is achieved by aerogel, which is the material that presents the lowest thermal conductivity. Considering the TB strips location, the application on both sides of steel stud shows a relative significant thermal performance increase comparatively to the application on inner or outer side, presenting these last two configurations very similar performances.

Sustainability and efficiency are concepts that have been spreading in civil construction. Among all building types, residential buildings have great potential for energy savings. It is where building strategies need to be carefully planned, as they seek to meet the needs of residents, and also provide security and comfort. Well-designed houses will also provide resource saving over time, as they add climate analysis, design strategy studies and appropriate materials to their design. In order to verify a Light Steel Frame house behavior regarding energy consumption for heating and cooling, this paper aims to evaluate walls and roofs with layer different thickness of rock wool and expanded polystyrene as insulation materials. The applied methodology to obtain energy efficiency will be through analysis in the software Design Builder®. The constructions in Portugal are mainly made of masonry and the search for alternative construction solutions aimed at complying with Directive (EU) 2018/844 is relevant. A drastic change in collective thinking will be necessary. This article aims to show as result the energy efficiency of Light Steel Framing construction solutions, presenting the materials which have the greatest benefits regarding energy consumption.

The wind power is considered as a clean energy. However, the noise produced by wind turbines, namely infrasound and low frequency noise (below 500 Hz) are responsible for several pathologies in the humans. The aim of this study was to assess the sound pressure level of infrasound and low frequency noise, produced by wind turbines, in housings nearby wind farms. The measurements were carried out in 3 houses near the “S. João 2” wind farm (Penela, Portugal). It was considered two measuring points for each house (inside and outside). For the measurements it was used a sound level meter CESVA SC420 and the Q-TRAK Plus IAQ Monitor with Probe Model 8592 for measure air velocity. For statistical analysis it was used IBM SPSS Statistics v.26. It was found that, despite the increase in distance (between the different houses and the wind farm), there was no decrease in sound pressure levels. The houses nearby “low vegetation” present higher sound pressure level for infrasound and low frequency noise. Infrasound and low frequency noise levels are higher “outside” the houses. For lower air velocities, the values of infrasound and low frequency noise are higher. Regarding the behavior of the variation of noise frequencies, it was found that the sound pressure levels were higher in the houses furthest from the source. It was concluded that there are several factors that influence the propagation of noise. Therefore, it is important to consider measurements to minimize the impacts on the population and invest in prevention policies concerned with public health and which define safe setbacks.

With the gradual depletion of traditional fossil fuels, it is essential to find sustainable alternatives, such as wind energy. Wind turbines, despite the many advantages, generate mechanical and aerodynamic noise, causing an impact on the health of the nearby population. This study aimed to verify whether the vegetation could be an acoustic barrier. Also aimed to verify the influence of the distance between wind turbines and housings. The measurements were made in the surroundings of ‘Lousã I’ wind farm (Lousã, Portugal), in areas with and without vegetation and close to housings. Measurement points were defined at 100 m, 500 m, 1000 m, 1300 m and 2000 m, for a total of 80 measurements in order to calculate the levels of infrasound and low frequency noise. For measurements, it was used the sound level meter CESVA SC420, the Q-TRAK Plus IAQ Monitor with Air Velocity Probe Model 8592 for measure air velocity and the software IBM SPSS Statistics version 26, for statistical analysis. It was possible to verify that, in areas with low vegetation, the noise level was higher, i.e., in areas where there are trees, the noise tends to be lower than in areas with low vegetation. It was also found that the highest levels of infrasound and low frequency noise were located closer to the wind turbines. Nevertheless, the levels still high at 2000 m. It is concluded that the characteristics of the vegetation may influence attenuation. However, the attenuation is not enough to prevent it from reaching residential areas. Thus, it is importance to consider this source and this noise as a potential public health issue.

One of the goals of future cities in many regions around the world is that they become smart cities. One of the major contributions that implement the smart cities concept is the use of renewable energy sources, which, in its turn, leads to the desired decarbonized society. In order to make it possible, it is necessary to ensure sustainability policies to take it into account either by using natural resources (e.g., replacing the so far used energy sources by renewable ones) or by saving resources (e.g., energy, water…), clearly resulting in financial and ecological savings.One of the main objectives of these cities is they can be energetically autonomous, sustainable, and digitally more and more efficient. But for this to happen, it is necessary to depart from the existing services and respective buildings and implement therein efficient energy policies.Based on these assumptions, this paper presents the research work results derived from a case study focused on a kindergarten infrastructure. In order to implement the smart energy and smart city concepts, endogenous resources were used, such as the Sun, garden facades, a heat pump and remote digital management mode.Concurrent with the migration to renewable energy sources, other efficiency actions were taken as part of the research. They encompassed the development of consumers’ digital capabilities, the control and remote management of energy systems and the decrease of consumption and associated costs. Finally, increase the mobility of employees with the installation of an electric charging station, whose energy source will be generated from the installed system.

Affordable and sustainable housing is among the critical challenges in most countries worldwide, and specially in developing countries where big proportion of the population live under the poverty line. In the arid territories of Kenya, more than half of the population in urban areas live in informal settlements (UN-Habitat 2017) without provision of basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation or waste management, and housing units made of iron sheets can hardly protect people from the extreme climatic conditions. Housing is hardly affordable for majority of the population, however, the wide availability of appropriate building materials such as soil and stone quarries can greatly reduce the cost of housing without compromising the quality of the construction while contributing reduce its carbon footprint. This article is based on the experience of the project Climate Resilient Low Cost Buildings In Marsabit County, Kenya, funded by the Nordic Development Fund, which highlights how the sustainable building design and the use of appropriate building technologies with local materials can facilitate access to housing while contributing to socio-economic development of women, youth and local economies.

Nowadays, Galicia is one of the main producers of electricity in Spain, mainly from non-renewable sources (thermal plants). However, compliance with current EU environmental policies raises doubts about the continuity of one of the largest thermoelectric plants in the region (As Pontes, 1700 MW). The loss of energy production capacity associated with a possible closure of the plant even if will induce worrying consequences both at the energy and the economic levels in the region, can be seen as an opportunity to the economic recovery of the region.This article explores the possibility of making this situation the challenge of designing a Distributed Galician electric network interconnected with the Spanish one. The Galician reference energy system (RES) has been defined and implemented in the Open Source Energy Modeling System (OSeMOSYS), studying different long-term scenarios (until 2030). The results show how local renewable resources will be sufficient to fulfil the electrical needs of the region, resulting in a huge reduction in CO2 emissions.

Phase-change materials (PCM) can store thermal energy as latent heat, by means of a phase change, thus absorbing or releasing energy at a constant temperature. Distinct stages of the agroindustry value chain require thermal energy, e.g., for food processing (heat) or for its distribution (cold). In all these stages the quality of food needs to be preserved, for which temperature must be kept within tight limits, defined by standards. Additionally, these specific stages may represent an average of nearly 30% (processing) and 10% (logistics) of the agroindustry value chain energy consumption in the European Union. The use of PCMs allows foreseeing the improvement of energy efficiency in the sector while maintaining food quality.In this work, two case studies of the agroindustry value chain, where the integration of PCMs is expected to meet the previous desiderata, are analyzed. First, PCMs are used in the processing of chocolate, integrated into production equipment. Then, its performance is assessed in the distribution of fresh food, embedded in a transportation box. In both cases, experimental and/or simulation results show that improvements in the energy efficiency of the processes are obtained, while preserving food quality, and, in the processing stage, they may even support the integration of renewables.

In this study a ventilation system based on vertical confluent jets is developed and applied. The energy consumption, thermal comfort level, indoor air quality level and Air Distribution Index are evaluated and discussed. The study presented in this work is performed in a virtual chamber with dimensions of 4.50 × 2.55 × 2.50 m3. The chamber, occupied with twelve virtual occupants, is equipped with six tables, twelve chairs, one outlet system and one inlet system, based in confluents jets system. This simulation considers the descendent inlet airflow, near the lateral walls. In the outlet system are considered six air ducts, located above the head level, connected to the ceiling area. The inlet system, based in two horizontal ducts, with 0.15 m diameter, located 1.8 m above the floor level, are equipped with consecutive holes, that promote vertical descendent jets near the wall. The predicted percentage of dissatisfied index results show that the comfort level is acceptable. The dioxide carbon concentration show that the indoor air quality, in general, is acceptable. When the airflow rate increases the air quality number increases and the thermal comfort number decreases. Thus, the Air Distribution Index increases slightly.

The growth strategy for circular bioeconomy has a strong regional dimension, and is based on mission driven innovation policies. Regions are challenged to find a balance between economy and ecology, to find new solutions for specific regional problems and opportunities: bio-based value chains, regional carbon balance, new business opportunities for primary sector to avoid emissions, store carbon in bio-based products. Regions differ from each other and develop regional smart specialization strategies, value added economic activities based on unique natural and industrial characteristics and qualities, in balance with the planetary boundaries. The paper will focus in the management concepts and techniques which are necessary for setting conditions for innovations, collaborations and investments as well as for steering, managing and coordinating the deployment of the bioeconomy in European regions. This framework identifies overarching and interacting concepts that need to be addressed during the implementation of the bioeconomy and offer instruments to support the transition to well performing regional innovation systems. The paper will describe these concepts and will design a management tool for approach.

Biocomposite materials manufacturing from vegetal raw substances or vegetal waste is an increasingly fact. Biocomposite materials were made from a mixture of polylactic acid (PLA) and vegetal material fibre, the latter is the reinforcement component. This research tries to get the mixture that provides the best mechanical properties to the biocomposite material. The different mixtures behaviour has been studied in a 3D printer. Currently, bast fibre is used as a reinforcing agent in polymers, substituting those with a bigger ecological footprint. Previous studies determined that kenaf fibre improve mechanical properties of matrix polymer. On the other hand, one way of bringing the circular economy closer to agricultural activity is by reusing its waste. Parts of the rice plant, thistle or paulownia bark are discarded because of their high mineral content. In this work, filaments have been manufactured for use in fused deposition modelling (FDM) from kenaf fibres, cork residues, rice, vine shoots, paulownia, poplar and thistle, and bars of PLA mixed with kenaf fibre through extrusion process.

A numerical model of the pine tree thermal behavior, nearby a forest fire environment, is developed and applied. The pine tree thermal behavior numerical model is based on energy equations for the tree elements. The energy balance integral and differential equations consider the heat exchange by conduction inside the tree, the heat exchange by convection between the external tree surfaces and the environment and the heat exchanges by radiation between the external tree surfaces and the environment and fire front. In this work the geometry of a virtual pine tree trunk was developed using adaptive grid generation. This geometry is used to evaluate the view factors applied in calculating the heat exchanges by radiation between the virtual pine tree trunk and a fire front. The virtual pine tree trunk geometry is divided into concentric layers. The numerical simulation is characterized by the propagation of a fire front at a constant fire spread rate from a distance of 5 m upstream of the tree trunk to a distance of 25 m downstream of the tree trunk. The tree trunk has a height of 2 m and a diameter of 0.3 m. The fire front has a tilt angle of 45º, 10 m wide and 1.2 m high. The temperature distribution in the pine tree trunk was obtained for two different wind speeds, 0.1 m/s, and 1.0 m/s, and for two flame temperatures, 500 °C and 750 °C. The results obtained from the temperature distribution allowed to define the areas of the tree's tissues that reached the lethal threshold and thus evaluate its sustainability before a forest fire.

Ecuador is exposed to seismic events, which cause a reduction in soil resistance due to vibration loads and their effect is the landslide. This work analyzes the stability of the soil slopes that are located on the abscissa 25 + 280 and 63 + 040 of the Garrapata - Santa María road located between the Chone and El Carmen cantons of the Manabí province, through the determination of the safety factor using the GeoSlope software, performing a dynamic and pseudo-static analysis, to observe the variations that exist when applying horizontal forces (Kh). In addition, the comparison of the Fellenius, Bishop, Janbu and Morgenstern-Price limit equilibrium methods was carried out based on the SPT results, which allowed classifying the soil strata. The results of the triaxial test determined the geotechnical parameters such as cohesion and friction angle.

The Rio Conference (1992) was an important moment for the Goals of Sustainable Development through the document Agenda 21. This document constitutes an opportunity to inscribe the theme in the Eco-Schools Program. The Ecological Footprint arises as a concept determined to estimate the quantity of natural resources we consume to support our lifestyle - in 2002 at the Johannesburg Summit it was recognized as a reliable sustainability gauge. The present study is therefore aimed at assessing the students’ knowledge about the Eco-Schools/Sustainability program and the Environmental Footprint of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (IPC). A questionnaire divided into three parts was made available, totaling thirty-six questions in digital format on the platform Google Forms, and was disseminated through e-mail and social networks (Facebook and Messenger). The responses to the questionnaire were automatically downloaded to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and later coded for statistical treatment with the aid of the statistical software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27.0 for Windows. After the statistical treatment of the responses of the 253 participants we verified, by the results obtained in the calculation of the Ecological Footprint, that the respondents put into practice the knowledge disseminated by the Eco-Schools Program, highlighting its importance for environmental sustainability. The Eco-Schools Program and Sustainability are values already in-stilled in our student community, but even so we must continue to bet on a greater community participation in actions in favor of the Program. In view of the results related to the calculation of the Ecological Footprint, the need to improve this indicator in the student community is evident, as is promoting its performance in this area. It will be therefore important to reinforce the awareness sessions to reduce the Ecological Footprint in favor of the investment made by the IPC.

Air quality is related to the pollution in the air quality degree, which is caused by a mixture of chemicals, released into the air or resulting from chemicals reactions, that changes the natural composition of the atmosphere. People working in offices waste a large part of their day in this place. In this way, the indoor air quality of the offices affects the total exposure of humans and therefore, they are considered microenvironments of great importance. This study aimed to evaluate expose the occupants to indoor air pollutants in offices and services of Coimbra Health School, check if pollutants complied with the limits of legislation and evaluate the exposure to ultrafine particles in different environments. Data collection consisted of assessing air quality in three offices and four services, using air pollutants and atmospheric variables. We checked that the average concentration of PM10 in some places exceeded the protection threshold and that the average concentrations of ultrafine particles were higher when combustion processes existed. In this study it was possible conclude that some measures are necessary to improve indoor air quality in offices and services of Coimbra Health School, once that the average concentration of PM10 in some places exceeded the protection threshold. So the institution needs to do frequent monitoring to avoid exposing occupants to risky situations.

Indoor air quality refers to the air quality inside buildings and structures. The causes of indoor air pollution are a combination of physical, chemical and biological factors, and are also related to the ventilation. In teaching places, an inadequate indoor air quality can lead to health problems and can also reduce learning performance, attendance and comfort. The present study aimed to evaluate expose students and teachers to indoor air pollutants in laboratories and classrooms of Coimbra Health School, check if pollutants complied with the limits of legislation and evaluate the exposure to ultrafine particles in different environments. The data collection was based on the assessment of air quality in three laboratories and four classrooms, using air pollutants and atmospheric variables. We checked that the average concentrations of PM10 and CO2 in some laboratories and classrooms exceeded the protection threshold and that the average values of ultrafine particles were higher when combustion processes existed. With this study, it was possible to conclude that some measures are necessary to improve indoor air quality, once that some atmospheric pollutants exceeded the values imposed by legislation. So the institution needs to do frequent monitoring to avoid exposing occupants to risky situations.

Sustainability these days is required more than before. Resources are becoming rare goods, the pollution of air and water rises. Modern mechatronic systems consist of a high variety of components and materials and achieved high market penetration in recent years. As a result, the percentage of such systems of the total waste per year rises. The worldwide e-waste in 2019 made 53,6 million tons, an increase of 9,2 million tons, compared to 2014 (Global E-waste Monitor). That suggests that the problem of recycling gets more complicated and the risk of an increase of pollution will be higher in future. To handle this challenge, innovative concepts are required. The need of an efficient recycling must be considered much earlier than today. Lifecycle phases (Conceive, Design, Realize, Service, Reuse) show high efficiency in their procedures and tools, used to ensure quality and shorter cycle times. The aspect of sustainability today is not considered over the entire lifecycle. This paper highlights a concept, where different facets of a digital twin within the product lifecycle could create added value for the sustainability. A decomposition-simulation e.g., coming from development, supporting the recycling procedure, or a traceable data-model, including material-data of the product helping to identify the needed recycling steps. Therefore, the associated efforts of further facets in different steps of the lifecycle are compared to the benefit, given by a traceable application of a digital twin. This concept defines the Digital Green Twin, which is shown using consumer electronics industry as an example.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement call for a transformation in societies, with interdependent goals, and a complex coupling between social, technical, and ecological systems. Cities are essential drivers for development, innovation, experimentation, and change. They can be obstacles and/or drivers for achieving sustainability. Nevertheless, current models of urban governance may not be able to address 21st century challenges. They are highly dependent on predictability, address problems linearly, and assume that viable solutions can be prescribed to meet established goals when, in reality, society is complex, dynamic, and constantly evolving. An interconnected approach between complex system thinking and planning, can present new perspectives for a sustainable transition. Through adequate governance of green infrastructure in cities, urban systems can benefit through the improvement of citizens health, wellbeing, conservation of biodiversity, supply of ecosystem services, and strength of urban capacity for resilience and adaptation. This research explores, through the lens of complexity, how governance arrangements and institutions influenced the effective implementation of the Lisbon Green Infrastructure System (LGIS) and the role of actors involved. The analysis shows that the process of construction and implementation of the visions for the future (planning) of the actual LGIS can be explained as a complex adaptive system, shaped by negative and positive feedback loops over time. Through mapping where transformative action was originated, the actors involved, and the effects on the implementation process, can help to embrace uncertainty in urban governance.

Urban green spaces (UGS) are a key component to achieve United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) such as good health and wellbeing (Goal 3) and sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11). Among other areas, UGS comprise urban parks, which are key to supply a variety of ecosystem services (ES) to humans. However, urban dwellers visit parks at a different time of the day and the week. This study investigates the possible relevance of different times of the day and different week periods (workdays and weekends) for the visitation and use of urban parks. The data was collected through personal interviews in 5 urban parks (n = 1000) in Coimbra, Portugal. Data were collected during August 2020, considering six-time slots from 7h30 to 22h00 (7h30 to 9h30; 9h30 to 12h30; 12h30 to 14h30; 14h30 to 17h30; 17h30 to 20h30; 20h30 to 22h00), also differentiating working days and weekend days. Activity performed by respondents was aggregated into three groups of cultural ES: Physical interactions; Experiential and aesthetical interactions; and Social interactions. Our results showed differences in park use, in timeslots and weekdays. Timeslots were especially relevant in the largest park (Choupal national forest), where users looked for sport activities (e.g., running, biking), particularly in the morning period. Differences in weekday use were relevant in all five parks. In some parks we observed a lower diversity of CES in use during working days and high levels of social interactions during this period. Results also suggested that park usage along the day and between weekdays and weekends depending on the activities performed and park characteristics.

Soils are a natural capital which support life on Earth and are responsible for many ecosystem services that are the foundation for human wellbeing. However, soils have been intensively used and subject to degradation, particularly in urban areas. The main objective of this study is: i) to give an overview of soil conditions in urban protected areas (UPAs), and ii) to provide suggestions how the nature-based solution (NBS) can enhance the soil health in three UPAs located near or in the city of Belgrade, Serbia (Byford’s and Zvezdara forests, and Avala mountain). In this study pH values and soil organic matter content were analyzed as main parameters for the soil characterization. The Byford’s and Zvezdara forests have similar slightly alkaline soil pH, while the Mt. Avala soils are slightly acidic as a consequence of geological settings. The lower content of soil organic matter (1.26%–5.73%) in the Byford’s and Zvezdara forests might be improved with appropriate management practices. Introducing the principles of the NBS (e.g., incorporation of compost and biochar) in soil management practices in the protected areas, combined with conservation and restoration of forests, can provide enhanced soil health and supporting new green infrastructure (GI). The citizens and the society would highly benefit from a network of small green areas connected with UPAs in a number of ways, such as cleaner air, mitigation of noise stress, maintaining everyday wellbeing, recreation opportunities, contribution to employment and supporting social cohesion.

With the increase in the urbanization and population mobility , the biodiversity has been greatly affected. Globalization has facilitated the dispersion of many species that become a threat, reaching the status of invasive species with an impact on the ecosystems. The Asian wasp was spotted in 2011 in Portugal. The biological cycle of Asian wasp is anual, although the climatic conditions attend to its development. The goal of this study is to observe the growth over the years of sightings of nests, relating the life cycle of this species with the time of the year when it’s more propitious to its incidence, taking into account the impacts on the environment and the health of the population. The nature of this study was observational zoological and of retrospective cohort. Data and records were provided by the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas (ICNF). The data were evaluated in IBM SPSS Version 25 program. It was found that in the municipality of Coimbra, 2019 was the year with the highest numbers of observation records, the definitive nests were those that had the most prevalent nests located in the trees while the primary nests were found in housing spaces. The parishes that had a higher frequency of registrations were Santo António dos Olivais, União de Freguesias de São Martinho do Bispo/Ribeira de Frades, União de Freguesias de Sé Nova/Santa Cruz/Almedina/São Bartolomeu. This study allowed us to understand which factors are favorable to the appearance of invasive species in Portugal, their reproduction and propagation, as well as the impacts they have on the environment and population, which can lead to the death if a person that has been bitten has an allergic reaction.

The main aspects that generally cause problems in urban mobility are caused by improper use of the private vehicle as the preferred transport and by poor planning of urban spaces. The objective of this work is to carry out a diagnosis of the urban mobility and public spaces in the city of Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador, identifying the main deficiencies of the transportation system and proposing solutions as an input for the elaboration of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The methodology included the collection of data in situ, the use of available official databases, vehicles counts on different days between the years 2018 and 2019 and the application of a digital survey to understand the mobility habits of the city inhabitants. The results obtained showed that the city, despite having a relatively low traffic flow for most of the year, is particularly affected during holidays and festivities, when the number of tourists and visitors is quite high, generating serious mobility problems.

Over the years the concept of sustainable logistics (SL) has been acquiring more importance and has been gaining attention in organizations and in the decisions made in the design of logistics operations. Sustainable logistics is defined by influencing three important factors: economic, environmental and social, which are achieved through good practices that intervene in the strategies developed by companies. These practices have begun to gain much more strength in already established companies, however, small low-budget companies find themselves in difficult situations to be able to develop such practices, not only because of their cost but also because of the ignorance of the importance of sustainability within their organization. For this reason, the purpose of developing this research article is to analyze practical sustainability initiatives within organizations, focusing on existing small businesses in Bolivia. First, a bibliographic review will be carried out on the current best practices related to sustainable logistics, selecting each one of them in a category according to the conditions of the country's companies. Then, a field investigation will be carried out through a survey with companies of different sizes in Bolivia, to understand and characterize how sustainable logistics is understood in this group. Finally, the document concludes with the development of a diagnosis of the state of sustainable operations in Bolivia and recommendations are made to mark a path for the implementation of SL in small companies.

Due to the production and consumption patterns currently used by society, a large amount of solid waste is generated, as well as its wrong destination in the environment, which has negative effects, including harm to human health. In this scenario, we can mention the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an action plan that aims to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure that people achieve peace and prosperity. To this end, companies can contribute by using Reverse Logistics, which aims to efficiently and effectively plan and manage the return of products to their manufacturer (Leite 2017, p. 206). The work aims to understand how Reverse Logistics can be used as a tool for the contribution of Sustainable Development, based on goal number 12 (Ensure sustainable production and consumption patterns), in Brazilian reality. The methodology, in addition to the literature review, is based on a qualitative and exploratory approach. From the research, it is concluded that Reverse Logistics works as a tool that can contribute to the achievement of goal number 12 of Sustainable Development, as both seek to achieve more sustainable behaviors in society.

Nowadays, one of the applications with most interest in environmental and sustainability of urban areas, concerns green roofs design. A green roof is a vegetative layer grown on a rooftop and consists of a waterproof membrane, growing medium (soil) and vegetation (plants) overlying a traditional roof. The use of green roofs improves the building’s energy comfort and reduces the stormwater runoff discharge in urban drainage systems, reducing the risk of flooding in urban areas, if implemented in a large-scale. The use of green roofs has potential to improve carbon retention in urban areas and the water holding capacity can be improved with a proper selection of the soil substrate and drainage layer. At the same time, it can be used for growing edible herbs, berries, vegetables, and flowers or simply for creating a peaceful place to relax at open air environment. In this paper an overview of the use of green roofs in urban areas is presented, highlighting its impact on buildings and food-energy-water nexus.

Smart mobility relates to the ability of integrating technology into transportation. When considering the transition to a greener mobility paradigm, several key elements of smart and sustainable dimensions have to be addressed. To allow outlining more efficient transportation solutions, current exploratory research presents and discusses a dedicated prospective conceptual framework. In this research, the discussion is supported by empirical data collected via a dedicated exploratory survey. The prospective framework structure and dimensions were approached in order to derive the focus from mere technical features, but also considering the final users’ perspectives and needs, so that its acceptability can be more effectively promoted. The main findings of this study are related to the greening effect of smart mobility, which allowed foreseeing increased benefits from integrating smart and sustainable solutions to improve mobility.

Although urban areas in Latin America are not major GHG emitters, they play crucial, little-studied roles in the field of climate change. In Ecuador, there are 21 intermediate cities, which include at least 7 border cities. Intermediate cities are key to achieving sustainable urban development, merged with rural networks and environmental systems. The present work aims to conduct a sociodemographic characterization of intermediate and border cities of Ecuador and to develop a mapping of climate change actors. Three intermediate and border cities (Esmeraldas, Loja and Nueva Loja), belonging to the country's regions: Coast, Highlands and Amazonian Lowland, respectively, were analyzed. The methodology was proposed from a qualitative-quantitative approach, with two stages: 1) Identification of the sociodemographic structure and distribution through the survey of secondary sources; and 2) Development of a mapping of actors based on a given methodology, which groups four steps: a) Clarify the objectives of the mapping, b) Define the variables and design the scheme, c) Collect the information, and d) Analyze the mapping of actors. The results contrast the social characteristics and demographic indicators between these cities and the climate governance instruments. Based on these data, a dynamic graphic mapping was developed that identifies the active strategic actors of climate change at the national, provincial and cantonal levels, determining the National Government as the leading actor of climate governance, and the absence of key actors such as media, journalists and private companies.

Culicidae vectors are insects that have the ability to transmit several diseases such as malaria, zika or dengue. The development of these vectors is mainly influenced by temperature, relative humidity and precipitation of their environment. Therefore, climate change can increase the geographical distribution of diseases transferred by these vectors. The predominant goals of this review is to identify the primary Culicidae vectors in Southern European countries, understand how climate change can influence the geographical distribution of these vectors as well as their impact on the health of the population of the affected areas. The bibliographical research started on the 1st of October 2019 and ended on the 20th of April 2020 and was carried out resorting to data bases suchlike Google Schoolar, Web of Science, BioMed Central and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Whilst writing this review 23 original scientific articles, 1 master’s degree dissertation and 10 scientific reports were consulted, mainly in English and in Portuguese. After having analysed the 32 selected articles, we concluded the primary environmental alterations will most likely be the increase of the global temperature, decrease of precipitation, and decrease of the relative humidity’s percentage on Southern European countries. We gathered that this vectors will continue to have ideal conditions to thrive in the countries mentioned above and that no country in Southern Europe will have an adequate climate to the development of vectors pertaining to the genus Aedes which can lead to the disappearance of these species of vectors.

The eradication of multidimensional poverty remains the primary objective of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this context, the Sustainable Community Project (SCP, UNESCO) aims to develop demonstrative pilot projects to identify comprehensive development success models in small isolated communities. This article explores the importance of applying, in addition to CLEWs tools, Lifecycle analysis to the technologies to be implemented. Similarly, special emphasis is placed on the crucial need to incorporate appropriate qualitative social studies, particularly ethnography, at all project steps. The results show the importance of conducting a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) during the formulation of the development master plan to select the most appropriate technologies in terms of life time with respect to the environmental and economic context. Under the sociocultural impact, the involvement of the local community in each decision-making is unavoidable in order to ensure the success of this project, as well as to guarantee its sustainability.

The focus of this work is to establish applied urban and architectural research on very particular urban fabrics in the metropolises of Lisbon and Barcelona. Objectively, these are two expectant areas located on the limits of their central cities, considering both their administrative and physical borders, fundamentally marked by their waterfronts, and which open up to different scenarios of critical and project appropriation.The objectives are the understanding of the phenomenology related to terrain vague and waterfronts and the development of different urban and territorial qualification scenarios for them. The research methodology used consisted of defining the object of study and the hypothesis and, the technique used was “Research by Design”. The hypothesis is that the urban qualification scenarios in these areas are open and admit different morphological, density and layout typologies.In short, it is intended to address both the debates on rehabilitation policies in the inherited and canonical city, and the particular morphological problems with respect to the city-territory with which these areas are adjacent. The reflection ends with a set of designing proposals and intervention strategies that point out possible scenarios of new urbanity, capable of binding the surroundings and highlighting their relationship with water.

The NEXUS philosophy is one of the most significant aspects of the United Nations Agenda 2030. One of the cardinal principles of the Agenda 2030 is “leaving no one behind”, and as such, the provision of universal access to energy, water and food to all and sundry is a key aspiration. In that regard, this paper gives an overview of the progress registered using the Sahel region of Africa as a case study. The article Proposes a method for assessing the current situation of countries in the Sahel based on energy, water and food data. The proposed method is based on 9 indicators which have been identified as sensible for the analysis. Ten countries including Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Cameroon, The Gambia, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, and Nigeria were studied, and the results shows that only eight countries have attained fifty percent progress in the overall nexus index and two are below fifty percent. The findings of this study are important for policy makers, international donor agencies as well as philanthropies.

Technological advancements as part of fourth industrial revolution occurring every day have changed the way or the process that various products are created from concept to the final product. In this way by contributing even to a sustainable production in various industries. Due to the fact that footwear industry is the one classified as the fifth regarding negative impact on environment among various sectors of industry, sustainable production is required. The aim of this paper is to present some evidence related with footwear consumption and its negative impact on the environment. Moreover by focusing on the role of sustainable materials an analysis conducted from other works regarding the implementation of sustainable production in footwear industry. As Industry 4.0 is well known to support sustainable production, the presented work will reveal through cases of its implementation, the contribution of Industry 4.0 within this scope, and the role of additive manufacturing as an enabler to support the sustainable production in footwear industry.

Earth-based materials have been used as a construction material since ancient times, as it is an affordable and sustainable material, widely available and recyclable. Additive manufacturing has become a promising production technology for the construction industry, allowing to produce complex structures with optimum material use, zero waste and a great design freedom. A brief review is provided on the prospects and challenges introduced by the extrusion of earth-based materials through additive manufacturing technologies. A numerical simulation was carried out replacing a 3D printed concrete sample by an earthen based one, and its behavior compared with the behavior of the concrete study. Results suggests that extruding earth-based materials can reach approximately half of the number of layers of the ones using concrete materials.

Sustainable construction is a rapidly increasing research area. For concrete production, cement is the most important and expensive raw material that binds together the solids. However, during the production of concrete, a large amount of carbon dioxide is produced, causing environmental concerns resulting in a growing interest in the field of supplemental cementitious material. One of the potential materials is palm oil fuel ash (POFA), the by-product of palm oil industries. These by-products, if dumped in the landfill sites, create an environmental problem and health hazard. Several research works have been carried out to investigate the potential use of palm oil fuel ash as a supplementary cementing material to develop high strength and aerated concrete. The experiments conducted for the use of POFA as a pozzolanic material to improve the strength and durability of concrete have obtained satisfactory results. POFA can be used as an environmentally friendly replacement for the cement to produce concrete. This study a state-of-the-art of possibilities for the sustainable construction of concrete through the partial replacement of concrete with palm oil fuel ash.

The management of natural resources, through the conscious control and use of energy sources, is essential and necessary, so implementing mechanisms that enable better management is today an increasingly frequent effort. Due to its unsustainable consumption, water use has long one become of the main problems of modern times. Much of the current efforts use the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), present in vast modern sectors, transforming high water consumption into a greener and more sustainable consumption. In areas often affected by severe droughts, the management of this consumption is critical, because water it’s an important resource for humanity, since it affects countless sectors that depend on it, such as the development of various agricultural crops. The use of manual processes to irrigate these crops remains frequent, leading to much higher water consumption than necessary for optimal crop growth. Focused mainly on reducing water consumption, and ensuring minimum conditions for crop growth, the solution presented in this article, through technologies such as NB-IoT, a small set of sensors and based on the analysis of the humidity variation of the soil throughout the day, time and possibility of precipitation, allows to set efficient and sustainable rule times. Additionally, given the characteristics of the NB-IoT network, the solution allows not only remote consultation of the humidity levels of the soil, as the scheduling of manual watering cycles.

The human occupation in high demographics density areas causes a series of environmental impacts. Among these impacts, special attention should be given to the alteration of hydrological cycle caused by the impermeabilization of the surface, which creates an increase in the peak flow stormwater runoff and a decrease in lag time, which are involved in urban flooding. This paper evaluates the impacts of permeable pavement as a sustainable solution to reduce stormwater runoff in Capuchos Urbanization, Leiria city. This area was chosen because it is a consolidated urban environment with information about water catchment and drainage network. A Storm Water Management Model (SWMM5.1) was developed to evaluate the performance of drainage network, for different rainfall intensity and with/without permeable pavement. The results show that permeable pavement preset to be a good solution to reduce the peak flow of stormwater drainage network and, consequently, the mitigation of the risk of flooding in urban areas.

As water scarcity increases, the search for alternative water sources, the development of new technologies for water efficient use and the need for planning and integrated water resources management have been shown to be relevant in several fields. The rainwater harvesting system appears in this context as one of the most promising alternative of water sources for buildings, as the system can be easily installed, and rainwater can be used without significant treatment for non-potable purposes. The study presented here, focuses the potential for the use of rainwater harvesting system in higher education institutions, taking as case study the Building D of Campus 2 of the Polytechnic of Leiria. The results show that economic viability, reliability, and resilience of the system depends on factors related to precipitation, the area of rainwater catchment, the storage capacity, and the demand/value/tax for drinking water from public services. Additionally, the use of rainwater may reduce the drinking water demand between 46% to 89% and enabling the building taken as in case study to become more sustainable.

Water is an abundant natural resource in some regions such as the Amazon, but is finite and limited. The growing demand for various social and economic actors, there may be situations of water scarcity. This study evaluates the importance of water in the construction industry, as a real or virtual element. We intend to quantify the water in monetary or financial calculated based on rational principles, specifically in construction sites, introducing the budgeting of water as raw material in construction. The case study methodology is real, the value calculated of water was slightly more than 0.5% of the total cost of the work. This percentage is apparently little, but is not covering all elements inherent to the principles of sustainability (economic, social and environmental), which could not be worked out in this article, especially the fact that studies on this subject and approach are new, incipient, with little theoretical.

Water is a vital resource for life on earth. The importance of an effective and efficient management of water in buildings and cities is highlighted, as well the need to preserve soil and ecosystems to avoid water waste and degradation. The Brazilian context regarding water conservation and management is explained, as despite owning the biggest water resources worldwide, there are still people suffering from water supply and sanitation problems. Some technologies used in Brazil, promoting better water management use in buildings and cities, are presented. The need to progress towards net zero water buildings is emphasized, as well the urgency in finding new strategies for net zero water and waste requirements.

Water is another name of life. The standard of quality of life in an urban area is much dependent on the extent of the availability of drinking water. Water supply is the basic responsibility of any city or town authority. Getting standard quality water is the basic need of the people. In Bangladesh, people who are living in urban areas receive piped water supply. A planned water supply system is compulsory for serving urban people with an adequate quantity of supply water of good quality. Comilla Municipality started supplying water in 1925 with few distribution mains. After forming a new Comilla City Corporation (CoCC) in 2011, the water supply system was newly maintained and operated jointly by DPHE (Department of Public Health and Engineering) and CoCC. But the planning has drawbacks and the amount of pure water supply is inadequate compared to the need. Roughly 30% of families in slums suffer from acute water shortages for daily requirements inside CoCC area. This unhygienic condition causes severe health problems for these people. Urban expansion is prevalent with the constant increase in population but water supply provision is not increasing at the same rate. Even though the urban area is expanding constantly, the political boundary is an area of 53.04 km2 which was 37.50 km2 in 1982. The growth of built-up areas expands over the political area. The expansion of residential areas to the northern part of the city is the main problem for decreased agricultural land.

Digital Twins (DT) can be exploited to improve Collective Irrigation Systems (CIS) performance and be fundamental for decision-making. Developing a DT is an enormous challenge with continuous adjustments and learning from the physical system. Agriculture represents one of the most water demanding sectors, and changing from gravity to pressurised water distribution turning the efficient use of water and energy as one of the main purposes of managing pressurised CIS. The DT is created based on field and laboratory tests, a systematic application of hydraulic modelling, water balance, energy balance and performance indicators. The data connection between the physical system and the DT and data advanced analytics provides a means to the operational setting, optimising, studying scenarios, and adapting to external changes of the pressurised CIS. In this paper, the authors propose a methodology to build a DT of a primary and secondary pressurised CIS network to evaluate water use efficiency, global energy efficiency, pumping facilities efficiency and energy inefficiency associated with water losses. A preliminary application to Block 4, a pressurised sub-system of Odivelas CIS, is presented in Southern Portugal. It was possible to ascertain the great potential of the physical twin – digital twin set to understand system processes, the corrective measures, the priority of maintenance and management decision of the pressurised collective irrigation system. This formulation is a good way to move towards smart water management in CIS.

Improving practices of water saving in irrigation is a priority facing global climate changes. To cope with water scarcity, the irrigation with treated wastewater (TWW) is becoming a solution, posing however several health and environmental risks on agricultural fields. This preliminary study aimed to assess the physicochemical impacts of rice irrigated with TWW applied with a subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) system, focusing the rice food, soil and environmental safety. Normal water and flooding was used as a reference for comparison. The experimental scheme considered three treatments with five repetitions, namely the TWW irrigation with SDI, the normal water with SDI, and the flooded irrigation with normal water. The pots filled with 15 L of soil, sowed with a local traditional rice variety, were kept outdoors. The fertilization scheme followed the usual one under field conditions. The irrigation frequency varied from three to five times a week. Measurements of physicochemical properties of irrigation water, drainage and rice grain were carried out, according to the analytical reference methods. Results showed that the irrigation with TWW rises the electric conductivity of drainage water, but that the rice grain does not present increased risks to public health due to the low content of arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. However, the irrigation method must be adapted to a SDI to avoid human and animal contact with putative contaminants present in this water and thus safeguarding Environmental and Food Safety. Long term soil effects of TWW, including winter percolation, will be assessed in the future.

Irrigation plays an important role in agriculture, with impact on land productivity and economic prosperity of farmers. Water management is complex but can benefit from remote sensing satellite images, which provide a monitoring of soil, crops and water, in harmony with the requirements of precision agriculture. The surface data from the combined constellation Sentinel-2A, 2B and Landsat 8 offer unique opportunities with this aim. The SpiderwebGIS tool, developed by the Instituto de Desarrollo Regional, from the University of Castilla La-Mancha (UCLM), allows a friendly management of satellite images, providing information to the community in a simple and accessible way. This communication explores the potential applications of remote sensing in irrigation management at district scale, aiming to improve water management in the plots, under the responsibility of farmers, and in collective distribution, by water users’ associations. This study focuses on the Lis Valley Irrigation District. The methodology considers ground observations at a local scale of climate, soil and plant parameters, for the development and calibration of models based on satellite images. The ultimate objective is the operational use of temporal series of spatially distributed information to support agricultural management and optimize the use of water, energy and economic resources. This study is supported by Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra and UCLM and is integrated into the activities of the Lis Valley Water Management Operational Group.

Society’s demand for the preservation of water resources has led to major technological advances in irrigation management, simultaneously promoting socio-economic development and natural resources conservation. This study aims to assess the impact of agricultural activities at the Lis Valley Irrigation District (LVID) on the quality of superficial water. This information will support the improvement and the minimization of risks regarding the conservation of groundwater and surface water bodies in the valley. The physicochemical and microbiological quality of water samples collected at the inlets and outlet of the LVID was determined according to the analytical reference methods. Results showed that the water at the inlets of the LVID contains microbiological contamination, due to external sources. In general, the concentrations of total coliforms (TC) in the inlet water were 1.4 times lower than in the outflow water; however, an inverse situation was found with faecal coliforms (FC), faecal enterococci (FE), and ampicillin-resistant (Ampr) Enterobacteriaceae. These data reveal that the LVID’s agricultural activities have not aggravated (and have even improved) those microbiological indicators of the outlet water when compared to those of the water which reaches the entrance of the district, available for agriculture. Concluding, the monitoring in a continuum of a few years will allow the assessment of risk situations of microbiological contamination to support the improvement of regional planning and agricultural management, being recommended to increase the sampling representativeness.

This paper presents a study of the monitorization of the conveyance system of the collective water network in the framework of the Lis Valley Water Management Operational Group, aiming the improvement of water management by the Water Users’ Association. The methodology considered the measurement of water allocation to main canals, its distribution throughout the conveyance system, and the on-farm irrigation demand. This paper presents the results of Canal 2, for 2019 and 2020 irrigation seasons. This canal supplies an area of 410 ha, is gravity-fed from Lis river, on the Arrabalde weir, in Leiria, and has a pumping recharge during the irrigation peak period. A water balance of supply and irrigation demand was carried out at 10-day period, to evaluate the performance of the distribution water management. The analyzed system reveals the specificity of the drainage water reuse, which leads to a more flexible management of water allocated by gravity-fed, and rational of pumping supply, in order to adjust it to irrigation demand, through energy consumption. Results point to actions that prioritize consolidating the improvement management of water resources, like the implementation of optimal operational plans to adjust the water demand with distribution, accompanied with the improvement of the on-farm irrigation systems.

The lower Tejo river basin is an important crop production area in Portugal. The mild climate, diverse water sources and availability along with flat and fertile land areas provide the condition to a highly productive region. Although the historically rainfed cultures installation since the eighteen century, irrigated cultures, such as rice, started to gradually occupy the region in the beginning of the twentieth century. Nowadays, rice cultivation prevails in the area, which requires reliable sources to fulfil water demand for this culture. Paddy-rice fields installation in Tejo tributaries alluvium, such as Sorraia and Almansor rivers, directly supply those parcels in the vicinity. Nevertheless, the largest production area is installed in Lezírias de Vila Franca de Xira, located in Tejo alluvium plains. Such area requires large amounts of water during crop season, from April to October, mainly withdrawn from Tejo river. The Tejo estuary proximity and its salinity influence along with demand peak during summer compromise water quality which, in a long term, can cause salinization and alkalinization of soils. Rice is a light salinity tolerant culture, which is adapted with the current water quality, but the region faces serious sustainability challenges if a shift for some other crop type occurs, as happened in the past. Multiple Correspondence Analysis was used as a statistical method to assess water quality in the region. Water management, driven with water quality allocation by crop and soils requirements can be an answer to minimize permanent soil damages achieving natural resources sustainability in the long term.

Considering the path that electricity smart grids have taken and the management, control and optimization involved, one may think that is possible to transpose such experience and results to other infrastructures that perform poorly, e.g. the water supply infrastructure. Also, according to Pardo-Bosch & Aguado [1], the infrastructure construction, one of the biggest driving forces of the economy, requires a huge analysis and clear transparency to decide what projects may be executed with the few resources available. Additionally, losses in the water sector are still generally relevant and need to be addressed [2]. In fact, addressing the efficient use of resources is a key goal for the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.The purpose of this work is to make use of big data provided by one-year operation of a water utility company and perform an analysis, similar to the one already established for electricity smart grids, contributing to a more effective decision-making process.The proposed methodology consists of applying clustering algorithms to historical data, namely, the hierarchical and self-organizing neural network methods, from a harvesting station to a reservoir. Such methodology allows obtaining cluster diagrams trends, which represent typical daily profiles of water flow rate and electric power consumption.The obtained prototypes represent the most common profiles in water capture, for the selected facility. Such analysis enables the definition of a lower losses working profile (optimized profiles) and allow assessing the outcome of their combined existence.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance of five univariate models for the reconstruction of flow rate time series. Errors in the measurements may occur due to problems in the sensor or in the communication system with data logger, thus generating missing data in the flow rate time series. The presence of missing values in flow rate data restricts its use in network operation processes. The performance of seasonal ARIMA, Standard and double seasonality Holt-Winters, and original and improved Quevedo approach are assessed. The analysis is made considering a real Portuguese case study and 1-month of flow rate data at 1-h and 10-min period. The holidays compared to the weekdays show great differences in consumption patterns. For this reason, the effect of forecasting holidays is assessed. Obtained results evidence that the improved Quevedo model can cope with different time step intervals and type of day being forecasted, with a reduced computation time.

Every year, an average of 1000000 L of mineral water are sold in Portugal. An amount of plastic waste from the bottles, plastic and labels could arise ecological problems. Portuguese are now paying more attention to environmental issues and most consumers consider sustainable issues in their purchase intentions. This study analyses how sustainable Portuguese water bottles considering two important functions of packages: technical analysis (material usage for plastic bottle, plastic cap, label and complete amount of water) and communication role (how consumers perceived the bottle in terms of sustainability). Therefore, two studies are carried out. The first measures the weight variations of bottle components and the second inquiries the consumers to rank the bottle pictures in terms of sustainable design attributes.

Tourism industry is one of the fastest growing in recent years, before the pandemic, and is a well-known industry with excessive consumption of water. Climate change together with the abusive use of water resources change the hydrological cycle, thus causing water supply problems. Consequently, tourism companies must undertake actions to change the direction based on a more structured knowledge and vision.This work is based on the study of water consumption in the various activities of tourist accommodations in the Iberian Peninsula. It aims to compare the perception of their consumption against the published reference values, as well as to apply measures to reduce water consumption.The applied methodology is based on an initial bibliographic research of the state of the art, reference values for consumption, and the influencing factors in tourist accommodation. Following, the perception of consumption is assessed through an online survey targeting Portuguese and Spanish hoteliers. The survey was conducted in the first months of 2020 and 174 responses were obtained, 101 from Spain and 73 from Portugal.The results show that the surveyed hoteliers do not have the perception of water consumption, since in general they do not make measurements, are unaware of the consumption of each sector within the hotel and mostly refer to consumption below the reference values. Regarding the measures that have already been implemented to reduce water consumption, they represent measures of lower cost and easier application and that do not require major changes.

The Vigário reservoir is part of the Paraíba do Sul basin hydrological complex, operated by Light Energia S/A., which supplies water to three integrated hydroelectric plants, with an installed capacity of 612 MW, put into operation in the 1950s. Considering the increase in the supply and reliability of the electricity provision, the operation of a hydroelectric plant generates changes in the profile of land occupation, with a consequent impact on erosion rates. As a consequence, the original parameters related to the reservoir silting are no longer applicable, resulting in a useful life shorter than that specified in the original design of the reservoir. Among the alternatives for the recovery of historical data related to the sedimentation speed, which allow reconstructing the speed variation on an annual scale, the study highlights the use of naturally occurring radioisotopes, such as 210Pb (Gu, Chen and Salem 2011; Palinkas and Russ 2019; Zhang et al. 2019). This paper discusses the study of samples taken from four sediment cores acquired from different locations in the Vigário reservoir, using a 1meter long gravity sampler. The moisture profile obtained qualified three of the cores to be analysed using the 210Pb dating technique. Considering that the validation of dating with 137Cs in the Southern Hemisphere is not always applicable, metal determination was carried out along the sediment’s cores, while the observed variation was compared with the industrial development of the Paraíba do Sul basin. The results obtained demonstrate an acceleration in the silting process over the past decades.

Soil erosion due to the effect of surface runoff is one of the main environmental concerns inherent in the management plans of the hydrographic basins in Ecuador. The objective of this work was to analyze the interrelationships between the conditioning factors of soil erosion in hydrographic basins of the Ecuadorian territory, as an input for the construction of a spatial model of soil loss. The methodology considered the delimitation of the hydrographic basins, the calculation of elevations and slopes, the classification of land cover, lithology and R factor in Ecuador. The basins delimitation, calculation of elevations and slopes, were carried out from a DEM of 4 km of resolution; the land cover information was obtained from the Global Land Cover Database; the lithology factor was retrieved from the World Global Lithological Map Database; and the R factor were processed from the Global Rainfall Erosivity Database. The results indicated that the average elevation of the Ecuadorian basins ranges between 57 m and 2200 m. The average of the slopes decreases the greater the distance to the Andes Mountain, showing a greater variation in the basins that drain towards the Pacific. Most of the vegetation cover of the ground corresponds to closed forests and herbaceous vegetation. There is a great variety of lithological outcrops of different natures, which gives them different levels of erodibility. The R factor showed a similar behavior in the areas close to the Andes while, in the sectors close to the Pacific Ocean, the values were more dispersed.

The article describes the fundamentals associated with the construction of an integrated computational code to model the Paraíba do Sul River basin, considering specificities that are intrinsic to the basin's hydrology and the impact of external aspects related to weather forecasting, climatology and silting. With an area of 60 thousand km2, the basin is located in the south-eastern region of Brazil, covering the three most industrialized states in the country (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais). The proposal for this hydrometeorological model integrates complementary efforts by research groups from three universities and an energy concessionaire responsible for the operation of the hydroelectric complex powered by waters from the studied basin. The proposed modelling was mainly motivated by the absence an integrated modelling able to carry out a reliable hydro-meteorological forecast. Among the results stand out: (i) the construction of a consistent knowledge base capable of guiding strategic decision making in the operation of the hydrological system and in the simulation of environmental events; (ii) the establishment of a cause-effect relationship capable of explaining the increase in silting up, guiding the water reservoir manager to establish a policy aiming at its mitigation. As results, the project will offer an integrated approach capable of ensuring forecast periods of up to 7 days, with hourly output, in places of interest in the river basin. Unlike the available models, it incorporates the history of variation in the silting up of the reservoirs that integrate the hydrological complex.

Industrial effluent is the liquid discharged by industrial production. This effluent must be treated and comply with the current environmental legislation before being released in a receiving body. However, in order to remove some specific contaminants or complement the conventional effluent treatment system, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are used. Among AOPs, there is the treatment with ultraviolet lamp (UV) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Thus, this study develops a continuous reactor in laboratory-scale using UV light and H2O2 as treatment to reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of a synthetic dairy effluent. For this purpose, a reactor was built using polyvinyl chloride ducts, a peristaltic pump, and three 54-W UV lamps. Effluent flow rate of 40 L/h, total volume of 10 L, and H2O2 concentration of 10 ppm were used. The synthetic effluent was prepared in order to simulate an effluent of the dairy industry. The COD of the effluent was monitored over three hours. It was observed that it is possible to fit the COD parameter to legislation requirements after one hour of treatment. In addition, 67.27% and 72.73% of COD were reduced after two and three hours of treatment, respectively. It is concluded that the reactor elaborated assists in the final polishing of an effluent of the dairy industry, considerably reducing COD.

The technology of reagent purification of coke plant waste water after biochemical treatment has been developed. The technology involves the introduction of a natural organic-mineral additive before coagulation. It is proposed to use the sludge formed during the enrichment of coal, or small-scale fractions of the coking coal charge. The positive effect of carbon particles is due to their ability to adsorb a significant amount of hydrolysis products of coagulant and substances present in water. It is proposed to use anionic polyacrylamide as a flocculant.The technology provides a quick and almost complete afterpurification of water from suspended impurities of organic and inorganic origin and bacteria. Reducing the amount of harmful chemicals in wastewater by 20–50% is expected. The proposed technology allows disposing of sludge, which is formed during waste water afterpurification, by using it as an additive in the charge for coking. Based on the results of technology implementation, technical and operational parameters of reagent waste water afterpurification have been developed.Ecological and economic assessment of the technology of reagent waste water afterpurification has been carried out. The reduction of pollutant emissions into the atmosphere from the implementation of waste water treatment technology is almost 68%.

The pollution caused by plastic materials is a social and environmental challenge whose consequences are yet to be understood and measured. Regarding the pollution of the marine environment, one can notice that the concentration of chemicals in plastic debris affects the general health of the aquatic ecosystem and are not well understood due to the complexity of the microplastic phenomenon. More efforts are needed to design new plastic materials using ecodesign tools, like Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and it is used to analyze quantitively the life cycle of a product or service. The inventory is classified and characterized on the phase of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA), using an impact assessment method. It wasn’t found in the literature an environmental impact assessment model to analyze and compare the toxicity of plastics in the marine water and it is essential for a proper ecodesign of new plastic materials and products. In this work, it is proposed an adaptation of one of the impact assessment method specific for ecotoxicity, USEtox. This method was adapted to compare two different polymers, Polyethylene (PE) and Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The preliminary results showed that the Potentially Affected Fraction of species integrated throughout the time and the volume by unity of mass of PE emitted is about 6 times superior to the fraction of PDMS.