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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Application Of Climate-Smart Forestry – Forest Manager Response To The Relevance Of European Definition And Indicators, Euan Bowditch, Giovanni Santopuoli, Boyżdar Neroj, Jan Svetlik Jan Svetlik, Mark Tominlson, Vivien Pohl, Admir Avdagić, Miren Del Rio, Tzetvan Zlatanov Tzetvan Zlatanov, Höhn Maria, Gabriela Jamnická, Yusuf Serengil, Murat Sarginci, Sigríður Júlía Brynleifsdóttir, Jerzy Lesinki, João C. Azevedo Jan 2022

Application Of Climate-Smart Forestry – Forest Manager Response To The Relevance Of European Definition And Indicators, Euan Bowditch, Giovanni Santopuoli, Boyżdar Neroj, Jan Svetlik Jan Svetlik, Mark Tominlson, Vivien Pohl, Admir Avdagić, Miren Del Rio, Tzetvan Zlatanov Tzetvan Zlatanov, Höhn Maria, Gabriela Jamnická, Yusuf Serengil, Murat Sarginci, Sigríður Júlía Brynleifsdóttir, Jerzy Lesinki, João C. Azevedo

Articles

Climate change impacts are an increasing threat to forests and current approaches to management. In 2020, Climate-smart Forestry (CSF) definition and set of indicators was published. This study further developed this work by testing the definition and indicators through a forest manager survey across fifteen member European countries. The survey covered topic areas of demographics, climate change impacts, definition and indicators assessment, as well as knowledge and communication. Overall, forest managers considered the threat of climate change to their forests as high or critical and 62% found the CSF definition clear and concise; however, the minority suggested greater simplification or …


Knowledge And Behavioural Interventions To Reduce Human Health Risk From Private Groundwater Systems: A Global Review And Pooled Analysis Based On Development Status, S. Mooney, C. P. Mcdowell, J. O'Dwyer, P. D. Hynds Jan 2020

Knowledge And Behavioural Interventions To Reduce Human Health Risk From Private Groundwater Systems: A Global Review And Pooled Analysis Based On Development Status, S. Mooney, C. P. Mcdowell, J. O'Dwyer, P. D. Hynds

Articles

Groundwater contamination constitutes a significant health risk for private well users residing in rural areas. As the responsibility to safeguard rural private domestic groundwater typically rests with non-expert homeowners, interventions promoting risk mitigation and awareness represent the most viable means of preventing supply contamination. However, no global review or pooled analyses of these interventions has been undertaken to date. The current study sought to identify and quantify the performance of private well interventions from 1990 to 2018 via a global systematised review and pooled analysis. The PICO (Population-Intervention-Comparison-Outcome) approach was employed for literature identification. Relevant studies were statistically analysed across …


A Systems Approach To Research And Innovation For Food System Transformation, M. Gill, A.C.L. Den Boer, K.P. Kok, Jean Cahill, C. Callenius, P. Caron, Z. Damianova, M.A. Gurinovic, L. Lahteenmaki, T. Lang, A. Lappiere, C. Mango, J. Ryder, R. Sonnino, H. Westhoek, B.J. Regeer, J.E.W. Broerse Jan 2018

A Systems Approach To Research And Innovation For Food System Transformation, M. Gill, A.C.L. Den Boer, K.P. Kok, Jean Cahill, C. Callenius, P. Caron, Z. Damianova, M.A. Gurinovic, L. Lahteenmaki, T. Lang, A. Lappiere, C. Mango, J. Ryder, R. Sonnino, H. Westhoek, B.J. Regeer, J.E.W. Broerse

Other

This policy brief of the European Union (EU) Think Tank – part of the FIT4FOOD2030 Coordination and Support Action (CSA) of the FOOD 2030 initiative – is a response and contribution to growing pleas for a ‘systems approach’ to transform food systems for Food and Nutrition Security (FNS) for present and future generations. This policy brief specifically focusses on the necessity of the adoption of a systems approach to Research and Innovation (R&I) in order to foster the transformation of food systems.


Landscape Values And Wind Generation In West Mayo, Ireland, Ken Boyle Sep 2015

Landscape Values And Wind Generation In West Mayo, Ireland, Ken Boyle

Conference Papers

The landscape of west Mayo, in North West Ireland, is dominated and shrouded by an extensive area, 3,539Km2, of blanket peat soils. The landscape and its habitats have multiple values associated with them including a source of peat for fuel, agriculture, forestry, conservation, tourism, biomass production, tourism, cultural and archaeological. Historically communities have relied on peat as a source of energy and in the 20th century the state harvested peat on an industrial scale to generate electricity. Biomass production using willow (Salix spp) on cutover blanket peat and extensive planting, on deep peat, of Picea sitchensis and Pinus contorta was …


An Assessment Of The Energy Generation Potential Of Photovoltaic Systems In Cameroon Using Satellite-Derived Solar Radiation Datasets, Lacour Ayompe, Aidan Duffy Sep 2014

An Assessment Of The Energy Generation Potential Of Photovoltaic Systems In Cameroon Using Satellite-Derived Solar Radiation Datasets, Lacour Ayompe, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Cameroon like most developing countries does not have a reliable network of surface observation stations for collecting weather data. This has been a major drawback for accurate assessment of the energy generation potential of photovoltaic systems in Cameroon. A viable alternative is to obtain site-specific solar irradiation from satellite-derived datasets. In this paper, the energy output, capacity factor and performance ratio of photovoltaic systems in 33 locations spread around ten regions in Cameroon have been evaluated using monthly average daily global horizontal solar irradiation from long-term satellitederived data available in Solar GIS software. An economic assessment revealed that a simple …


A Life Cycle Assessment Of Emissions Reduction Potential In The Existing Irish Housing Stock: A Perspective Of International And Domestic Sources, Albert Famuyibo, Aidan Duffy, Paul Strachan Jun 2012

A Life Cycle Assessment Of Emissions Reduction Potential In The Existing Irish Housing Stock: A Perspective Of International And Domestic Sources, Albert Famuyibo, Aidan Duffy, Paul Strachan

Conference Papers

As the volume of imported materials increases, the magnitude of the imported environmental impacts becomes a greater factor in the energy demand and related CO2 emissions from the residential sector. As supply chains of goods within the global arena expands across country and region, domestic consumption of imported goods results in CO2 emissions in countries of production. Given that these emissions are attributable to countries of import, directing information towards environmental policy experts on a complete view of total emissions of retrofitting along international and domestic sources will have an impact on decision making, and for the first …


An Investigation Of The Bioactivity Of Irish Seaweeds And Potential Applications As Nutraceuticals., Sabrina Cox Jun 2012

An Investigation Of The Bioactivity Of Irish Seaweeds And Potential Applications As Nutraceuticals., Sabrina Cox

Doctoral

The primary goals of this research were to; identify the bioactivity of a range of edible Irish seaweeds, to examine the current technological procedures currently applied with respect to seaweed processing and in light of this information, to examine the potential of incorporating seaweeds into traditional food products in order to enhance their nutraceutical properties. Currently most Irish seaweeds are washed, dried and packaged, with little done to increase consumer appeal or interest and dried seaweed may appear inaccessible and unfamiliar to consumers. Seaweeds possess an excellent nutritional quality, such as high fibre and phytochemical content, low cholesterol and low …


Stochastic Hybrid Embodied Co2-Eq Analysis: An Application To The Irish Apartment Building Sector, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu Apr 2011

Stochastic Hybrid Embodied Co2-Eq Analysis: An Application To The Irish Apartment Building Sector, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu

Articles

Although embodiedCO2-eq analysis has seen recent developments as evident in the establishment of the ISO14040 and 14044 LCA standards, it is recognized that due to weaknesses in gathering data on product-related emissions,embodiedCO2-eq values are probabilistic. This paper presents a stochastic analysis of hybrid embodied CO2-eq in buildings to account for this weakness in traditional methods and, by way of example, applies it to an Irish construction-sector case study. Using seven apartment buildings, 70,000 results are simulated with Monte Carlo analysis and used to derive probabilistic and cumulative embodied CO2-eq intensity distributions for apartment buildings in Ireland. A Wakeby distribution with …


Identification Of ‘Carbon Hot-Spots’ And Quantification 1 Of Ghg Intensities In The Biodiesel Supply Chain Using Hybrid Lca And Structural Path Analysis, Adolf Acquaye, Thomas Wiedmann, Kuishang Feng, Robert Crawford, John Barrett, Johan Kuylenstierna, Aidan Duffy, Lenny Koh, Simon Mcqueen-Mason Apr 2011

Identification Of ‘Carbon Hot-Spots’ And Quantification 1 Of Ghg Intensities In The Biodiesel Supply Chain Using Hybrid Lca And Structural Path Analysis, Adolf Acquaye, Thomas Wiedmann, Kuishang Feng, Robert Crawford, John Barrett, Johan Kuylenstierna, Aidan Duffy, Lenny Koh, Simon Mcqueen-Mason

Articles

It is expected that biodiesel production in the EU will remain the dominant contributor as part of a 10% minimum binding target for biofuel in transportation fuel by 2020 within the 20% renewable energy target in the overall EU energy mix. Life cycle assessments (LCA) of biodiesel to evaluate its environmental impacts have, however, remained questionable, mainly because of the adoption of a traditional process analysis approach resulting in system boundary truncation and because of issues regarding the impacts of land use change and N2O emissions from fertiliser application. In this study, a hybrid LCA methodology is used to evaluate …


Embodied Emissions Abatement: A Policy Assessment Using Stochastic Analysis, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu Apr 2011

Embodied Emissions Abatement: A Policy Assessment Using Stochastic Analysis, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu

Articles

Policymakers traditionally focus on regulating operational energy use in buildings, ignoring other life cycle components such as embodied energy even though this may account for a significant portion of life cycle emissions. Data relating to embodied energy and emissions in buildings is limited. However, stochastic techniques can be used to estimate the distribution of such emissions from buildings. This helps policymakers identify which instruments are appropriate for achieving emissions reductions. A primary aim of this paper is to demonstrate this approach using a sample of apartment buildings in Ireland. A Monte-Carlo simulation suggests that the average probability distribution of embodied …


A Life Cycle Cost Analysis Of Large-Scale Thermal Energy Storage Technologies For Buildings Using Combined Heat And Power, Kenneth Gaine, Aidan Duffy Jul 2010

A Life Cycle Cost Analysis Of Large-Scale Thermal Energy Storage Technologies For Buildings Using Combined Heat And Power, Kenneth Gaine, Aidan Duffy

Conference Papers

Buildings account for approximately 40% of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developed economies, of which approximately 55% of building energy is used for heating and cooling. The reduction of building-related GHG emissions is a high international policy priority. For this reason and because there are many technical solutions for this, these polices should involve significant improvements in the uptake of small-scale energy efficient (EE) systems. However the widespread deployment of many technologies, must overcome a number of barriers, one of which is a temporal (diurnal or seasonal) mismatch between supply and demand. Costeffective thermal storage solutions have …


Input-Output Analysis Of Irish Construction Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy Apr 2010

Input-Output Analysis Of Irish Construction Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy

Articles

Ireland is committed to limiting its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 113% of 1990 levels over the period 2008-12 and to 84% of 2005 levels by 2020 under the Kyoto Agreement and the EU’s ’20 20’ by 2020 respectively. National policies have targeted many industry sectors but have failed to directly tackle GHG emissions associated with construction activity. This paper estimates energy and GHG emissions intensities of the Irish construction sector and subsectors and estimates its contribution to Irish national emissions. This information is used to identify and assess the impacts of policy measures which would result in a reduction …


Applying Geographic Information Systems To Support Strategic Environmental Assessment: Opportunities And Limitations In The Context Of Irish Land-Use Plans, Ainhoa Gonzalez, Alan Gilmer, Ronan Foley, John Sweeney, John Fry Jan 2010

Applying Geographic Information Systems To Support Strategic Environmental Assessment: Opportunities And Limitations In The Context Of Irish Land-Use Plans, Ainhoa Gonzalez, Alan Gilmer, Ronan Foley, John Sweeney, John Fry

Articles

The strengthening of spatial database infrastructures, further promoted by the INSPIRE Directive adopted in 2007, has led to an increased use of spatial data in planning and decision-making. Given that land-use plans are intrinsically spatial, such evidence and approaches can significantly benefit plan-making. A spatial framework could especially support the specific Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) aspects of the plan-making process. Spatial tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are particularly well-placed to support the environmental integration sought in SEA by providing evidence through the spatial assessment of multiple environmental datasets. Moreover, GIS bring the opportunity to augment conventional assessment techniques …


The Very Basics Of Sustainability - An Alternative Viewpoint (Slides With Audio) (Large File! To Speed Up Download, Right-Click On "Download" Link To Save To Own Pc.), Jim Mcgovern Aug 2009

The Very Basics Of Sustainability - An Alternative Viewpoint (Slides With Audio) (Large File! To Speed Up Download, Right-Click On "Download" Link To Save To Own Pc.), Jim Mcgovern

Other resources

This presentation sets out the very basics of ‘sustainability’, although a definition of sustainability is not attempted. Some of the very basics are the context in which the Earth and humankind exist in space and time, the Earth’s climate, the Earth’s population and humankind’s options and choices. The author advocates keeping an open mind on all available options, including the use of oil, gas, coal, tar sands, carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power etc., as well as the technologies that are more widely considered ‘green’. The author also argues that, in addressing the challenges that humankind faces, globally concerted effort …


Assessment Of The Embodied Co2eq In Buildings Towards A Sustainable Building Design And Construction, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu Jul 2009

Assessment Of The Embodied Co2eq In Buildings Towards A Sustainable Building Design And Construction, Adolf Acquaye, Aidan Duffy, Biswajit Basu

Conference Papers

Research studies have shown that the initial energy embodied in a building can be as much as 67% of the operational energy over a 25 year period. With growing global concerns over material and resource consumption and the emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere, the energy embodied in buildings constructed in town and cities becomes important and one of the key issues that needs to be tackled in the design stages in order to strive towards sustainable buildings design. In this paper, a hybrid embodied carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) methodology used to assess the CO2eq embodied in buildings is presented. …


Technology-Aided Participative Methods In Environmental Assessment: An International Perspective, Ainhoa Gonzalez, Alan Gilmer, Ronan Foley, John Sweeney, John Fry Jan 2008

Technology-Aided Participative Methods In Environmental Assessment: An International Perspective, Ainhoa Gonzalez, Alan Gilmer, Ronan Foley, John Sweeney, John Fry

Articles

Provisions for citizen involvement in the assessment of potential environmental effects of certain plans, programmes and projects are present in current legislation. An international survey revealed that public participation is common practice in European and some other countries worldwide. However, a number of issues are observed to affect public involvement in EIA/SEA processes and expert opinion differs when evaluating the effectiveness of existing participative methods. Results suggest that technology-aided methods can improve traditional participation processes. In particular, GIS has the potential to increase community knowledge and enhance involvement by communicating information more effectively. Variable accessibility to technology and data quality …