FCT: DCEA - Artigos em revista internacional com arbitragem científica
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- Monitoring of ultrafine particles in the surrounding urban area of a civilian airportPublication . Lopes, Margarida; Russo, Ana; Monjardino, Joana; Gouveia, Célia; Ferreira, Francisco; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; CENSE - Centro de Investigação em Ambiente e Sustentabilidade; Elsevier BVAirports have been identified as a significant source of ultrafine particulate matter (UFP, particulate matter with diameter less than 0.1 μm), which may induce or aggravate pulmonary or cardio-respiratory health conditions, if prolonged exposure to high concentrations of UFP occur. Thus, assessing its impacts is vital to estimate UFP contribution to air quality degradation within the city and the degree of population exposure. However, there is lack of information regarding UFP concentrations in the vicinity of airports. This work aims to study the influence of air traffic and ground activities of Lisbon Airport (LA), in the surrounding urban area, focusing on the UFP concentrations. An UFP monitoring campaign was carried out in 2017 and 2018, for a 19 non-consecutive days period. The monitoring network was designed to include several sampling sites in the vicinity of LA and a set of sites further away of the LA, under the landing or take-off path. Based on the information collected, correlation analysis between air traffic activity and UFP concentrations was conducted. The results show the occurrence of high UFP concentrations in LA vicinity. Considering 10-min means, the particle counting increased 18–26-fold at locations near the airport, downwind, and 4-fold at locations up to 1 km distance to LA. Adverse orographic conditions leads to UFP punctual and average high concentrations. Results show that particle number increases with the number of flights and decreases with the distance to LA.
- Estimate of construction and demolition waste illegal dumpingPublication . Ramos, Mário; Martinho, Graça; MARE - Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do AmbienteThis report provides information on the preparation and implementation of monitoring activities related to illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste (CDW) in the Baixo Alentejo region of Portugal. It includes details about the in-person involvement of municipalities through training and supervision activities. Additionally, the report presents findings on CDW abandonment and strategies to promote effective CDW management.
- Methodology for estimating construction and demolition waste illegal dumpingPublication . Ramos, Mário; Martinho, Graça; MARE - Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do AmbienteThe primary goal of this report is to outline a methodological approach for monitoring illegal dumping of construction and demolition waste (CDW) in the Baixo Alentejo region of Portugal.
- Circular construction and climate changePublication . Ramos, M.; Martinho, Graça; MARE - Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do AmbienteO setor da construção gera cerca de 10% do produto interno bruto e é responsável pela criação de 20 milhões de postos de trabalho na economia europeia, sendo que nos últimos anos, devido à crise económica, as obras de reabilitação alcançaram maior relevância (CE, 2012). O setor contribui para 50% da extração de todos os materiais virgens, 35% da emissão de gases com efeito de estufa e 30% do consumo da água (CE, 2011). Além disso, são produzidos resíduos de construção e demolição (RCD) num quantitativo que se estima ser de 30% em relação a todos os resíduos produzidos (CE, 2016).
- Treated wastewater reuse for irrigationPublication . Areosa, Inês; Martins, Tiago A. E.; Lourinho, Rita; Batista, Marcos; Brito, António G.; Amaral, Leonor; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; CENSE - Centro de Investigação em Ambiente e Sustentabilidade; ElsevierIn an increasing water scarcity and climate-vulnerable global context, treated wastewater represents a vital alternative water source, thereby enhancing resource sustainability. Despite its potential, only roughly 2.5 % of the treated wastewater is reused in the European Union, with Portugal's reuse rate being only 1.2 % in 2022. Considering this framework, this study evaluates the feasibility of increasing wastewater reuse in Portugal by focusing on the Tagus River and Ribeiras do Oeste Basins. The regional assessment identified eight key wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) with significant potential for irrigation reuse in the agriculture and tourism sectors. Analysing costs, quality requirements, and technological options, this study considered five treatment lines, incorporating filtration and disinfection methods. The findings indicate that reclaimed water costs may range from 0.02€/m3 to 0.83€/m3, being competitive with other water sources and significantly lower than desalination processes (up to 1.66€/m3). Distribution investments and energy consumption are primary cost drivers, suggesting a relocation of WWTP closer to end-users as a cost-saving strategy. The proposed reuse projects could quadruple regional reuse rates and double the national rate, mitigating water needs for over 2000 ha of agricultural land and golf courses. This study underscores the importance of treated wastewater reuse in addressing water scarcity, advocating for WWTP decentralisation, strategic investments and policy interventions to achieve cost-effective goals. The methodologies and insights presented offer valuable guidance for other regions facing similar challenges, promoting a paradigm shift towards circular water resource management.
- A Data-Driven Methodology for Assessing Reuse Potential in Existing Wastewater Treatment PlantsPublication . Areosa, Inês; Martins, Tiago A. E.; Lourinho, Rita; Batista, Marcos; Brito, António G.; Amaral, Leonor; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; CENSE - Centro de Investigação em Ambiente e Sustentabilidade; MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing InstituteWastewater reuse is a proven strategy to mitigate water stress in drought-prone regions. However, this practice is still limited due to high implementation costs, regulatory hurdles, and limited public acceptance. In regions with low reclaim rates, a thorough evaluation of the potential for reuse is needed to support decision-making, focusing on opportunities that address both low-hanging fruit and high-leverage projects. This paper introduces a streamlined, data-centric methodology for assessing wastewater reuse potential, adaptable to various regional contexts. The methodology involves comprehensive data collection and processing to evaluate wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) capabilities and identify potential users, allowing the prioritisation of case studies based on demand alignment. Different treatment and distribution systems are analysed to match WWTP capabilities with user needs, considering volume, quality, and infrastructure requirements. Cost analysis incorporates capital expenditure (CAPEX), operational expenditure (OPEX) and unit costs using novel cost functions for treatment and distribution. Risk analysis adheres to WHO methodology to ensure safety and sustainability. A case study in the Lisbon and Oeste areas in Portugal validates this approach, revealing key insights into the potential and economic viability of water reuse. By comparing tariffs and costs associated with different reuse scenarios, this paper offers benchmarks for the economic feasibility of reuse projects.
- Toward Robust Parameterizations in Ecosystem-Level Photosynthesis ModelsPublication . Bao, Shanning; Alonso, Lazaro; Wang, Siyuan; Gensheimer, Johannes; De, Ranit; Carvalhais, Nuno; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; John Wiley and Sons Inc.In a model simulating dynamics of a system, parameters can represent system sensitivities and unresolved processes, therefore affecting model accuracy and uncertainty. Taking a light use efficiency (LUE) model as an example, which is a typical approach for estimating gross primary productivity (GPP), we propose a Simultaneous Parameter Inversion and Extrapolation approach (SPIE) to overcome issues stemming from plant-functional-type (PFT)-dependent parameterizations. SPIE refers to predicting model parameters using an artificial neural network based on collected variables, including PFT, climate types, bioclimatic variables, vegetation features, atmospheric nitrogen and phosphorus deposition, and soil properties. The neural network was optimized to minimize GPP errors and constrain LUE model sensitivity functions. We compared SPIE with 11 typical parameter extrapolating methods, including PFT- and climate-specific parameterizations, global and PFT-based parameter optimization, site-similarity, and regression approaches. All methods were assessed using Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (NSE), determination coefficient and normalized root mean squared error, and contrasted with site-specific calibrations. Ten-fold cross-validated results showed that SPIE had the best performance across sites, various temporal scales and assessing metrics. Taking site-level calibrations as a benchmark (NSE = 0.95), SPIE performed with an NSE of 0.68, while all the other investigated approaches showed negative NSE. The Shapley value, layer-wise relevance and partial dependence showed that vegetation features, bioclimatic variables, soil properties and some PFTs determine parameters. SPIE overcomes strong limitations observed in many standard parameterization methods. We argue that expanding SPIE to other models overcomes current limits and serves as an entry point to investigate the robustness and generalization of different models.
- Repair service convenience in a circular economyPublication . Güsser-Fachbach, Ines; Lechner, Gernot; Ramos, Tomás B.; Reimann, Marc; CENSE - Centro de Investigação em Ambiente e Sustentabilidade; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; ElsevierUsing repair services instead of new purchases creates local added value and contributes to a circular economy. The main aim of this research was to characterize repair service convenience for customers and to investigate ways to increase convenience to make repairs more attractive for customers, as the construct service convenience has neither been used nor adapted to a repair context until now. For this purpose, focus group interviews with potential customers of repair companies and interactive workshops with repair companies were conducted in the region of Styria (Austria). Findings state that a variety of factors like lack of information regarding repair services and product repairability, inconvenient store hours, or long waits reduce repair service convenience. However, due to skilled labor shortage, long delivery times of spare parts, or lacking financial resources for advertisements, repair companies can only partially improve convenience. Considering that, interventions from different actors, for example, the local government are needed as they can increase convenience by organizing awareness/information events, repair networks, or central repair-points. Hence, this study highlights once more the necessity to collaborate with different stakeholders (including customers, repair companies, local initiatives, and governments) to successfully transform the linear economy to a circular economy.
- Monitoring of Ultrafine Particles in the Surrounding Urban Area of In-Land Passenger FerriesPublication . Lopes, Margarida; Russo, Ana; Gouveia, Célia; Ferreira, Francisco; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; CENSE - Centro de Investigação em Ambiente e Sustentabilidade; Scientific Research PublishingMaritime transportation, widely used both in international transport of goods and touristic purposes, has been identified as a significant source of ultrafine particles (UFP). In-land passenger ferry is a source of UFP far less addressed; however, in locations with relatively high frequency of this transportation mode, it is expected that they contribute to an increase of their concentration. Moreover, the negative effects of UFP on human health and environment are known and therefore, monitoring UFP produced by ferries is vital to assess the degree of exposure of who work or live close to ferries’ terminals or downwind to their cruising path. This work aims to study the influence of in-land ferries activities on UFP in the urban/suburban areas near ferries’ terminals and downwind across the cruising path. The UFP monitoring campaign was carried out from September to December 2018 for 19 non-consecutive periods. The sampling sites were chosen in order to maximize measurements under downwind conditions and allow the association between ferry operation and UFP concentration response. Based on data collected, correlation analysis was performed between ferry’s traffic and particle number counting (PNC) of UFP, and also with meteorological variables. Results show an increase in PNC ranging from 25 to 197% during the third minute around a ferry movement and are moderate to positive significant correlations between PNC values and the number of ferry operations (r = 0.79 to r = 0.94), showing that UFP emitted by in-land ferries contributes to PNC increase. Moreover, negative correlations (r = -0.85 to r = -0.93) between PNC and wind intensity were also found.
- Technical notePublication . Walther, Sophia; Besnard, Simon; Nelson, Jacob Allen; El-Madany, Tarek Sebastian; Migliavacca, Mirco; Weber, Ulrich; Carvalhais, Nuno; Ermida, Sofia Lorena; Brümmer, Christian; Schrader, Frederik; Prokushkin, Anatoly Stanislavovich; Panov, Alexey Vasilevich; Jung, Martin; DCEA - Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente; Copernicus PublicationsThe eddy-covariance technique measures carbon, water, and energy fluxes between the land surface and the atmosphere at hundreds of sites globally. Collections of standardised and homogenised flux estimates such as the LaThuile, Fluxnet2015, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), AsiaFlux, AmeriFlux, and Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN)/OzFlux data sets are invaluable to study land surface processes and vegetation functioning at the ecosystem scale. Space-borne measurements give complementary information on the state of the land surface in the surroundings of the towers. They aid the interpretation of the fluxes and support the benchmarking of terrestrial biosphere models. However, insufficient quality and frequent and/or long gaps are recurrent problems in applying the remotely sensed data and may considerably affect the scientific conclusions. Here, we describe a standardised procedure to extract, quality filter, and gap-fill Earth observation data from the MODIS instruments and the Landsat satellites. The methods consistently process surface reflectance in individual spectral bands, derived vegetation indices, and land surface temperature. A geometrical correction estimates the magnitude of land surface temperature as if seen from nadir or 40g off-nadir. Finally, we offer the community living data sets of pre-processed Earth observation data, where version 1.0 features the MCD43A4/A2 and MxD11A1 MODIS products and Landsat Collection 1 Tier 1 and Tier 2 products in a radius of 2 km around 338 flux sites. The data sets we provide can widely facilitate the integration of activities in the eddy-covariance, remote sensing, and modelling fields.