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The paper presents a method of analysis and design of urban landscapes called PlaceMaker. The method is intended as a key resource for assessing the identity of places and measures for its enhancement, reconstruction and design. By using different tools for analysis and interpretation of places and questionnaires administered to their users, PlaceMaker finds the identity material that the city has available and how to de-compose and re-compose it for its sustainable project transformation. Pedestrian-intensive areas, in particular urban, cultural and historical poles of attraction, increasingly bear the imprint of globalization, conveying messages which have developed in an uncontrolled manner and are aimed at conveying their users' patterns of thought and action. The presence of a dense mixture of contrasting elements and perceptions can detract from the image of a city. As regards, the paper is completed with a synopsis of the experiment carried out in an historic axe in London - Oxford Street - where globalization is in danger of levelling out the beauty of the area in favour of widespread genericity

AbstractProjections show that biomass will remain important for reaching future EU renewable energy targets. In addition to using domestic biomass, European bioenergy markets will also partly rely on imports of biomass, in particular in trade‐oriented EU member states like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. There has been a lot of debate on the sustainability of (imported) biomass and how policy should deal with this. In this research, therefore, we defined long‐term strategies for sustainable biomass imports in European bioenergy markets. We used the input of different stakeholders in our approach through focus‐group discussions and a global survey, focusing on the following aspects: key principles of sustainable biomass trade, risks and opportunities of biomass trade, both for import regions (EU countries) and for sourcing regions, and practical barriers for trade. Overall we conclude that policies should be stable and consistent within a long‐term vision. An overall sustainability assurance framework of biomass production and use is key, but should ultimately apply to all end uses of biomass. Furthermore, the mobilization of biomass should be supported, as well as commoditization, considering the large diversity of biomass. Side impacts of biomass use should be monitored. Reducing investors’ risk perception is crucial for future developments in the biobased economy, and a clear policy to phase out fossil fuels, e.g. through a carbon tax, needs to be implemented. The results of this research are of interest for policy makers when deciding on long‐term strategies concerning sustainable bioenergy markets. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

The Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) was an international, multiplatform field campaign to measure long-range transport of air pollution from South and Southeast Asia toward the Indian Ocean during the dry monsoon season in January to March 1999. Surprisingly high pollution levels were observed over the entire northern Indian Ocean toward the Intertropical Convergence Zone at about 6°S. We show that agricultural burning and especially biofuel use enhance carbon monoxide concentrations. Fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning cause a high aerosol loading. The growing pollution in this region gives rise to extensive air quality degradation with local, regional, and global implications, including a reduction of the oxidizing power of the atmosphere.

Current economic instruments aimed at climate change mitigation focus mainly on CO(2) emissions, but efficient climate mitigation needs to focus on other greenhouse gases as well as CO(2). This study investigates the distributional effects of climate change taxes on households belonging to different income and lifestyle groups; and it compares the effects of a CO(2) tax with a multiple GHG tax in the UK in terms of cost efficiency and distributional effects. Results show that a multi GHG tax is more efficient than a CO(2) tax due to lower marginal abatement costs, and that both taxes are regressive, with lower income households paying a relatively larger share of their income for the taxes than higher income households. A shift from a CO(2) tax to a GHG tax will reduce and shift the tax burden between consumption categories such as from energy-intensive products to food products. Consumers have different abilities to respond to the tax and change their behavior due to their own socio-economic attributes as well as the physical environment such as the age of the housing stock, location, and the availability of infrastructure. The housing-related carbon emissions are the largest component of the CO(2) tax payments for low income groups and arguments could be made for compensation of income losses and reduction of fuel poverty through further government intervention.

We analysed the effect of applying Dutch thermal efficiency standards of residential dwellings, conversion efficiency, appliance fuel mixes and appliance ownership rates, to the UK residential sector. We found that although aggregate energy consumption does not change significantly, pollution emissions are reduced significantly. Thus, the primary difference between housing and appliance stocks in the two regions is in terms of fuel mixes. However, improved thermal efficiency does allow for increased dwelling warmth without increasing emissions. Adapting Dutch standards in the UK would lead to a one-time improvement of the environmental situation, after which the trend is continued.

While park-people conflicts have received worldwide attention, the extent of illegal resource extraction and the relationship with communities' livelihoods has gained little attention in the literature. Thus this paper investigates the impact of socio-economic factors involved in illegal fuel wood and fodder extraction at Bardia National Park in Nepal. Household questionnaires, key-informant interviews and focus groups were conducted to identify different plant species used by households and explore the causes and mode of resource extraction in three buffer zone villages in the park. Altogether 50 different plants were identified by villagers that were used regularly for different livelihood purposes. Almost half of the respondents met their needs by illegally and regularly extracting resources from the park. Incentive schemes in the form of development projects were important but not sufficient in meeting the basic needs of households' especially for such daily items such as fuel wood and fodder. The results described in this paper showed that proximity and access to resources either in the national park, the buffer zone community forest or the government forest, and impact on the livelihoods significantly influenced the likelihood of illegal resource extraction activities. Villages that differed in terms of their location to the resource base, the provision of alternative resources and influence of these on their livelihoods showed significant differences in terms of their patterns of resource extraction and use of these resources. As resource use options, resource interest, and resource extraction patterns were different between villages and dependent on circumstances specific to villages, site-specific management strategies were necessary and more influential than the enforcement of 'one-size fits all' policies. It is suggested that park management plans should be flexible and adaptive enough to meet site-specific contexts and to endear wider support from local communities.

This paper provides a review of the literature that applies the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to the assessment of the environmental performance of the life cycle of construction and demolition waste (CDW) management systems. This article is focused on generating a general mapping of the literature and on identifying the best practices in compliance with LCA framework and proposing directions for future LCA studies in this field. The temporal evolution of the research in this field and the aim of the studies have grown in parallel with the legal framework related to waste and energy efficiency of buildings. Most studies have been published in Europe, followed by USA. Asia and Australia, being at an incipient application stage to the rest of the world. Topics related to "LCA of buildings, including their EoL" and "LCA of general CDW management strategies" are the most frequently analysed, followed by "LCA of EoL of construction elements" and "LCA of natural material vs recycled material". Regarding the strategies, recycling off-site and incineration, both combined with landfill for the rejected fractions, are the most commonly applied. Re-use or recycling on-site is the strategy least applied. The key aspect when LCA is applied to evaluate CDW management systems is the need to normalise which processes to include in the system boundary and the functional unit, the use of inventory data adapted to the context of the case study and the definition of a common set of appropriate impact assessment categories. Also, it is important to obtain results disaggregated by unit processes. This will allow the comparison between case studies.

Research and development of cost-effective, high-performance thermal insulation materials for the construction sector has to be focused on their final application. In particular, solutions for refurbishing historic buildings, which represent 40% of the European building stock, have to offer a good compromise between environmental quality, energy efficiency and conservation aspects. In this paper, the experimental assessment of an insulation material based on aerogel technology, recently developed in the European project EFFESUS, is presented with regard to the material's thermal performance, compatibility with historic fabric and reversibility. The overall results obtained in laboratory testing on a real-size mock-up and in a real-world case application indicate that the new material is a promising solution for retrofitting historic buildings, thanks to its thermal properties, easy application, reversibility and material compatibility.