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LocaGIStics is a support tool for the design of regional biomass delivery chains. It enables to further design and evaluate regional biomass delivery chains that are e.g. the result of initial planning by an energy company or a biobased producer. These general plans are translated in several biomass delivery designs using the variation in logistical concepts covering transport, pre-treatment and conversion options. The performance of every chain design can then be analyzed by comparing the different biomass delivery chains on the following environmental and economic indicators. A regional case study was performed in Aragón (Spain) using the LocaGIStics tool. In this case study maps were used where the biomass availability is specified for 2.5 x 2.5 grid cells. Data about the logistical components were supplied partly by the energy supplying company that was involved. This paper shows the main outcomes of this case study. Proceedings of the 25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 12-15 June 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 41-47

The INTENSSS PA project, funded by Horizon 2020, the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union, aims to support the local authorities involved and their stakeholders to develop an innovative integrated sustainable energy planning concept through a participatory, interdisciplinary and multilevel process. By building individual and institutional capacity of the actors involved, using the Regional Living Lab approach, the concept will be applied in order to develop seven sustainable integrated energy plans. In this first article the project activities and the results achieved so far are preliminary described, anticipating a more extensive and detailed publication on the project planned for the December edition of UPLand – Journal of Urban Planning Landscape & Environmental Design. UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design, GREEN 2.0

2nd generation biofuels gained more importance in recent years since they enable greenhouse gas emission reductions in the transport sector on a larger scale. One promising way to produce alternative fuels is the Biomass-to-Liquid (BtL) process with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis which produces synthetic hydrocarbons that could directly be used as liquid fuels in an existing infrastructure. One major issue of this process is the production cost. Within the European COMSYN project (Compact Gasification and Synthesis process for Transport Fuels), a new BtL process concept is developed that aims to reduce biofuel production cost up to 35 % compared to alternative routes.

Shifts in the ecosystems distribution as the result of climate change are of interest for decision-makers in biodiversity conservation at local and European level. This paper presents the use of modeling technique, Maxent (Maximum entropy modeling) and BIOCLIM (environmental envelope model), to estimate the impact of climate change on the Alpine bioregion of Continental Europe for improving the management policy in support of stopping biodiversity loss. The European Union priority habitat 6230 occurring in mountain areas and sub-mountain areas of the Carpathians was selected for modeling being of high priority conservation status in the Natura 2000 network of protected area. Maxent and BIOCLIM were used to create spatial distribution models for Mesophilous oligotrophic mountain pasture and Subalpine oligotrophic pastures. Models were run with 1950–2000 averaged bioclimatic data and double atmospheric CO2 concentration scenario in perspective of the year 2050. In our analyses we have included once all 6320 mapped habitat with Nardus grasslands. Under 1950–2000 climate scenario, both models exhibited high AUC values (> 0.9). The predicted geographical distribution of Mesophilous oligotrophic mountain pasture and Subalpine oligotrophic pastures coded as VNG and PON habitat modeled by Maxent and BIOCLIM shows differences between the modeling approaches, with Maxent predicting smaller areas (12% less) of suitable habitat than BIOCLIM. For the future climate scenario (double CO2) the surface with PON+VNG decreases by 31% for Maxent and 26% for BIOCLIM. However both models show significant shifts of the Nardus habitat due to climate change. The distribution maps obtained indicate vulnerability areas to biodiversity loss and of interest to be monitored. The output of models will contribute to the Black Sea Catchment Observation Systems to be further accessible to scientists, decision-makers and the general public.

The functioning of food value chains entails a complex organisation from farm to fork which is characterised by various governance forms and externalities which have shaped the overall food system. VALUMICS food value chain case studies: wheat to bread, dairy cows to milk, beef cattle to steak, farmed salmon to fillets and tomato to processed tomato were selected to enable explorative and empirical analysis to better understand the functioning of the food system and, to identify the main challenges that need to be addressed to improve sustainability, integrity, resilience, and fairness of European food chains. The VALUMICS system analysis was executed through four operational phases starting with Groundwork & analysis including mapping specific attributes and impacts of food value chains and their externalities. This was followed by Case study baseline analysis, which provided input to the third phase on Modelling and exploration of future scenarios and finally Policy and synthesis of the overall work. This report is an overall synthesis of the VALUMICS results as follows: • Key findings from the VALUMICS project on the functioning of European food value chains and their impacts on more sustainable, resilient, fairer, and transparent food system are summarised through a compilation of 25 Research Findings and Policy Briefs. • By highlighting the major contributions from the research activities throughout the four phases of the VALUMICS project, this report delivers an assessment of various factors influencing sustainability, resilience, efficiency and fairness and effective chain relationships of different food value chains, and their determinants. • The synthesis of the outcome allows the identification of opportunities and challenges characterising the functioning of food supply chains, and thus, the prospects and potentials for strengthening the EU food sector. Citation: Olafsdottir, G., Bogason, S., Aubert, P.M., Barling, D., Thakur, M., Duric, I., Nicolau, M., McGarraghy, S., Sigurdardottir; H., Samoggia, A., Holden N.M., Čechura, L., Jaghdani, T.J., Svanidze, M., Esposito., G., Monticone, F., Fedato, C., Xhelili, A., Huber, E., Hargaden, V., Saviolidis, N M., Gorton, M., Hubbard, C., Kahiluoto, H., Hoang, V.(2021). Scenario analysis report with policy recommendations: An assessment of sustainability, resilience, efficiency and fairness and effective chain relationships in VALUMICS case studies. The VALUMICS project funded by EU Horizon 2020 G.A. No 727243. Deliverable: D8.4, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, 130 pages DOI:10.5281/zenodo.6534011

From the 19th century, in Western Europe, urban sanitation was meant to create sewers as well as bury small rivers. With the impulse of environmental laws, engineering schemes that once aimed at shaping vegetation around the city is now trying to reintroduce it in the most natural way possible. In that context, river restoration appears to be a strategic tool for the development of cities. It is also about linking districts to each other with plant pathways, creating public spaces, all while dealing with the issue of heat islands. River restoration designates the re-establishment of a river's natural functions, which used to be highly anthropized. After a rhetorical review, the paper deals with the firsts results of Lyon’s river restoration research program. This research program is enacted by the Greater Lyon, the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) and an engineering agency Artelia. The paper especially treats the subject of Rize’s restoration. A former river which was entirely buried in the 19th century. This study contributes to the research on the “shallow” concept of a sustainable city through the consideration of the benefits and shortcomings of recreating a river in a dense urban area. UPLanD - Journal of Urban Planning, Landscape & environmental Design, Vol 2, No 1: GREEN

The dataset provided here belongs to Eslami et al. (2021) article. We suggest to refer to that article before using the data. The excel sheet contains the description of simulations as it relates to their drivers and forcings. Two types of forcing are considered in this study. The climatic and anthropogenic drivers. The Climatic or climate change driven forces are upstream discharge anomalies and downstream sea level rise. The anthropogenic forces are spatially-varying extraction-induced land subsidence and average riverbed level erosions driven by sediment starvation due to upstream dams and downstream sand mining. This excel file defines the simulation ID and the description (driving forces) of every simulation (including all the sensitivity analysis simulations). The actual data is in form of three different Python 2.7 dictionaries, saved in NumPy binary format (*.npy). The filenames are as SWI_Projections_pxx.npy (pxx can be p50, p90 or p100). P50/P90 refer to Spatial values of 50th/90th percentile of salinity in the dry season of the simulation year, and P100 (100th percentile) is basically the maximum salinity in during the dry season of the simulation year. The files can simply be read in a Python 2.7 platform with NumPy module installed. The line to read the data is: data = np.load(filename, allow_pickle=True).item() Each dictionary contains several keys, each representing the results of a simulation. Under every simulation, the results contain: x_grid : x-coordinates of a 2km x 2km grid projected and interpolated over the model [UTM 48N, m] y_grid : y-coordinates of a 2km x 2km grid projected and interpolated over the model [UTM 48N, m] s_grid : Salinity over a 2km x 2km grid projected and interpolated over the model [PSU] xy_utm : Easting & Northing [UTM 48N, m], at exact model grid points latlon : Latitude & Longitude at exact model grid points salinity : modelled salinity [PSU] at exact model grid points info : explaining the above information For further information and detailed background, you may refer to the following paper: Eslami, S.; Hoekstra, P.; Minderhoud, P. S. J.; Trung, N. N.; Hoch, J. M.; Sutanudjaja, E. H.; Dung, D. D.; Tho, T. Q.; Voepel, H. E.; Woillez, M.-N.; and van der Vegt, M.: Projections of salt intrusion in a mega-delta under climatic and anthropogenic stressors, Nat. Commun. Earth Environ.

The urban heat island effect is often associated with large metropolises. However, in the Netherlands even small cities will be affected by the phenomenon in the future (Hove et al., 2011), due to the dispersed or mosaic urbanisation patterns in particularly the southern part of the country: the province of North Brabant. This study analyses the average night time land surface temperature (LST) of 21 North-Brabant urban areas through 22 satellite images retrieved by Modis 11A1 during the 2006 heat wave and uses Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper to map albedo and normalized difference temperature index (NDVI) values. Albedo, NDVI and imperviousness are found to play the most relevant role in the increase of night-time LST. The surface cover cluster analysis of these three parameters reveals that the 12 “urban living environment” categories used in the region of North Brabant can actually be reduced to 7 categories, which simplifies the design guidelines to improve the surface thermal behaviour of the different neighbourhoods thus reducing the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in existing medium size cities and future developments adjacent to those cities. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 9, N° 1 (2016): Planning for livable and safe cities: Extreme weather events caused by climate change