• Energy Research

AbstractThis paper investigates the remediation of a clay soil contaminated with phenanthrene, through a series of experimental tests. Mixtures of bentonite‐cement (with bentonite to cement ratios of 1:1 and 3:1) at 20% and 30% were used as agents. Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) tests were performed on samples with different percentages of agents and curing times. Leaching tests were also conducted on contaminated samples at different curing times by using spectrophotometer apparatus. The results indicated that using the mixtures of bentonite‐cement as an agent for natural and contaminated soil leads to an increase in the strength of the soils. The results of leaching tests showed that, for a given percentage of bentonite‐cement mixture with different bentonite to cement ratios, the concentration of phenanthrene decreased with increasing the curing time. The bentonite‐cement ratio of 1:1 was found to be more effective than the 3:1 ratio in reducing the concentration of phenanthrene. Sensitivity analysis showed that the percentage of bentonite and curing time are more effective in the reduction of phenanthrene than the percentage of cement.

The implementation of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations in 2015 focuses on making a more sustainable world in all countries and for all stakeholders. Higher education institutions (HEI) play a key role in increasing students’ sustainability knowledge, transforming their attitudes and motivating them to promote or engage in sustainability behaviors. HEI can take several measures to fulfill these objectives, but it is important to develop efficient tools to assess the starting point at which university students are at. In this study, a survey was conducted that addressed students from different Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) degrees to investigate their knowledge and awareness of sustainability and SDGs. This survey (n = 321) showed students’ levels of knowledge and initial awareness. Many UPV students state that they are aware of the SDGs, but most do not fully understand these 17 goals and their current implementation but think that the SDGs are important for their daily lives. Therefore, finding links between the SDGs and daily interests is necessary to advance toward further implementation to allow us to fulfill all SDGs. These results offer a good starting point for evaluating future training and awareness actions to improve sustainability-related educational strategies.

[EN] In September 2019, the UN Secretary-General called on all sectors of society to mobilize for a Decade of Action. The Decade of Action calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world¿s biggest challenges by 2030. At the heart of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDGs aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all by 2030. The SDG 13 ¿Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts¿ has the target 13.3 ¿Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning¿. Nowadays, many universities are engaged in achieving SDGs. It is crucial that climate change is included as part of universities¿ teaching, and also the development of SDG 13 awareness activities for students. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the activity performed as part of a course in Meteorology that intends to increase students' awareness of the climate change problem. This action took place with students of the Bachelor¿s Degree in Environmental Sciences at the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). The prepared activity was entitled: Students committed to climate change. Its learning outcomes were to describe what happens to the temperature and CO¿ concerning climate change; explain how global warming is dominated by past and future CO¿ emissions; argue the importance of acting against global warming and cutting greenhouse gas emissions; and to enlighten students about the impact that our daily habits have on the environment. Performing this activity consisted in finding out about SDG 13 and the European CO2MVS initiative to accurately measure the amount of anthropogenic CO¿ emissions, and completing a questionnaire. The results obtained from the questionnaire show that 84% of university students are aware that climate change is happening now and it is caused mainly by human activities. Many students agreed with the following affirmations: a university must have a climate change policy (96%); a university must contribute in its operation to achieve the adaptation strategies to climate change set by the government (92%); a university must educate its students about the causes (100%) and impacts (100%) of climate change; a university should encourage its students to seek solutions to climate change problems (100%). A high percentage of the students (80%) confirmed that they adopt the necessary initiatives to reduce CO¿ as much as possible in their everyday lives. Twenty-four percent of them stated that they could not explain to other students the origin of CO¿ in the atmosphere, and 36% of the students did not have enough arguments to explain why adopting a wide range of technological measures and behavioral changes could limit the rise in the global average temperature to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Finally, the students answered various open questions about how to reduce atmospheric CO¿ levels, individual actions to reduce the carbon footprint, social problems that climate change entails, and how citizens can be made aware of the importance of reducing CO¿. These results show the need to improve climate change knowledge in education. This work has been sponsored by the Vice-Rectorate for Organization of Studies, Quality and Accreditation of the Universitat Poltècnica de València (Valencia, Spain) as part of the UPV¿s Educational Innovation and Improvement Projects (Reference PIME 20-21/224) entitled Moving towards Sustainable Development Goals at the UPV: the poliODS Project.

Semi-arid forests are water limited environments considered as low-productive. As a result, these forests usually end up unmanaged and abandoned, with the subsequent wild fire risk increasing, water yield decreasing and a general diminishing of the forest resilience. Hydrological-oriented silviculture could be a useful alternative that increases management possibilities by combining forest productivity and water yield. However, the slight water yield increase after forest management together with the low forest productivity, could make this option insufficient for semi-arid forests, and other goods and services should be included and quantified. In this sense, the present study analyzes to what extent semi-arid forest management for water yield results effective and profitable at catchment scale, and how does it improve when it is combined with other benefits such as biomass production and fire risk diminishing. To that end, the effects of forest management of semi-arid Aleppo pine post-fire regeneration stands are analyzed in terms of water yield (TETIS-VEG model), fire risk (KDBY index and FARSITE) and biomass production, at catchment scale. Regarding to water yield, the results confirmed the slight effect of forest management on its increase (average increase of 0.27 ± 0.29 mm yr-1), at the same time that highlighted the role of the upper catchment area as an important water contributor. The management produced 4161.6 Mg of biomass, and decreased in 27±17% and 25.6 ± 14.1% the fire risk and fire propagation, respectively. Finally, a simple economic estimation of the management profitability is carried out by means of comparing the Benefit/Cost ratio of the managed and unmanaged scenarios. Both scenarios were always above the unity when just considering water as benefit, although the unmanaged scenario produced a higher ratio, as no management costs are expended. Contrarily, when wildfire was also included into the evaluation, the situation is overturned for wildfires equal or higher than 1.5 day duration, where the forest management is shown as the most convenient alternative.