• Energy Research
• Restricted close
• Embargo close
• 6. Clean water close
• 4. Education close
• English close

ON 16 NOVEMBER 2000, the final report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) was launched in London, in the presence of South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela. This represented a remarkable milestone in the history of dam policy and politics. During its two-year existence, WCD had conducted the most extensive review of research and evidence regarding the planning, impacts, and management of large dams. It had engaged with numerous stakeholders around the globe. It also made comprehensive recommendations about how to improve dam planning and management.

The Joint Research Center (JRC) has set a series of thresholds to define marginal lands in terms of biophysical constraints. We focus on climate limitation given by the ratio between precipitations and potential evapotranspiration (P/PET). Indeed, the Mediterranean climates are characterized by long drought periods during summer, with low rainfall and high evapotranspiration, what limits plant CO2 assimilation and biomass production, particularly of spring-summer crops. The present study ascertained the potential and actual yield of African fodder cane (Saccharum spontaneum ssp. aegypticum), a perennial, herbaceous, rhizomatous perennial grass, native from North Africa and widespread in South Mediterranean regions. Saccharum was grown under different water regimes (I0 - rainfed, I50 – 50% ETm and I100 – 100% ETm restoration) for six successive growing seasons, namely from the 7th to the 12th. Throughout the experimental period, the dryness index greatly changed among the six growing seasons: three out of the six (2012, 2013 and 2014) were much lower than the threshold of 0.6 set in the JRC report, indicating severe drought seasons, two were quite similar to the threshold value (2015 and 2016), while the 2011, which was the wettest season overall, had a dryness index higher than the threshold. Actual biomass yield was mostly driven by meteorological conditions through the growing seasons. However, even in the driest seasons, Saccharum was able to maintain satisfactory biomass yield and good yield persistence. As compared to the potential yield (I100), the relative yield reduction over the six years was in the range of 31% in the most stress condition (I0), but the energy productivity and the water footprint improved by 62% and 32%, respectively, indicating a higher sustainability of the cropping system when irrigation water was not provided. When the irrigation level was raised to the 50% of the maximum evapotranspiration restoration (ETm), the relative yield, over the six growing seasons, reduced by 16.5%; the energy productivity and the water footprint improved of only 14 and 22%, respectively. This study underlines the importance for strategic selection of crops for a given environmental condition dominated by a specific biophysical constraint and the agronomic practices leading to increase the energy productivity while reducing the pressure on Mediterranean freshwater. Proceedings of the 28th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, 6-9 July 2020, Virtual, pp. 34-40

Rethink the interventions, human practices and their effects on the natural environment, for the preservation of life and biodiversity, threatened by the capitalist model of production, consumption and disposal, becomes each day more indispensable and then the understanding of the environmental crisis is gaining space in all segments of society. This understanding is increasingly founded on theoretical and epistemological assumptions, so that considering the role of universities as knowledge building space and other duties and responsibilities towards society, this authors papers understand fundamental the insertion of the environmental approach (greening) in its various fronts (education, research, extension and management). Following the line of several researches about the subject, as well as from research groups in Brazil and in Portugal to which authors are affiliated, this paper aims to identify how the issue of sustainability is taught in the various UMinho engineering programs. This study is part of a broader research, and thus it is limited to teaching, within the engineering scope of this university. It is, therefore, a case study, carried out by a documental research that aims to identify at the UMinho engineering programs that incorporate sustainability concepts into their curricula and, within these programs, identify the courses that possibly work aspects of sustainability and how they work these, particularly, if they use PBL to do this. Also, it is intended to find out about other activities that work the theme and that somehow subsidize the education for a more complete approach to sustainability through research and extension. The study, thus, provides an overview of the greening of engineering courses UMinho, and highlights those working the theme according to a systemic approach, problematizing, practical and integrative that already it was found in several studies be the most suitable to make professionals focused on sustainability. FCT -Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(UID/CEC/00319/2013) info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Direcció d'Empreses / Master in Management. Codi: SRO011. Curs acadèmic 2016-2017 This thesis is research about social organization toward the path of developing consciousness. The dominant business models are slowly changing and constant changes in the market are forcing radical change in human consciousness. The author tries to analyze social enterprises and understand how and why they had more chances to adopt consciousness behavior. Theoretical framework is helping to understand which are practices and behaviors of consciousness organizations. The research is made of two methods: case study and survey. The survey is helping to answer which are the most important practices in social organization and are they harmonized with consciousness organization acting. La Fageda case study helped to understand more social organizations acting consciously and to get answer of characteristic of social organizations on their way toward consciousness organization.

The perspective of climate change requires an analysis of the adaptation possibilities of species currently cultivated. A powerful tool for adaptation is the relevant intra-specific biodiversity of crops. The knowledge, for different cultivars, of the responses to environmental conditions (e.g. yield response functions to water regime) can be a tool to identify options for adaptation to future climate. Models of crop response to environmental forcing might be used for this purpose, but this approach is severely constrained by the scarce knowledge on variety-specific values of model parameters, thus limiting the evaluation of intra-specific biodiversity towards adaptation. We have developed an approach towards this objective that relies on two complementary elements. A database on climatic requirements of durum wheat varieties: the yield response functions to water availability were determined from scientific literature. These functions were applied to describe the behaviour of the cultivars with respect to the soil water availability; the simulations performed by the agro-hydrological model SWAP (soil-water-plant and atmosphere), to describe the future soil water regime at landscape scale. The case-study presented here shows how the yield response of durum wheat cultivars to soil water availability can be defined by means of variety-specific threshold values of evapotranspiration deficit. The soil water regime calculated by the model is compared with the threshold values to identify varieties compatible with expected climate. The operation is repeated for a set of realizations of each climate scenario. This analysis is performed for three soils. The selected study area is a hilly region of about 40,000 ha in Southern Italy (Fortore Beneventano, Campania Region). Future climate scenarios in the area were generated within the Italian National Project AGROSCENARI. Climate scenarios at low spatial resolution generated with general circulation models (AOGCM) were downscaled by means of a statistical model. The downscaled climate scenario includes 50 realizations of daily minimum, maximum temperature and precipitation data, on a regular grid with a spatial resolution of 35 km, for the 2021-2050 period. The downscaled climate scenario was further refined by using the hydrological model which describes the soil water regime in three soils. Soil water content and evapotranspiration deficit was determined for the 50 realizations of the daily time series, taking into account the three soils, and was compared with threshold values to evaluate cultivar' adaptability to the predicted future climate. The case study shows how, in the future climate scenario, the intra-specific variability will allow to maintain the current crop production system.

Sustainability, social and environmental responsibility become more and more relevant for professional engineering. This is recognized by universities that are doing their best to introduce these issues in the curricula. But this is not a trivial issue and their integration with the existent and news issues must be total. So, a lot of authors, academics, researchers are always concerned with this and are trying different approaches and learning methodologies in order to achieve successfully sustainability integration. This paper presents and explores some of these approaches and perspectives from four different countries: Portugal, Brazil, Canada and Spain. The study is based on the analyses of papers, presentations and debate session results from a previous engineering education conference. In spite of the reduced sample, it was a lived sample that shared personal and team perspectives about the issue through the debate. Also, it is discussed how the participants introduced sustainability, corroborating that this integration could be an achievable outcome and not a utopia. FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(UID/CEC/00319/2013. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The three different future scenarios showed an increase in mean temperature for all months between 0.5-2.4°C and a reduction in precipitation (by 4-7%) for the period 2030-2059 (MPI, KNMI, SMHI). The results of the present work show that climate change will bring a reduction of water resource availability and some alterations in the hydrological regime. The SWAT model, which proved to be a valuable operational tool for evaluating the potential impact of climate change on water resources, estimates a reduction of total water yield and a shift of the flow regime towards drier conditions, although the river type classification will probably remain essentially unvaried. A sever reduction of snowfall in the mountainous part of the basin was also estimated that is expected to impact the flow regime. However, it is important to take into account that several sources of uncertainties, which depend both on the used hydrological models and on the climate change scenarios, affect the predictions of the hydrological response of a river basin under climate change. In addition, some of the assumptions made (i.e. that land use does not change in the future) could be incorrect as climate change could also result in a significant alteration of land cover. Hence, we have to consider projections not as a predictive method, but as a tool that may be used to assess changes in process dynamics.

The primary focus of this task is the prediction of the effect of some stakeholder proposed prevention and mitigation measures as well as the impact of climate change scenarios on coastal aquifers regarding the groundwater flow and fate and the transport of contaminants. To be operational and practical, the calibrated numerical simulator FEFLOW was used to model the flow and solute transport in the four coastal aquifers under study. The modelling approach was based on a spatial discretization of the physical domain of the aquifer in three dimensions. Depending on the type of aquifer being modelled, the observed temporal variation in groundwater flow, the risk of saltwater intrusion, and the availability of flow and transport parameters and data, the appropriate modelling approach was selected. The outcome of the modelling task is integrated in the establishment and application of sustainable governance approaches for the four coastal aquifers. As the numerical modelling approach is an essential part of the multi-criteria Decision Support System (DSS), our modelling approach included climate change scenarios to model the impact of future rainfall data on predicted ground water levels, which may significantly impact both the available groundwater reserves and groundwater quality.

The possible application of membranes for CO2 separation in the treatment of non-valuable streams (e.g., flue gas of a power plant or cement industry) or valuable streams (e.g.,biogas) has been analyzed. Some selection criteria useful in the choice of membrane gas separation for CO2 capture are discussed to evaluate the advantages potentially offered by membrane systems. Membrane selectivity ranging from 30-50 (values of commercial membranes) to 100-500 (values of most promising laboratory membranes) and different feed/permeate pressure ratios were considered for the various cases. The composition and recovery of carbon dioxide in the membrane-treated stream were the target parameters taken into account as guidelines in the evaluation of the separation technology performance. General "maps" of CO2 permeate concentration versus CO2 recovery have been developed by means of a simple tool that takes into account the influence of the most importantp arameters affecting the membrane system performance (that is,membrane selectivity and permeation driving force).The analyses indicated that the separation depends on various interrelated factors: the membrane material (selectivity and flux), the operating conditions (pressure ratio), and the final requirements (CO2 recovery and composition).Also, the operational limit and the potentialities of the membrane gas separation technology were analyzed under these conditions.The "maps" proposed and utilized for CO2 separation are valid and can beutilized for other gas separations in which the membrane shows selectivities similar to those taken into account here.