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This Excel model encodes the analytical capability required to undertake an application of the adapted National Infrastructure Systems Modelling (NISMOD) capability, which has been developed by the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC) - a UK based research consortium, led by the University of Oxford. Through a partnership between the United Nations Office for Project Service (UNOPS) and the ITRC, an initial national infrastructure assessment for Curaçao, known as Evidence-Based Infrastrastucture Assessment, has been performed. The focus of this model lies on one priority sector for the SIDS Curaçao: 'Waste Management'.

Digital Annex for the following thesis: Vila-Viçosa, C. (2023). Natural History, Biogeography and Evolution of the Iberian white oak syngameon (Quercus L. Sect. Quercus). Ph.D. Thesis, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal Abstract: The genus Quercus L. is one of the most diverse and important group of woody plants, particularly when considering that they are the trees that rule the Northern Hemisphere forests. Oaks have an intricate Biogeography that criss-crosses diverse climatic and edaphic gradients, encompassing a huge ambiguity in terms of species delimitation. Frequently, the taxonomic proposals brought by traditional Linnaean Botany are either insufficient or rather inflate the number of species and nomenclatural assignments, which are further diluted into inconsistent taxonomic ranks, varying from species to subspecies and varieties. The supremacy given to morphological characters that are inherently fragile and plastic, spread across the distribution areas of distinct lineages, may carry ambiguity on the identification and proper species delimitation. From the oaks that are distributed across the Western Palearctic region, the ones that are deciduous or brevi-deciduous present higher levels of ambiguity in terms of species number and their delimitation. This ambiguity is particularly strong in the circummediterranean region and in the transitional areas between the two major biogeographic Regions of the western Palearctic region, the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean. This degree of uncertainty, which increases towards the Southern European Peninsulas, is amplified by the ease that the different species of oaks tend to hybridize among them. The present work provides a holistic framework that covers multiple areas, from the taxonomic and evolutive study of this genus, to biogeography and molecular characterization. Its major objective was to resolve the species delimitation of the Iberian deciduous and marcescent oaks and putative introgression among them, enhancing the available knowledge about species diversity, which can foster suitable species and forest conservation. A specific objective was to cross-reference the natural history revision and the different taxonomic treatments brought by distinct authors, with personal observations. These data were then incorporated into ecological modelling and molecular characterization, which in the end fed a newly updated taxonomic proposal. In Section A we obtained results from extensive field, herbaria, and literature review, updating the nomenclature of the Portuguese and western Mediterranean oaks. Section B was supported by Section A’s in-depth review and enabled finer species distribution models, nurturing both hindcast (since ca. 20 Kyr) and forecast (2070-2100) exercises of the range dynamics of Mediterranean oaks species. The study of past and future range shifts solved important pending biogeographic questions, especially related to past range-shifts. Such past-range shifts improved our knowledge on species responses to climate dynamics and allowed a better anticipation of future responses of range shifts driven by climate change. Section C encompassed the molecular characterization of Iberian white oak species and their hybrids, whose delimitation is often faltering when one intends to infer about species rank, or hypothesize about the participation of parent taxon in natural hybrid swarms. This work allowed us to solve the phylogenetic backbone of western Palearctic white oaks, suggesting a significant segregation of the Iberian pedunculate oaks and unveiling two subsections inside Section Quercus. These subsections are biogeographically well-segregated and present diverse levels of introgression among species. Results demonstrated the efficiency of RADSeq for rebuilding the reticulate phylogeny of the Eurasian white oaks, showcasing the significance of the Iberian Peninsula as a major hotspot for oak diversity. We implemented a circular approach to these methods, which retro-fed themselves in terms of insight generation, enabling a powerful strategy to solve the evolutionary history of this difficult groups of plants. We estimate that the reticulate historical biogeography of the western Palearctic white oaks deserves further scrutiny by adding vicariant oak populations from northern Africa, the Near East and southern European Peninsulas. Methods should again follow this similar additive and sequential process of adjoining deep Natural History examination, with extensive fieldwork in type populations and genome-wide molecular surveys, in order to solve this group of plants. With the present work, we were able to significantly improve on the depiction of the basic unit of Biodiversity (the Species), in the complex Quercus genus. We provided tools to enable further efforts for the conservation of the Mediterranean oak forests, which overwhelm one of the most important (and one of the most threatened) Biomes for plant conservation at the global scale.

Research Data Table 1 is a table of the georreferenced historical (literature-based) and species surveys occurrence points for Ctenomys magellanicus (Rodentia, Caviomorpha). These points are the raw data for the analyses performed in this work. Research Data Table 2 is the result of fitting 120 models (EDM) with different features combination.

<h3>Project Overview</h3> <p>Jurisdictional boundaries of governmental agencies often do not align with the geographic or social boundaries of the policy issues they are tasked with addressing. This spatial mismatch is especially common in relation to natural resources and the environment. Where it occurs, achievement of policy goals may require coordination across jurisdictions, which can lead to mutual benefits. Yet, governmental agencies may view coordination as costly or as leading to a loss of autonomy. This project examined coordination decisions made by local level governmental agencies in California, as they formed Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) and subsequently coordinated development of their first groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) under California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The project addresses the question of how agencies make decisions and manage interactions when under a coordination mandate that allots agencies the discretion to decide how to coordinate. More specifically, it investigates:<ol><li>What factors influence decisions regarding the geographic extent of and parties involved in development of new formal agencies for groundwater management,</li><li>How do concerns about the potential risks of coordination affect the choice of coordination mechanisms,</li><li>How does the structure of agency interactions affect their achievement of the objectives of the coordination mandate, and</li><li>How do agencies make sense of a coordination mandate and how does that sense-making process influence the decisions agencies make when deciding how to respond to the mandate?</li></ol></p> <h3>Data Collection Overview</h3> <p>Data were collected between January 2018 and May 2020. The methods for data collection varied by data type.<ul><li>Secondary data on the physical, social, and institutional characteristics of groundwater basins were collected from California Department of Water Resources datasets, the American Community Survey, and the National Land Use Database.</li><li>Data on GSA formation and copies of GSPs and Coordination Agreements were obtained from the California’s SGMA Portal Website (https://sgma.water.ca.gov/portal/)</li><li>Meeting minutes and other documentation were obtained from the respective websites of local-level agencies that formed GSAs.</li><li>Interviews were conducted with representatives from 67 groundwater sustainability agencies. Interviewees spanned 17 of the 19 basins and 38 of the 44 groundwater sustainability plans produced. Interviewees were identified based on formal GSA contact information and selected based on formal notices to produce a GSP. Recruitment sought to interview representatives from least one GSA from each GSP group.</li><li>Participant observation was undertaken of more than 58 public meetings (in person, virtually, or reviewing recordings).</li></ul></p> <h3>Shared Data Organization</h3> <p>The shared data is organized into three folders. A GIS folder contains 16 relevant data files. An interview transcripts folder contains 52 de-identified transcripts from the interviews that were recorded and transcribed. Some interviewees did not agree to recording and transcription of the interviews, thus data from those interviews are not available. A tabular data folder contains 3 spreadsheet workbooks. These include a spreadsheet documenting coordination concerns at the basin-level; a spreadsheet documenting organizational forms and institutions adopted at the basin-level; and a spreadsheet documenting coordination outcomes at the basin-level. Each spreadsheet includes a copy of the codebook used in analyzing the data. This data project also includes 6 documentation files: a GIS metadata workbook, an interview catalog, an interview consent form, a redaction protocol, this data narrative, and an administrative README file.</p> <h3>Data Overview</h3> <p>The research involved a mixed-methods approach that combines information on agencies; the physical, social, and institutional characteristics of groundwater basins and the agencies located within them; formal filings; agreements; and plans developed by agencies; meeting minutes; interview data; and data from participant observation.</p>

Abstract With drastic fossil fuel depletion and environmental deterioration concerns, a move towards a more sustainable bioenergy-based economy is essential. Lately, the application of microwave (MW) irradiation for waste processing has been attracting interest globally. MW-assisted heating possesses several advantages such as the provision of high microwave energy into dielectric materials with deeper penetration for internal heat generation, showing beneficial features in improving the heating rate and reducing the reaction time. Consequently, the most recent literature regarding the applications of MW-assisted heating for biomass pretreatment as well as biofuel and bioenergy production was reviewed and consolidated in this study. An impressive increase in the product yield and improvement of the product properties are reported, with the use of MW-assisted heating in several conversion routes to produce biofuels. Despite being a promising technology for biofuel production, some major fundamental data of MW-assisted heating have not been comprehensively identified. Therefore, the feasibility of this technology for large-scale implementation is still subpar. Understanding the interaction between the feedstock and the microwave electromagnetic field, and the optimization of several operational and mechanical parameters are the two main keystones that would propel the industrialization of MW heating in the near future. This provides key insights leading to increased feasibility and more advanced application of MW heating.

Abstract In this article, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of sustainable consumption practices. Whereas previous studies have used self-reported attitudes and behaviour, this study uses data on actual energy consumption for space-heating and hot water combined with extensive panel data from Danish administrative registers. The paper shows significant intergenerational correlations between the energy consumption patterns of adults and their mothers, also when controlling for the energy consumption of the mother-in-law, where possible. Furthermore, it shows that the intergenerational correlation is slightly stronger for adults with lower income levels. These results suggest that energy consumption practices are shared and reproduced within the family. Following theories of practice, the intergenerational similarities in energy consumption practices refer to bodily learned practices that are indirectly transmitted and negotiated through family relations. In this way, these findings also contribute to a better understanding of how practical understanding regarding how to perform practices is transmitted within more ordinary aspects of consumption that play a less obvious role in distinction. To ensure more sustainable consumption practices in the future, this paper points to the importance of the role of family relations and the transmission of embodied practices.

The world, society and education are constantly evolving, and to respond to these changes, the main governmental institutions have been proposing different global strategies to focus efforts in the same direction. Currently, the United Nations and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have presented a series of indicators that could help to minimise the environmental, economic and social instability we are experiencing. In this sense, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has been described as a fundamental factor. Specifically, in previous work, we argued that physical education (PE) could be a good tool to contribute to SDGs. Based on this, no research analysing the voices of Physical Education Teachers (PET) on how this contribution could be made has been identified in previous literature. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: (1) to analyse the voices and opinions of active PETs in terms of the knowledge they have about Sustainable Development (SD); (2) to determine their opinions about the contribution that PE could make to SDGs; and finally, (3) to identify the challenges and limitations of pedagogical action of SD in PE. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis through a semi-structured interview with 41 active PETs was carried out. The main findings will be presented and discussed around four themes: (a) agreement on the concept of sustainability; (b) PE can contribute to the achievement of SDGs; (c) ambiguity in applying SDGs to PE lessons; and (d) teachers’ constraints on how to implement SDGs in PE. It seems to indicate that PETs do not have a multidimensional vision of sustainable development. While they recognise the potential of PE to contribute to SDGs through awareness raising and student learning, they point to its pedagogical and formative constraints as the main barriers to being able to contribute. They pointed to a lack of knowledge on how to do so, guidelines on how to integrate ESD, lack of involvement, shortage of time or resources in school physical education.

Ethylene oxide production process is one of the highest energy consumers in chemical industry, and therefore even a slight improvement in its overall efficiency can have a significant impact on the sustainability of the process. Efficiency improvement can be carried out using the exergy-aided pinch analysis outlined in this paper. The overall exergy loss distribution in different unit operations of an ethylene oxide process was first evaluated and mapped out in the form of “visualized exergetic process flowsheet”. An initial analysis of the four main functional blocks of the process showed that the exothermic reaction block contained the largest exergy loss (6043 and 428 kJ/kg of internal and external losses, respectively) which can be reduced by isothermal mixing, as well as increasing reaction temperature and reduction in pressure drop. The absorption block was also estimated to have the second highest contribution with total exergy losses of 3640 kJ/kg which were mainly due to the cooling column. These losses were then recommended to be reduced by improvements in the concentration and temperature gradients along the tower. Following the block-wise analysis, exergy analysis was then carried out for individual unit operations in each block to pinpoint the main sources of thermal exergetic inefficiency. Thermal solutions to reduce losses were also proposed in accordance with the identified sources of inefficiency, leading to a comprehensive list of cold and hot process streams that could be introduced to reduce losses. Finally, pinch analysis was brought into action to estimate the minimum energy requirements, to select utilities, and to design heat exchanger network. Thus, the methodology used in this work took advantage of both exergy and pinch analyses. The combined thermal-exergy-based pinch approach helped to set energy targets so that all the thermal possible solutions supported by exergy analysis were considered, preventing exclusion of any hot or cold process stream with high potential for heat integration during pinch analysis. Results indicated that the minimum cold utility requirement could be reduced from 601.64 MW (obtained via conventional pinch analysis) to 577.82 MW through screening of streams by the combined methodology.