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This article demonstrates how a cultural reading of consumption that focuses on the meaning and materiality of domestic indoor microclimates can contribute to conceptual developments in the field of practice theory that refocus attention on cultural patterns, including prevailing norms and prescriptions regarding indoor temperature and thermal comfort. Drawing on evidence collected during a research-led change initiative that encouraged people to reduce energy use in the home by lowering indoor temperature to 18°C, we deploy the heuristic device of “indoor microclimate as artifact” to show how the manifestation of this new artifact initiated significant changes in everyday practices that revolve around heating. We observe that these changes may also spill over into the public sphere – from home to workplace. By making the microclimate a tangible and visible thing, we describe how people appropriate and appreciate this new object of consumption, what it says about different bodies in diverse and bounded spaces, and what the artifact as a commodity reveals about broader systems of heating and energy provision, and associated actors. Due to the increasing spread of central heating and the growing importance of complex technological devices to monitor and control indoor temperature, heating is no longer a practice in and of itself for many urban dwellers in Europe. However, when people appropriate the indoor microclimate, new heating-related practices emerge that can lead to energy sufficiency. We thus argue that by deliberately “materializing” domestic indoor microclimate as part of a change initiative, more sustainable forms of energy use can be made to matter.

A generalized analytical model was developed to determine the optimum inclination angle of flat-plate solar collector for any location worldwide. The developed analytical model was found to be directly related to the latitude φ of the location under consideration, the declination angle δ of the earth axis, and the day hour angle at sunset ωs at any day throughout the year. The optimum inclination angle βopt was expressed by a generalized mathematical model. This model was applied to Amman, Jordan. The results were compared with those calculated by NASA and showed very good agreement.

Abstract Many countries committed themselves in the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Some of these targeted emission reductions could result from a switch from coal-fired to gas-fired electricity generation. The focus in this work lies on Western Europe, with the presence of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS). For the switching to occur, several conditions have to be fulfilled. First, an economical incentive must be present, i.e. a sufficiently high European Union Allowance (EUA) price together with a sufficiently low natural gas price. Second, the physical potential for switching must exist, i.e. at a given load, there must remain enough power plants not running to make switching possible. This paper investigates what possibilities exist for switching coal-fired plants for gas-fired plants, dependent on the load level (the latter condition above). A fixed allowance cost and a variable natural gas price are assumed. The method to address GHG emission reduction potentials is first illustrated in a methodological case. Next, the GHG emission reduction potentials are addressed for several Western European countries together with a relative positioning of their electricity generation. GHG emission reduction potentials are also compared with simulation results. GHG emission reduction potentials tend to be significant. The Netherlands have a very widespread switching zone, so GHG emission reduction is practically independent of electricity generation. Other counties, like Germany, Spain and Italy could reduce GHG emissions significantly by switching. With an allowance cost following the switch level of a 50% efficient gas-fired plant and a 40% efficient coal-fired plant in the summer season (like in 2005), the global GHG emission reduction (in the electricity generating sector) for the eight modeled zones could amount to 19%.

Land use and climate change always induce significant changes in various parameters of the hydrologic cycle (e.g., surface runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration). The Wadi El-Assiuti downstream area in the Eastern Desert of Egypt is one of the most promising areas for development that is suffering from insufficient water availability and inadequate water quality for different purposes. The main goal of this research is to evaluate the changes in groundwater quality, land use, and climate in association with geology and flooding during three periods within the years 1997–2019 in the downstream portion of Wadi El-Assiuti in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, using spatiotemporal variation associated with groundwater hydrochemical analysis and GIS techniques. About 133 groundwater samples were collected to examine groundwater quality changes over time. Different groundwater quality indices were calculated, and the results show that TDS levels of groundwater in the study area ranged between 1080–2780 mg/L, 672–4564 mg/L, and 811–6084 mg/L, while SAR levels varied within 6.15–15.34, 1.83–28.87, and 1.43–30.57 for the years 1997, 2007, and 2019, respectively. Both RSBC and SSP values exhibited significantly increasing trends over time. KR values were within 1.36–4.06 in 1997, 0.58–14.09 in 2007, and 0.35–14.92 in 2019; MAR values were within 6.9–45.2 in 1997, 20.79–71.5 in 2007, and 17.71–75.81 in 2019; and PI values were within 60.16–83 in 1997, 45.56–101.03 in 2007, and 42.51–148.88 in 2019. Across the entire study area, ongoing land use changes increased from 1.1% in 1997 to 4.1% in 2019. Findings pointed to the significant contribution of the deep Nubian Sandstone Aquifer to the groundwater aquifer at Wadi El-Assiuti through fractures and deep faults. Given the climatic conditions from 1997–2019, these changes may have affected water quality in shallow aquifers, especially with increasing evaporation. Realizing the spatiotemporal variation of the aquifer recharge system, land use development, and climate change clearly would help in water resource management. This study revealed that flooding events, deep-seated geologic structures, and land use development associated with human activities have the highest impact on groundwater quality.

AbstractProfessional and scientific networks built around the production of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) led to the collection of phenology data for a wide range of cultivars grown in experimental sites characterized by highly contrasted climatic conditions. We present a dataset of flowering and maturity dates, recorded each year for one tree when available, or the average of several trees for each cultivar, over a period of 37 years (1978–2015). Such a dataset is extremely valuable for characterizing the phenological response to climate change, and the plasticity of the different cultivars’ behaviour under different environmental conditions. In addition, this dataset will support the development of predictive models for sweet cherry phenology exploitable at the continental scale, and will help anticipate breeding strategies in order to maintain and improve sweet cherry production in Europe.

AbstractThe present study investigates three different fuels such as gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and syngas in spark‐ignition Honda GX270 Genset engine under wide‐open throttle position on its performance, combustion characteristic as well as availability analysis. The results showed that when the engine operated with gasoline fuel, the brake thermal efficiency was higher than that of LPG and syngas by 6.2% and 7.4%, respectively, throughout the engine load condition. Brake‐specific fuel consumption of the engine with syngas (660 g/kW h) and LPG fuel (812 g/kW h) was higher than that of the gasoline fuel (510 g/kW h) at the 4.5 kW of engine load. The engine emission results showed syngas operation caused a significant reduction in NOx by 58.4%, CO by 16.5%, HC by 23.2% compared to gasoline fuel at peak load conditions. On the other hand, exergy analysis concludes the exergy efficiency for all the test fuels increases with an increase in engine load due to a high rise in shaft output. At a 4.5 kW power output, the exergy efficiency of the engine was improved to 46.45% from 45.62% and 29.73% with syngas, gasoline, and LPG, respectively. The maximum exhaust gas availability has been observed as 24.51% of availability input for syngas at 100% load condition.

Efforts to protect tropical ecosystems aim at implementing biological corridors across the national territory of Costa Rica. However, potential near-future climate change challenges the effectiveness of such conservation measures. For this purpose, we developed near-future climate change scenarios at high spatial resolution using open-access global data from the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS). These projections resulted from downscaling (to a 1km2 national grid) and quantile-mapping bias-correction of the Essential Climate Variables Global Circulation Model (ECV_GCM) ensemble mean from the CDS using a moderate Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5). Projections were evaluated with limited local station data and applied to generate future ecosystem indicators (Holdridge Life Zones, HLZs). We show significantly increasing temperatures of 2.6°C with a spatial variability of ± 0.4°C for Costa Rica until 2040 with local differences (higher temperatures projected for the southern Costa Rican Caribbean). The future mean annual precipitation showed slightly wetter conditions (120 ± 43 mm/year) and most prominently in the Costa Rican Caribbean and south Pacific, but no significant drying in the north of Costa Rica by 2040. The bias-corrected climate data were aggregated to decadal and 30-year average (1971–2040) life zone ecosystem indicators that could potentially show ecosystem shifts. Changes in the life zones are most likely due to warmer temperatures and to a lesser extent caused by projected wetter conditions. Shifts are more likely to occur at higher elevations with a potential loss of the sub-tropical rainforest ecosystem. The projections support diminishing tropical dry forests and slightly increasing tropical rain and wet forests in the biological corridors of the driest and wettest regions, respectively. A countrywide spatial uniformity of dominating tropical moist forests (increase from 24% to 49%) at the expense of other HLZs was projected by 2040.