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Wind characteristics (e.g., mean wind speed, gust factor, turbulence intensity and integral scale, etc.) are quite scattered in different measurement conditions, especially during typhoon and/or hurricane processes, which results in the structural engineer ambiguously determining the wind parameters in wind-resistant design of buildings and structures in cyclone-prone regions. In tropical cyclones (including typhoons and hurricanes), the inconsistent wind characteristics may be in part ascribed to the complex flow structure with the coexistence of both mechanical and convective turbulence in the boundary layer of tropical cyclones. Another significant contribution to the scattered wind characteristics is due to various measurement conditions (e.g., terrain exposure and height) and data processing schemes (e.g., averaging time). The removal of the inconsistency in the field-measurement system may offer a more rational comparison of measured wind data from various observation platforms, and hence facilitates a better identification scheme of the wind characteristics to guide the urban planning design and wind-resistant design of buildings and structures. In this study, an analytical framework was firstly proposed to eliminate the potential observation-related effects in wind characteristics and then the wind characteristics of seven field measured tropical cyclones (four typhoons and three hurricanes) were comparatively investigated. Specifically, field measurements of wind characteristics were converted to a standard reference station with a roughness length of 0.03 m, observation duration of 10 min for mean wind and averaging time of 3 s for gusty wind at a 10 m height. The differences of the measured wind characteristics between the typhoons and hurricanes were highlighted. The standardized turbulent wind characteristics under the analytical framework for typhoons and hurricanes were compared with the corresponding recommendations in standard of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE 7-10) and Architectural Institute of Japan Recommendations for Loads on Buildings (AIJ-RLB-2004).

A new environmental ban has forced the restructure of open dumps in China since 1 July 2011. A technical process was established in this study that is feasible for the upgrade of open dumps through restructuring. The feasibility of restructuring and the benefit of greenhouse gas emission reductions were assessed according to field surveys of five landfills and four dumps in Nanjing. The results showed that the daily processing capacities of the existing landfills have been unable to meet the growth of municipal solid waste (MSW), making restructuring of the landfills imperative. According to an assessment of the technical process, only four sites in Nanjing were suitable for upgrading. Restructuring the Jiaozishan landfill effectively reduced the leachate generation rate by 5.84% under its scale when expanded by 60.7% in 2015. CO2 emissions were reduced by approximately 55,000–86,000 tons per year, in which biogas power generation replaced fossil fuels Fossil fuels accounted for the largest proportion, up to 45,000–60,000 tons. Photovoltaic power generation on the overlying land has not only reduced CO2 emissions to 26,000–30,000 tons per year but has also brought in continuing income from the sale of electricity. The funds are essential for developing countries such as China, which lack long-term financial support for landfill management after closure.

Climate change, environmental degradation, and limited resources are motivations for sustainable forest management. Forests, the most abundant renewable resource on earth, used to make a wide variety of forest-based products for human consumption. To provide a scientific measure of a product’s sustainability and environmental performance, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method is used. This article provides a comprehensive review of environmental performances of forest-based products including traditional building products, emerging (mass-timber) building products and nanomaterials using attributional LCA. Across the supply chain, the product manufacturing life-cycle stage tends to have the largest environmental impacts. However, forest management activities and logistics tend to have the greatest economic impact. In addition, environmental trade-offs exist when regulating emissions as indicated by the latest traditional wood building product LCAs. Interpretation of these LCA results can guide new product development using biomaterials, future (mass) building systems and policy-making on mitigating climate change. Key challenges include handling of uncertainties in the supply chain and complex interactions of environment, material conversion, resource use for product production and quantifying the emissions released.

Changes in the main weather features are becoming perceivable in Italy. In the last years, the average temperature and the intensity of rainstorms are increasing. Such phenomena could lead to changes in the earth-atmosphere interaction. Accounting for the high vulnerability of the Italian territory, an obvious consequence would concern the effects on the hydro-geological hazards, including landslides and floods. As a matter of fact, the higher frequency of high magnitude flood and landslide events represent an alarm bell. It is necessary to explore with all available instruments the consequences of the potential climate changes. Since quantitative predictions are not possible, the only way to run is depicting rational scenarios for the most vulnerable contexts adopting a multidisciplinary approach. Based on projections of potential climate changes in the 21st century, the report examines their potential impact in the context of the Italian peninsula. After a general overview about typical slope responses to weather changes, some quantitative scenarios have been depicted for representative geomorphological contexts. The last part of the paper examines changes in the expected risk, based on the characteristics of the Italian territory and its vulnerability, looking at the initiatives to undertake for its mitigation.

ASHRAE Standard 62-1989 (Standard 62-89) Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality'' is the new heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) industry consensus for ventilation air in commercial buildings. Bonneville Power Administration (Bonneville) references ASHRAE Standard 62-81 (the predecessor to Standard 62-89) in their current environmental documents for required ventilation rates. Through its use, it had become evident to Bonneville that Standard 62-81 needed interpretation. Now that the revised Standard (Standard 62-89) is available, its usefulness needs to be evaluated. Based on current information and public comment, the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) revised Standard 62-1981 to Standard 62-89. Bonneville's study estimated the energy and cost implications of ASHRAE Standard 62-89 using simulations based on DOE-2.1D, a computer simulation program which estimates building use hourly as a function of building characteristics and climatic location. Ten types of prototypical commercial buildings used by Bonneville for load forecasting purposes were examined: Large and Small Office, Large and Small Retail, Restaurant, Warehouse, Hospital, Hotel, School, and Grocery. These building characterizations are based on survey and energy metering data and represent average or typical construction and operation practices and mechanical system types. Prototypical building ventilation rates were varied in five steps to estimate the impacts of outside air on building energy use. 11 refs., 14 tabs.

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Corruption has found very fertile ground in the health sector. Many studies demonstrate the negative relationship between sustainability and corruption. However, relatively little is known at this time about how to prevent corruption in healthcare organizations (HCOs), and thus to recover the important sustainability of the entire healthcare system. After noticing this gap in the literature, the authors’ aim in undertaking this study was twofold: first, to analyze the current state of knowledge about how Italian HCOs adopt corruption prevention plans in compliance with the National Plan issued by the National Anti-Corruption Authority; second, to identify some clusters of HCOs which represent different adoption patterns of corruption prevention interventions and to classify these HCOs. For these purposes, the authors studied 68 HCOs along 13 dimensions that characterized the corruption prevention plans. The empirical results showed that the HCOs were not fully compliant with the anti-corruption legislation. At the same time, the authors identified three clusters of HCOs with different patterns of anti-corruption prevention interventions. The clusters that adopted some specific interventions seemed to be more sustainable than others.

Understanding the system of connections between societal contexts and policy outcomes in municipal governments provides important insights into how community sustainability happens, and why it happens differently in various communities. A growing body of research in recent years has focused on understanding the socio-economic characteristics of communities and cities that are recognized as policy leaders in sustainability. In this paper, we expand the focus beyond the leaders in sustainability as we apply a selection of socio-demographic influences of community sustainability to a large sample of U.S. communities using community classification analytics to identity a range of community types and levels of engagement with sustainability. Our typology presents an integrated and comprehensive perspective on the structure of community sustainability in the United States, highlighting key points of comparison between human capital factors such as population size and density, affluence, home ownership, and adoption of sustainability policy. The analysis provides new insights not only about community leaders in sustainability, but also communities with the civic and social capacity to do more, and the challenges that may inhibit sustainability efforts in others.