Myriam Lopes
University of Aveiro, Environmental Engineering, Faculty Member
A comunicação tem como objecto a análise da cadeia logística associada ao transporte, armazenagem e distribuição da biomassa florestal (biomassa florestal primária proveniente da fracção biodegradável dos produtos gerados na floresta e... more
A comunicação tem como objecto a análise da cadeia logística associada ao transporte, armazenagem e distribuição da biomassa florestal (biomassa florestal primária proveniente da fracção biodegradável dos produtos gerados na floresta e que é processada para fins energéticos; e, biomassa florestal secundária, isto é, a matéria orgânica residual decorrente da exploração florestal), utilizada como material combustível nas Centrais Termoeléctricas e de Cogeração em Portugal. Um trabalho enquadrado no âmbito do “Projecto Biogair – Impacto da cadeia de valorização energética de biomassa na qualidade do ar e na política climática Portuguesa” (coordenado pelo Departamento de Ambiente e Ordenamento da Universidade de Aveiro), e que visa essencialmente: (i) caracterizar a cadeia de valorização energética de biomassa florestal em Portugal; (ii) analisar as operações logísticas inerentes à cadeia de abastecimento que lhes estão associadas. Neste sentido, analisam-se alguns dos factores que influenciam o processo de transporte (primário – integrante da fase de extracção da madeira –, e secundário – i.e. transporte realizado desde o local de armazenamento até ao terminal ou unidade consumidora), nomeadamente as características da rede de infra-estruturas de transporte (com destaque para a rede rodoviária), e as características físico-geográficas dos locais de origem e destino. A comunicação encontra-se estruturada em duas partes complementares: (i) contextualização dos principais aspectos relacionados com o transporte da biomassa, incluindo os processos de produção da biomassa, o transporte secundário e a conversão em bioenergia; (ii) análise do potencial de produção e recolha de biomassa na área de abastecimento das centrais, com destaque para o caso da Central de Belmonte.
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Data on atmospheric pollutant emissions from tourism activities was identified as a critical knowledge gap. Building an emissions inventory is a standard procedure that most countries perform for regulatory or research purposes. At a... more
Data on atmospheric pollutant emissions from tourism activities was identified as a critical knowledge gap. Building an emissions inventory is a standard procedure that most countries perform for regulatory or research purposes. At a European level, these inventories are developed using the standard Nomenclature for Reporting (NFR sectors). However, none of the NFR are exclusively for tourism or explicitly include it. This paper presents a methodology to estimate the emissions from main touristic activities, focusing on Portugal as a case study. The emissions were distributed using tourism data as a proxy, namely the contribution of tourism to characteristic industries, as well as the nights spent in tourism establishments by non-residents. The proxy data was used to distribute emissions throughout the municipalities, using the national reported emissions data as a starting point. An analysis of the spatial distribution of tourism emissions was performed, highlighting that tourism has a significant impact on atmospheric emissions over specific areas (up to 40.1%), and contributing to areas where air pollution is already an environmental stress factor (urban centres of Porto and Lisbon). While this method-ological framework was developed specifically for Portugal, it may be adapted to assess atmospheric pollutant emissions from tourism activities in other regions. Beyond the methodology proposed and the analysis of the results, other alternative methods to estimate emissions from the tourism sector are discussed and suggested.
Phone/fax numbers: 00 351 234372484 -00 351 234372500; serranogomes@ua.pt Urban dispersion (sprawl) is a reality, however unplanned it may be. Its supporters advocate contact with nature, space and intimacy; however, alleged disadvantages... more
Phone/fax numbers: 00 351 234372484 -00 351 234372500; serranogomes@ua.pt Urban dispersion (sprawl) is a reality, however unplanned it may be. Its supporters advocate contact with nature, space and intimacy; however, alleged disadvantages include land consumption, public infrastructure and mobility costs, and housing prices. The Research Project "Costs and Benefits of Urban Dispersion on a local scale" seeks to contribute to the debate with an objective approach based on the quantification of costs, externalities and benefits of different urban settlement patterns, thus "bringing urban form back to planning". This paper presents one of the Project's tasks, the one concerning mobility costs, both internal and external. Quantified internal costs include investment, inspection, insurance, energy and maintenance; external ones include accident and environmental costs, calculated for road and rail transport. Different methods are combined depending on available da...
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Resumo As alterações climáticas são uma das principais ameaças ao desenvolvimento sustentável. Este efeito global põe em causa não apenas os equilíbrios naturais, mas também a segurança de uma grande parte da população. As principais... more
Resumo As alterações climáticas são uma das principais ameaças ao desenvolvimento sustentável. Este efeito global põe em causa não apenas os equilíbrios naturais, mas também a segurança de uma grande parte da população. As principais causas das ...
parte constituinte 2. O Fuste é a componente da planta que armazena maiores quantidades de carbono, ao qual se segue a copa e posteriormente a raiz. 3. O valor global de stock de C da floresta de Criptoméria no arquipélago dos Açores foi... more
parte constituinte 2. O Fuste é a componente da planta que armazena maiores quantidades de carbono, ao qual se segue a copa e posteriormente a raiz. 3. O valor global de stock de C da floresta de Criptoméria no arquipélago dos Açores foi estimado em 2816 ± 1594 Gg de C para o ano de 2007. 4. O valor médio de sequestro de C das parcelas de inventário foi estimado em 8,36 t C ha -1 ano -1 o que se traduz numa fixação de 30 t CO 2 ha -1 ano -1 . INTRODUÇÃO As florestas influenciam o clima e o processo de alteração climática, absorvendo carbono no lenho, folhas e no solo, e libertando-o para a atmosfera aquando dos incêndios florestais, cortes, doenças ou alterações no uso do solo. As florestas constituem assim um importante instrumento no controlo do fenómeno do aquecimento global, pelo que para o estabelecimento de políticas que visam atingir este objetivo, é essencial que a contribuição destas seja avaliada e conhecida. ÁREA DE ESTUDO Arquipélago dos Açores • Área Total: 2350 Km 2 • ...
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ABSTRACT An urban area of inland Portugal, without severe air pollution problems as yet, was selected for this work, based on the fact that future development could lead to air quality degradation. To evaluate the influence of air... more
ABSTRACT An urban area of inland Portugal, without severe air pollution problems as yet, was selected for this work, based on the fact that future development could lead to air quality degradation. To evaluate the influence of air pollution on 6 to 10 years old asthmatic children, environment and medical parameters were monitored. Children were selected based on the school health questionnaire validated and widely applied by the ISAAC project (International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) and submitted to medical tests at the hospital. At the same time, several field campaigns were realised to characterize the outdoor and indoor air quality of the study area in different seasons (winter and summer time). Measured parameters included meteorological data and ambient air concentrations of ozone (O3), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO2), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX), measured continuously (3 mobile labs) and using diffusive tubes (indoor and outdoor), and also particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), using high volume and low volume samplers. Preliminary results have shown that, although the study area has no air pollution problems as yet, high levels of some pollutants, like particulate matter, could be registered, especially at night. To understand the influence of dispersion conditions on air quality, mesoscale and local scale models were applied and validated with field campaign data. Keywords: air pollution, respiratory diseases, exposure.
ABSTRACT Human exposure to air pollution has been identified as a major problem due to its known impact on human health. Particulate matter is a pollutant which rises special concern due to the adverse health effects on sensitive groups... more
ABSTRACT Human exposure to air pollution has been identified as a major problem due to its known impact on human health. Particulate matter is a pollutant which rises special concern due to the adverse health effects on sensitive groups of the population, such as asthmatic children. This study is part of the SaudAr research project which main objective was to assess the air quality effects on the health of a population group risk (asthmatic school children) living in an urban area (Viseu). The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of road traffic emissions on air quality and consequently, on human exposure. For this purpose, the CFD model VADIS integrating an exposure module has been applied over the town of Viseu, for the periods of one week in winter and one week in summer, to four different situations: the reference year (2006) and three future scenarios for the year 2030, BAU, Green and Grey scenario. The differences among the scenarios include changes on the existing land use, the vehicle fleet composition, the mobility, the vehicle technologies and the fuel types. Field campaigns were performed in order to obtain information about vehicle fleet in the town of Viseu and mobility patterns. The quantification of road traffic emissions and the hourly traffic emissions patterns for all scenarios was carried out by the application of the TREM model. The results reveal an increase in PM10 emissions, concentrations and exposure in all future scenarios, particularly in winter with an increase around 80% in the BAU and Grey scenarios and only 34% in the Green scenario. Keywords: traffic emissions, air quality modelling, human exposure, development scenarios.
ABSTRACT In the last decades, the study of the urban structure impacts on the quality of life and on the environment became a key issue for urban sustainability. Nowadays the relevance of urban planning for the improvement of the... more
ABSTRACT In the last decades, the study of the urban structure impacts on the quality of life and on the environment became a key issue for urban sustainability. Nowadays the relevance of urban planning for the improvement of the interactions between different land uses and economic activities, and also towards a more sustainable urban metabolism, is consensually accepted. A major interest relies on understanding the role of planning on induced mobility patterns and thereafter on air quality, particularly related with the increasing use of private cars. This is one of the main objectives of BRIDGE, a research project funding by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme and focused on \“SustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism”. In this scope, and to evaluate the impact on air quality due to different city planning alternatives (PA), the urban scale air quality modelling system URBAIR was applied to selected areas in Helsinki (Finland), Athens (Greece) and Gliwice (Poland), to estimate traffic related emissions and induced pollutant concentration of different air pollutants, in a hourly basis for the entire year of 2008. For the Helsinki study case the results suggest that urban traffic and building placement considered on the different PA have an influence on local air quality despite no significant concentration levels. In the Athens case study some PA induce a decrease on traffic flows with an improvement of the air quality over the domain. On the contrary, other leads to an increase of PM10 in selected hotspots. The simulations for the Gliwice study case show minor changes between the baseline and the PA, since the proposed interventions do not imply major changes in traffic flows.
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ABSTRACT Urban metabolism components define the energy and material exchanges within a city and, therefore, can provide valuable information on the environmental quality of urban areas. Assessing the potential impact of urban planning... more
ABSTRACT Urban metabolism components define the energy and material exchanges within a city and, therefore, can provide valuable information on the environmental quality of urban areas. Assessing the potential impact of urban planning alternatives on urban metabolism components (such as energy, water, carbon and pollutants fluxes) can provide a quantitative estimation of their sustainability performance. Urban metabolism impact assessment can, therefore, contribute to the identification of sustainable urban structures with regards, for example, to building types, materials and layout, as well as to location and capacity of transportation and infrastructural developments. In this way, it enables the formulation of planning and policy recommendations to promote efficient use of resources and enhance environmental quality in urban areas.The European FP7 project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) has developed a decision-support system (DSS) that systematically integrates urban metabolism components into impact assessment processes with the aim of accurately quantifying the potential effects of proposed planning interventions. The DSS enables integration of multiple spatial and non-spatial datasets (e.g. physical flows of energy and material with variables of social and economic change) in a systematic manner to obtain spatially defined assessment results and to thus inform planners and decision-makers. This multi-criteria approach also enables incorporation of stakeholders' perceptions in order to prioritise decisive assessment criteria. This paper describes the methodological framework used to develop the DSS and critically examines the results of its practical application in five European cities.
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... Information , a , E-mail The Corresponding Author , AM Costa a , JH Amorim a , P. Santos a , J. Sardo a , M. Lopes a and AI Miranda a. ... Several studies were found associated to different barrier configurations and porosity... more
... Information , a , E-mail The Corresponding Author , AM Costa a , JH Amorim a , P. Santos a , J. Sardo a , M. Lopes a and AI Miranda a. ... Several studies were found associated to different barrier configurations and porosity solutions (Cornelis et al., 2000; Brandle and Finch, 1991). ...
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During the past decades, pressures on global environment and energy security have led to an increasing demand on renewable energy sources and diversification of the world's energy supply. The Portuguese energy strategy considers the... more
During the past decades, pressures on global environment and energy security have led to an increasing demand on renewable energy sources and diversification of the world's energy supply. The Portuguese energy strategy considers the use of Forest Biomass Residues (FBR) to energy as being essential to accomplish the goals established in the National Energy Strategy for 2020. However, despite the advantages pointing to FBR to the energy supply chain, few studies have evaluated the potential impacts on air quality. In this context, a case study was selected to estimate the atmospheric emissions of the FBR to the energy supply chain in Portugal. Results revealed that production, harvesting, and energy conversion processes are the main culprits for the biomass energy supply chain emissions (with a contribution higher than 90%), while the transport processes have a minor importance for all the pollutants. Compared with the coal-fired plants, the FBR combustion produces lower greenhous...
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... modelling, numerical simulation of wind flow over complex topography, Environmental ImpactAssessment (EIA), forest fire ... for which an information and an alert, respectively, of bad air quality is sent ... which was measured in a... more
... modelling, numerical simulation of wind flow over complex topography, Environmental ImpactAssessment (EIA), forest fire ... for which an information and an alert, respectively, of bad air quality is sent ... which was measured in a background station with strong industrial influence. ...