The environmental impact of fast shipping ecommerce in inbound logistics operations: A case study in Mexico

Container terminals are the main hubs of the global supply chain but, conversely, they play an important role in energy consumption, environmental pollution and even climate change due to carbon emissions. Assessing the environmental impact of this type of port terminal and choosing appropriate mitigation measures is essential to pursue the goals related to a clean environment and ensuring a good quality of life of the inhabitants of port cities. In this paper the authors present a Terminal Decision Support Tool (TDST) for the development of a container terminal that considers both operation efficiency and environmental impacts. The TDST provides environmental impact mitigation measures based on different levels of evolution of the port’s container traffic. An application of the TDST is conducted on the Port of Augusta (Italy), a port that is planning infrastructural interventions in coming years in order to gain a new role as a reference point for container traffic in the Mediterranean.

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Construction of All-Wood Trusses with Plywood Nodes and Wooden Pegs: A Strategy towards Resource-Efficient Timber Construction

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11062568 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 2568

Author(s):

Benjamin Kromoser ◽

Matthias Braun ◽

Maximilian Ortner

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Parametric Design ◽

Gusset Plates ◽

Research Areas ◽

Timber Construction ◽

First Results ◽

Building Components ◽

Numerical Optimisation ◽

Special Case

Timber truss systems are very efficient load-bearing structures. They allow for great freedom in design and are characterised by high material use in combination with a low environmental impact. Unfortunately, the extensive effort in design and production have made the manufacturing and application of these structures, in this day and age, a rarity. In addition, the currently mainly used steel gusset plates adversely affect the costs and environmental impact of the trusses. The authors’ goals are to optimise the design of timber trusses and to solely use wood for all building components. The two research areas, (1) optimisation of the truss geometry and (2) optimisation of the joints by using solely wood–wood connections, are addressed in this paper. The numerical optimisation strategy is based on a parametric design of the truss and the use of a genetic solver for the optimisation regarding minimal material consumption. Furthermore, first results of the tensile and compression behaviour of the chosen wood–wood connections are presented. The basic idea for the joints is to use a plywood plate as a connector, which is inserted into the truss members and fixed with wooden pegs. The housing of the new robot laboratory located at BOKU Vienna is considered a special case study for the research and serves as an accompanying example for the application of the research within the present paper.

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Environmental impact of fuel stations on some heavy metal concentrations in nearby surface crust soils in urban areas: A case study of soil heavy metal contamination

IOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering ◽

10.1088/1757-899x/745/1/012164 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 745 ◽

pp. 012164 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ahmed M. Hussein ◽

Hussein Talab Nhabih ◽

Dhiaa Neama Jabbar

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metal ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Metal Contamination ◽

Heavy Metal Contamination ◽

Metal Concentrations ◽

Heavy Metal Concentrations ◽

Soil Heavy Metal ◽

Surface Crust

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Manufacturing Pre-Decisions: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Reviews in Brazil and Portugal

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11123235 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (12) ◽

pp. 3235 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Caroline Fan Rocha ◽

Tomás B. Ramos ◽

Alberto Fonseca

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Review Process ◽

Participant Observation ◽

Case Study Methodology ◽

Environmental Impact Statements ◽

Multiple Case ◽

Study Methodology ◽

Environment Agency ◽

Review Reports

The review of environmental impact statements (EIS), despite its relevance to impact assessment effectiveness, has received scarce scholarly attention. Few studies have gone beyond the realm of regulatory evaluations to understand the managerial meanders of the review process. This study evaluated the responsibilities, procedures, information inputs, and scope of EIS reviews within two environmental authorities: APA (Portuguese Environment Agency), in Portugal, and SEMAD (State Secretariat for Environment and Sustainable Development), in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Based on a qualitative multiple-case study methodology informed by participant observation, unstructured interviews, and content analysis of 12 EIS review reports, the study provided what is arguably one of the most detailed characterizations of EIS review to date. While following similar institutional arrangements and broad procedural steps, the EIS review has important differences in APA and SEMAD. Overall, the Portuguese agency was found to have a more structured, participative, interdisciplinary, detailed, and grounded review, thus meeting some of the good practices often cited in the literature. The EIS review reports prepared by APA reviewers were also found to provide a profoundly more complete and transparent account of the review process. The details of the review process revealed in the article can affect perceptions around the legitimacy and reliability of reviewers’ recommendations.

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