The impact of climate conditions on the width of annual increments at the maidenhair tree (Ginkgo biloba L.) in urban conditions of Szczecin (NW Poland)

The article analyzes the experience of the impact of the system of forest belts and mineral fertilizers on the yield of spring wheat, including on irrigated lands. Vegetation irrigation is designed to maintain the humidity of the active soil layer from germination to maturation at the lower level of the optimum-70-75%, and in the phases of tubulation-earing - flowering - 75-80% NV. However, due to the large differences in zones and microzones of soil and climate conditions and due to the weather conditions of individual years, wheat irrigation regimes require a clear differentiation. In the Volga region in the dry autumn rainfalls give the norm of 800-1000 m3/ha, and in saline soils – 1000-1300 and 3-4 vegetation irrigation at tillering, phases of booting, earing and grain formation the norm 600-650 m3/ha. the impact of the system of forest belts, mineral fertilizers on the yield of spring wheat is closely tied to the formation of microclimate at different distances from forest edges.

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Impact of Air Infiltration on IAQ and Ventilation Efficiency in Higher Educational Classrooms in Spain

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126875 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6875

Author(s):

Irene Poza-Casado ◽

Raquel Gil-Valverde ◽

Alberto Meiss ◽

Miguel Ángel Padilla-Marcos

Keyword(s):

Natural Ventilation ◽

Well Being ◽

Cold Season ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Air Infiltration ◽

Ventilation Efficiency ◽

Educational Buildings ◽

Set Up ◽

Total Volatile Organic Compounds ◽

The Impact

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in educational buildings is a key element of the students’ well-being and academic performance. Window-opening behavior and air infiltration, generally used as the sole ventilation sources in existing educational buildings, often lead to unhealthy levels of indoor pollutants and energy waste. This paper evaluates the conditions of natural ventilation in classrooms in order to study how climate conditions affect energy waste. For that purpose, the impact of the air infiltration both on the IAQ and on the efficiency of the ventilation was evaluated in two university classrooms with natural ventilation in the Continental area of Spain. The research methodology was based on site sensors to analyze IAQ parameters such as CO2, Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC), Particulate Matter (PM), and other climate parameters for a week during the cold season. Airtightness was then assessed within the classrooms and the close built environment by means of pressurization tests, and infiltration rates were estimated. The obtained results were used to set up a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model to evaluate the age of the local air and the ventilation efficiency value. The results revealed that ventilation cannot rely only on air infiltration, and, therefore, specific controlled ventilation strategies should be implemented to improve IAQ and to avoid excessive energy loss.

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Species distribution modeling reveals the ecological niche of extinct megafauna from South America

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1017/qua.2021.24 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Thaísa Araújo ◽

Helena Machado ◽

Dimila Mothé ◽

Leonardo dos Santos Avilla

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Species Distribution ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Species Distribution Modeling ◽

Human Action ◽

Northeastern Brazil ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Middle Holocene ◽

Distribution Modeling ◽

The Impact

Abstract Climatic and environmental changes, as well as human action, have been cited as potential causes for the extinction of megafauna in South America at the end of the Pleistocene. Among megamammals lineages with Holarctic origin, only horses and proboscideans went extinct in South America during this period. This study aims to understand how the spatial extent of habitats suitable for Equus neogeus and Notiomastodon platensis changed between the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the middle Holocene in order to determine the impact that climatic and environmental changes had on these taxa. We used species distribution modeling to estimate their potential extent on the continent and found that both species occupied arid and semiarid open lands during the LGM, mainly in the Pampean region of Argentina, southern and northeastern Brazil, and parts of the Andes. However, when climate conditions changed from dry and cold during the LGM to humid and warm during the middle Holocene, the areas suitable for these taxa were reduced dramatically. These results support the hypothesis that climatic changes were a driving cause of extinction of these megamammals in South America, although we cannot rule out the impact of human actions or other potential causes for their extinction.

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A Decision-Making Model on the Impact of Vehicle Use on Urban Safety

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13063585 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 3585

Author(s):

Dariusz Masłowski ◽

Małgorzata Dendera-Gruszka ◽

Ewa Kulińska

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Internal Combustion Engines ◽

Urban Traffic ◽

Brake Pads ◽

Wear And Tear ◽

Urban Safety ◽

Negative Impacts ◽

Urban Conditions ◽

Decision Making Model ◽

The Impact

In the current era of urban development, people are already using electric vehicles more and more often for transport purposes, which reduces negative impacts on the environment. However, there are still vehicles in towns and cities that run on ordinary internal combustion engines. Performing optimization measures on the operation of these vehicles improves their performance, which can result in positive sustainable development effects. This article presents measures to reduce the wear and tear of urban vehicles and outlines a decision model to determine which of the vehicle parts described suffer the most frequent wear and tear under urban conditions. The article presents a list of structural elements that are most affected by urban traffic, as well as corrective actions to improve such specialized vehicles. Based on the decision analysis, Rule 1 was eliminated as having the least significant impact on vehicle wear and tear, and the least significant impact on urban safety. On the other hand, the most worn-out elements were found to be gearboxes, clutches, bus levelling electronics, and brake pads and discs. The decision-making model made it possible to identify the factors which have the greatest impact on reducing safety in urban spaces.

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Structural safety and design under climate change

IABSE Congress, New York, New York 2019: The Evolving Metropolis ◽

10.2749/newyork.2019.1129 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Pietro Croce ◽

Paolo Formichi ◽

Filippo Landi

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Structural Reliability ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Extreme Value ◽

Structural Safety ◽

Climate Projections ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Impact Of Climate Change ◽

The Impact

The impact of climate change on climatic actions could significantly affect, in the mid-term future, the design of new structures as well as the reliability of existing ones designed in accordance to the provisions of present and past codes. Indeed, current climatic loads are defined under the assumption of stationary climate conditions but climate is not stationary and the current accelerated rate of changes imposes to consider its effects.Increase of greenhouse gas emissions generally induces a global increase of the average temperature, but at local scale, the consequences of this phenomenon could be much more complex and even apparently not coherent with the global trend of main climatic parameters, like for example, temperature, rainfalls, snowfalls and wind velocity.In the paper, a general methodology is presented, aiming to evaluate the impact of climate change on structural design, as the result of variations of characteristic values of the most relevant climatic actions over time. The proposed procedure is based on the analysis of an ensemble of climate projections provided according a medium and a high greenhouse gas emission scenario. Factor of change for extreme value distribution’s parameters and return values are thus estimated in subsequent time windows providing guidance for adaptation of the current definition of structural loads.The methodology is illustrated together with the outcomes obtained for snow, wind and thermal actions in Italy. Finally, starting from the estimated changes in extreme value parameters, the influence on the long-term structural reliability can be investigated comparing the resulting time dependent reliability with the reference reliability levels adopted in modern Structural codes.

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Enhancement the Solar Still Performance Using Chimney Exhaust Gases

ASME 2021 15th International Conference on Energy Sustainability ◽

10.1115/es2021-63858 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Hamdy Hassan

Keyword(s):

Mathematical Model ◽

Theoretical Study ◽

Saline Water ◽

Kutta Method ◽

Solar Still ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Exhaust Gases ◽

Runge Kutta Method ◽

The Impact ◽

The Mathematical Model

Abstract In this paper, a theoretical study is presented on enhancement of the solar still performance by using the exhaust gases passing inside a chimney under the still basin. The impact of the exhaust gases temperature on the solar still temperature, productivity, and efficiency are considered. The performance of solar still with chimney is compared with that of conventional solar still. The study is carried out under the hot and climate conditions of Upper Egypt. A complete transient mathematical model of the physical model including the solar still regions temperatures, productivity, and heat transfer between the solar still and the exhaust gases are constructed. The mathematical model is solved numerically by using fourth-order Runge-Kutta method and is programmed by using MATLAB. The mathematical model is validated using an experimental work. The results show that the solar still saline water temperature increases and productivity with using and rising the exhaust gases. Furthermore, the impact of using exhaust gases on the still performance in winter is greater than in summer. using chimney exhaust gases at 75 °C and 125 °C enhances the daily freshwater yield of the conventional still by more than three times and about six times in winter, respectively, and about two and half times and more than three times in summer, respectively.

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Bias correction of extreme values of high resolution climate simulations for risk analysis.

10.21203/rs.3.rs-264479/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

luis Augusto sanabria ◽

Xuerong Qin ◽

Jin Li ◽

Robert Peter Cechet

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Bias Correction ◽

Extreme Values ◽

The Body ◽

Future Climate ◽

Return Periods ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Mitigation And Adaptation ◽

Climate Simulations ◽

The Impact

Abstract Most climatic models show that climate change affects natural perils' frequency and severity. Quantifying the impact of future climate conditions on natural hazard is essential for mitigation and adaptation planning. One crucial factor to consider when using climate simulations projections is the inherent systematic differences (bias) of the modelled data compared with observations. This bias can originate from the modelling process, the techniques used for downscaling of results, and the ensembles' intrinsic variability. Analysis of climate simulations has shown that the biases associated with these data types can be significant. Hence, it is often necessary to correct the bias before the data can be reliably used for further analysis. Natural perils are often associated with extreme climatic conditions. Analysing trends in the tail end of distributions are already complicated because noise is much more prominent than that in the mean climate. The bias of the simulations can introduce significant errors in practical applications. In this paper, we present a methodology for bias correction of climate simulated data. The technique corrects the bias in both the body and the tail of the distribution (extreme values). As an illustration, maps of the 50 and 100-year Return Period of climate simulated Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) in Australia are presented and compared against the corresponding observation-based maps. The results show that the algorithm can substantially improve the calculation of simulation-based Return Periods. Forthcoming work will focus on the impact of climate change on these Return Periods considering future climate conditions.

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FOOD SECURITY IN RUSSIA IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Economic and social problems of Russia The digital economy Current state and prospects ◽

10.31249/espr/2021.01.03 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 45-65

Author(s):

Maria Polozhikhina ◽

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Security ◽

Agricultural Production ◽

Global Climate ◽

Point Of View ◽

Crimean Peninsula ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Self Sufficiency ◽

The Impact ◽

The Crimean Peninsula

Climate conditions remain one of the main risk factors for domestic agriculture, and the consequences of global climate change are ambiguous in terms of prospects for agricultural production in Russia. This paper analyzes the impact of climate change on the country’s food security from the point of view of its self-sufficiency in grain primarily. Specific conditions prevailing on the Crimean peninsula are also considered.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Railway Ground-Borne Noise and Vibration Mitigation Methods Using Geosynthetics, Metamaterials and Ground Improvement

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10103753 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (10) ◽

pp. 3753 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Sakdirat Kaewunruen ◽

Victor Martin

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Life Cycle Cost ◽

Ground Improvement ◽

Cycle Performance ◽

Vibration Mitigation ◽

Noise And Vibration ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Extreme Climate ◽

Mitigation Methods ◽

The Impact

Significant increase in the demand for freight and passenger transports by trains pushes the railway authorities and train companies to increase the speed, the axle load and the number of train carriages/wagons. All of these actions increase ground-borne noise and vibrations that negatively affect people who work, stay, or reside nearby the railway lines. In order to mitigate these phenomena, many techniques have been developed and studied but there is a serious lack of life-cycle information regarding such the methods in order to make a well-informed and sustainable decision. The aim of this study is to evaluate the life-cycle performance of mitigation methods that can enhance sustainability and efficacy in the railway industry. The emphasis of this study is placed on new methods for ground-borne noise and vibration mitigation including metamaterials, geosynthetics, and ground improvement. To benchmark all of these methods, identical baseline assumptions and the life-cycle analysis over 50 years have been adopted where relevant. This study also evaluates and highlights the impact of extreme climate conditions on the life-cycle cost of each method. It is found that the anti-resonator method is the most expensive methods compared with the others whilst the use of geogrids (for subgrade stiffening) is relatively reliable when used in combination with ground improvements. The adverse climate has also played a significant role in all of the methods. However, it was found that sustainable methods, which are less sensitive to extreme climate, are associated with the applications of geosynthetic materials such as geogrids, composites, etc.

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Reduced Stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation due to Wind Stress Feedback during Glacial Times

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/2008jcli2291.1 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 21 (23) ◽

pp. 6260-6282 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Olivier Arzel ◽

Matthew H. England ◽

Willem P. Sijp

Keyword(s):

Sea Ice ◽

Wind Stress ◽

Surface Wind ◽

Meridional Overturning Circulation ◽

Nonlinear Dependence ◽

Upper Ocean ◽

Overturning Circulation ◽

Climate Conditions ◽

Meridional Overturning ◽

The Impact

Abstract A previous study by Mikolajewicz suggested that the wind stress feedback stabilizes the Atlantic thermohaline circulation. This result was obtained under modern climate conditions, for which the presence of the massive continental ice sheets characteristic of glacial times is missing. Here a coupled ocean–atmosphere–sea ice model of intermediate complexity, set up in an idealized spherical sector geometry of the Atlantic basin, is used to show that, under glacial climate conditions, wind stress feedback actually reduces the stability of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC). The analysis reveals that the influence of the wind stress feedback on the glacial MOC response to an external source of freshwater applied at high northern latitudes is controlled by the following two distinct processes: 1) the interactions between the wind field and the sea ice export in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), and 2) the northward Ekman transport in the tropics and upward Ekman pumping in the core of the NH subpolar gyre. The former dominates the response of the coupled system; it delays the recovery of the MOC, and in some cases even stabilizes collapsed MOC states achieved during the hosing period. The latter plays a minor role and mitigates the impact of the former process by reducing the upper-ocean freshening in deep-water formation regions. Hence, the wind stress feedback delays the recovery of the glacial MOC, which is the opposite of what occurs under modern climate conditions. Close to the critical transition threshold beyond which the circulation collapses, the glacial MOC appears to be very sensitive to changes in surface wind stress forcing and exhibits, in the aftermath of the freshwater pulse, a nonlinear dependence upon the wind stress feedback magnitude: a complete and irreversible MOC shutdown occurs only for intermediate wind stress feedback magnitudes. This behavior results from the competitive effects of processes 1 and 2 on the midlatitude upper-ocean salinity during the shutdown phase of the MOC. The mechanisms presented here may be relevant to the large meltwater pulses that punctuated the last glacial period.

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