Using constructed soils for green infrastructure – challenges and limitations

Abstract. With the rise in urban population comes a demand for solutions to offset environmental problems caused by urbanization. Green infrastructure (GI) refers to engineered features that provide multiecological functions in urban spaces. Soils are a fundamental component of GI, playing key roles in supporting plant growth, infiltration, and biological activities that contribute to the maintenance of air and water quality. However, urban soils are often physically, chemically, or biologically unsuitable for use in GI features. Constructed Technosols (CTs), consisting of mixtures of organic and mineral waste, are man-made soils designed to meet specific requirements and have great potential for use in GI. This review covers (1) current methods to create CTs adapted for various GI designs and (2) published examples in which CTs have been used in GI. We address the main steps for building CTs, the materials and which formulae should be used to design functional CTs, and the technical constraints of using CTs for applications in parks and square lawns, tree-lined streets, green buffer for storm water management, urban farming, and reclaimed derelict land. The analysis suggests that the composition and structure of CTs should and can be adapted to available wastes and by-products and to future land use and environmental conditions. CTs have a high potential to provide multiple soil functions in diverse situations and to contribute to greening efforts in cities (and beyond) across the world.

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Constructed Technosols are key to the sustainable development of urban green infrastructure

10.5194/soil-2019-85 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Maha Deeb ◽

Peter M. Groffman ◽

Manuel Blouin ◽

Sara Perl Egendorf ◽

Alan Vergnes ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Stormwater Management ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Urban Spaces ◽

Soil Functions ◽

Ecological Functions ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Composition And Structure ◽

The World ◽

By Products

Abstract. With the rise in urban population comes a demand for solutions to offset environmental problems caused by urbanization. Green infrastructure (GI) refers to engineered features that provide multi-ecological functions in urban spaces. Soils are a fundamental component of GI, playing key roles in supporting plant growth, infiltration, and biological activities that contribute to maintenance of air and water quality. However, urban soils are often physically, chemically or biologically unsuitable for use in GI features. Constructed Technosols (CT), consisting of mixtures of organic and mineral waste, are man-made soils designed to meet specific requirements and have great potential for use in GI. This review covers (1) current methods to create CT adapted for various GI designs and (2) published examples where CT have been used in GI. We address the main steps for building CT, the materials and which formulae that should be used to design functional CT, and the technical constraints to using CT for applications in parks, streetside trees, stormwater management, urban farming, and abandoned land. The analysis suggests that the composition and structure of CT should and can be adapted to available wastes and by-products and to future land use and environmental conditions. CT have a high potential to provide multiple soil functions in diverse situations and to contribute to greening efforts in cities (and beyond) across the world.

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Beyond Beauty or Urban Design of Responsibility

Czasopismo Techniczne ◽

10.37705/techtrans/e2021020 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Thorsten Bürklin ◽

Michael Peterek

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Urban Planning ◽

Urban Design ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Living Conditions ◽

Urban Spaces ◽

The World ◽

Resource Economy ◽

Land Water

In recent years, urban spaces all over the world have been effectively staged, sometimes all too obviously, and urban design has often concentrated on the implementation of "beautiful" lighthouse projects and globally oriented lifestyle urbanism. However, beauty – also in the broader sense of a beautiful experience – cannot be an end in itself in urban planning. An urban design of responsibility has to be committed to all residents and address the pressing challenges of our time, for example: the almost unlimited consumption of land, water and energy; floods and heatwaves due to climate change; lack of decent living conditions for large parts of the population. Against this background, five strategic guidelines for the integrated and responsible planning of our cities have been developed. These include "comprehensive" and integrated neighbourhoods, a mobility turnaround, interconnected blue and green infrastructure, a circular resource economy and space sharing, and the exploitation of the opportunities of digitalisation for a social and ecological city.

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Phytoremediation: Nature based solution for contaminated urban soils

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-828 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Zorana Hrkic Ilic ◽

Marijana Kapovic Solomun ◽

Nada Sumatic

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Urban Environment ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Tree Species ◽

Urban Population ◽

Urban Soils ◽

Community Gardens ◽

Urban Green ◽

Green Areas ◽

Urban Green Infrastructure

Abstract: Rapid growth of urban population and consequential increasing traffic, construction of buildings, roads, industrial areas, affects urban soils as well as urban environment in general. Urban soils differ from the natural soils by their disturbed structure resulting from waste disposal, construction sites, pollution from atmospheric deposition, traffic and industrial activities. Mismanagement of urban environment can cause severe contamination of green areas in cities, with serious health risk for urban population. To prevail those issues and improve the sustainability of urban green areas, innovative and nature based solutions (NBS) should gain more attention, particularly those easily applied such as tree-based phytoremediation. Unlike traditional remediation techniques that are expensive, very demanding and can cause secondary pollution, tree-based phytoremediation is NBS with wide spectrum of application. It is low-cost technique, based on urban green infrastructure (parks, alleys, community gardens) and has numerous benefits reflected throught sustainable management of urban soils and improvement of general environmental, health, social and economic conditions for urban population. Primarly, urban green infrastructure consist of different tree species capable to mitigate soil contamination, especially contamination with toxic heavy metals (HMs). Regeneration of urban ecosystems based on the role of tree species is connected to ability of trees to retain, uptake and decompose pollutants (including HMs) from contaminated urban soils, enabling their re-use process and turning them into green and environmental friendly areas. Taking into account advantages of phytoremediation technique, the aim of this paper is to present concentration of some HMs (cadmium, lead and zinc) in urban soils of cities accross Bosnia and Herzegovina and look into phytoremediation potential of common urban tree species: horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum L.) and planetree (Platanus &#215; acerifolia (Aiton) Willd.). Results showed high phytoremediation potential of above mentioned tree species, which opens space for further research and introduction of this NBS for remediation of many severely polluted urban soils, drawing attention to better-understood urban sustainability and importance of application of phytoremediation as NBS on local level.Key words: nature-based solutions, phytoremediation, urban soil, trees, heavy metals

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Potential Triazole-based Molecules for the Treatment of Neglected Diseases

Current Medicinal Chemistry ◽

10.2174/0929867324666170727103901 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 26 (23) ◽

pp. 4403-4434 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Susimaire Pedersoli Mantoani ◽

Peterson de Andrade ◽

Talita Perez Cantuaria Chierrito ◽

Andreza Silva Figueredo ◽

Ivone Carvalho

Keyword(s):

Effective Treatment ◽

Chagas Disease ◽

Medicinal Chemistry ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Neglected Diseases ◽

Triazole Derivatives ◽

Wide Range ◽

The World ◽

Great Relevance ◽

The Moment

Neglected Diseases (NDs) affect million of people, especially the poorest population around the world. Several efforts to an effective treatment have proved insufficient at the moment. In this context, triazole derivatives have shown great relevance in medicinal chemistry due to a wide range of biological activities. This review aims to describe some of the most relevant and recent research focused on 1,2,3- and 1,2,4-triazolebased molecules targeting four expressive NDs: Chagas disease, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Leishmaniasis.

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Regioselective Synthesis of Potent 4,5,6,7-Tetrahydroindazole Derivatives via Microwave-assisted Vilsmeier-Haack Reaction and their Antioxidant Activity Evaluation

Letters in Organic Chemistry ◽

10.2174/1570178615666180919120329 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 194-201 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Renu Bala ◽

Vandana Devi ◽

Pratibha Singh ◽

Navjot Kaur ◽

Pawandeep Kaur ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Antioxidant Activity ◽

Microwave Irradiation ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Conventional Heating ◽

High Chemical ◽

Microwave Assisted ◽

Work Up ◽

Active Methylene ◽

By Products

Background: Tetrahydroindazole, a member of the fused-pyrazole system, is a least studied class of heterocyclic compounds owing to its scarcity in nature. However, a large number of synthetically prepared tetrahydroindazoles are known to show a variety of biological activities such as interleukin- 2 inducible T-Cell kinase inhibitors, AMPA receptor positive allosteric modulators, antitumor, antituberculosis, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activities. Vilsmeier-Haack reaction is one of the most important chemical reactions used for formylation of electron rich arenes. Even though Vilsmeier- Haack reaction was studied on a wide variety of hydrazones derived from active methylene compounds, literature lacks the examples of the use of 4-substituted cyclohexanones as a substrate for the synthesis of 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindazoles. The study of the reaction of Vilsmeier-Haack reagent with hydrazones derived from cyclic keto compounds having active methylene has been considered the interested topic of investigation. In the present study, ethyl cyclohexanone-4-carboxylate was treated with one equivalent of various hydrazines for two hours and the resulted hydrazones were further treated with an OPC-VH reagent (Vilsmeier-Haack reagent isolated from phthaloyl dichloride and N,Ndimethylformamide) afforded 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindazoles in excellent yields. The synthesized compounds 4a-f and 5a-f were screened for their antioxidant activities using the DPPH radical scavenging assay. The target compounds were synthesized regioselectively using 4+1 approach in excellent yields. A number of experiments using both conventional heating as well as microwave irradiation methods were tried and on comparison, microwave irradiation method was found excellent in terms of easy work up, high chemical yields, shortened reaction times, clean and, no by-products formation. Some of the synthesized compounds showed significant antioxidant activity. The microwave assisted synthesis of 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindazoles from ethyl cyclohexanone-4-carboxylate has been reported under mild conditions in excellent yield. Easy work up, high chemical yield, shortened reaction times, clean and no by-products formation are the major advantages of this protocol. These advantages may make this method useful for chemists who are interested in developing novel 4,5,6,7-tetrahydroindazole based drugs.

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Extraction of Phenolic Compounds and Terpenes from Cannabis sativa L. By-Products: From Conventional to Intensified Processes

Antioxidants ◽

10.3390/antiox10060942 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 942

Author(s):

Emilie Isidore ◽

Hamza Karim ◽

Irina Ioannou

Keyword(s):

Phenolic Compounds ◽

Cannabis Sativa ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Operating Conditions ◽

Extraction Techniques ◽

Ultrasound Assisted Extraction ◽

Assisted Extraction ◽

Whole Plant ◽

Conventional Solvent Extraction ◽

By Products

Cannabis sativa L. is a controversial crop due to its high tetrahydrocannabinol content varieties; however, the hemp varieties get an increased interest. This paper describes (i) the main categories of phenolic compounds (flavonoids, stilbenoids and lignans) and terpenes (monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes) from C. sativa by-products and their biological activities and (ii) the main extraction techniques for their recovery. It includes not only common techniques such as conventional solvent extraction, and hydrodistillation, but also intensification and emerging techniques such as ultrasound-assisted extraction or supercritical CO2 extraction. The effect of the operating conditions on the yield and composition of these categories of phenolic compounds and terpenes was discussed. A thorough investigation of innovative extraction techniques is indeed crucial for the extraction of phenolic compounds and terpenes from cannabis toward a sustainable industrial valorization of the whole plant.

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Toward A Framework for Assessing the Fair Distribution of Space in Urban Streets

Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board ◽

10.1177/0361198121995196 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 036119812199519

Author(s):

Gabriel Lefebvre-Ropars ◽

Catherine Morency ◽

Paula Negron-Poblete

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Supply And Demand ◽

Active Transportation ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Urban Context ◽

Urban Streets ◽

Street Space ◽

The World ◽

Fair Distribution ◽

The City

The increasing popularity of street redesigns highlights the intense competition for street space between their different users. More and more cities around the world mention in their planning documents their intention to rebalance streets in favor of active transportation, transit, and green infrastructure. However, few efforts have managed to formalize quantifiable measurements of the balance between the different users and usages of the street. This paper proposes a method to assess the balance between the three fundamental dimensions of the street—the link, the place, and the environment—as well as a method to assess the adequation between supply and demand for the link dimension at the corridor level. A series of open and government georeferenced datasets were integrated to determine the detailed allocation of street space for 11 boroughs of the city of Montréal, Canada. Travel survey data from the 2013 Origine-Destination survey was used to model different demand profiles on these streets. The three dimensions of the street were found to be most unbalanced in the central boroughs of the city, which are also the most dense and touristic neighborhoods. A discrepancy between supply and demand for transit users and cyclists was also observed across the study area. This highlights the potential of using a distributive justice framework to approach the question of the fair distribution of street space in an urban context.

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Playful mobilities in the Global South: A study of Pokémon Go play in Rio de Janeiro and Nairobi

New Media & Society ◽

10.1177/14614448211016400 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146144482110164

Author(s):

Adriana de Souza e Silva ◽

Ragan Glover-Rijkse ◽

Anne Njathi ◽

Daniela de Cunto Bueno

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Rio De Janeiro ◽

Global South ◽

Urban Spaces ◽

Urban Mobility ◽

Ordinary Life ◽

Perceptions Of Risk ◽

The Social ◽

The World ◽

Pokémon Go

Pokémon Go is the most popular location-based game worldwide. As a location-based game, Pokémon Go’s gameplay is connected to networked urban mobility. However, urban mobility differs significantly around the world. Large metropoles in South America and Africa, for example, experience ingrained social, cultural, and economic inequalities. With this in mind, we interviewed Pokémon Go players in two Global South cities, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Nairobi (Kenya), to understand how players navigate urban spaces not only based on gameplay but with broader concerns for safety. Our findings reveal that players negotiate their urban mobilities based on perceptions of risk and safety, choosing how to move around and avoiding areas known for violence and theft. These findings are relevant for understanding the social and political aspects of networked urban spaces as well as for investigating games as venues through which we can understand ordinary life, racial, gender, and socioeconomic inequalities.

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Monoterpenes and Sesquiterpenes of Essential Oils from Psidium Species and Their Biological Properties

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26040965 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (4) ◽

pp. 965

Author(s):

Renan Campos e Silva ◽

Jamile S. da Costa ◽

Raphael O. de Figueiredo ◽

William N. Setzer ◽

Joyce Kelly R. da Silva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Essential Oils ◽

Biological Activities ◽

Biological Properties ◽

Chemical Diversity ◽

New Drugs ◽

Natural Sources ◽

Biological Potential ◽

The World ◽

Review Reports ◽

Collection Sites

Psidium (Myrtaceae) comprises approximately 266 species, distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Psidium taxa have great ecological, economic, and medicinal relevance due to their essential oils’ chemical diversity and biological potential. This review reports 18 Psidium species growing around the world and the chemical and biological properties of their essential oils. Chemically, 110 oil records are reported with significant variability of volatile constituents, according to their seasonality and collection sites. Monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes with acyclic (C10 and C15), p-menthane, pinane, bisabolane, germacrane, caryophyllane, cadinane, and aromadendrane skeleton-types, were the primary constituents. The essential oils showed various biological activities, including antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, phytotoxic, larvicidal, anti-inflammatory, and cytotoxic properties. This review contributes to the Psidium species rational and economic exploration as natural sources to produce new drugs.

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Green infrastructure in high-rise residential development on steep slopes in city of Vladivostok

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/20183301004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 33 ◽

pp. 01004 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alla Kopeva ◽

Olga Ivanova ◽

Olga Khrapko

Keyword(s):

Urban Design ◽

Green Infrastructure ◽

Green Roofs ◽

Residential Development ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

High Rise ◽

The World ◽

Green Walls ◽

Steep Slopes ◽

The City

The purpose of this study is to identify the facilities of green infrastructure that are able to improve living conditions in an urban environment in high-rise residential apartments buildings on steep slopes in the city of Vladivostok. Based on the analysis of theoretical sources and practices that can be observed in the world, green infrastructure facilities have been identified. These facilities meet the criteria of the sustainable development concept, and can be used in the city of Vladivostok. They include green roofs, green walls, and greening of disturbed slopes. All the existing high-rise apartments buildings situated on steep slopes in the city of Vladivostok, have been studied. It is concluded that green infrastructure is necessary to be used in new projects connected with designing and constructing of residential apartments buildings on steep slopes, as well as when upgrading the projects that have already been implemented. That will help to regulate the ecological characteristics of the sites. The results of the research can become a basis for increasing the sustainability of the habitat, and will facilitate the adoption of decisions in the field of urban design and planning.

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