Vulnerability of Coastal Areas Due to Infrastructure: The Case of Valencia Port (Spain)

The vulnerability of coastal areas is related to the existence and functionality of infrastructure. Ports have had increased activity in the last few decades due to growing needs of the market. At the same time, there have been huge changes in maritime traffic, and some ports are specialized in container traffic. The port in Valencia developed notably in the last expansions, in the 1980s and in the recent northern expansion. Valencia’s port specializes in container traffic, and has become a Mediterranean leader and the metropolitan area is an important logistics center. Ports can create coastal erosion by altering wave patterns. The environmental effects of the port of Valencia were analyzed. The Spanish Mediterranean coastline as well as morpho-dynamic units were monitored. The solid transport capacity to the north and south of the Valencia port was estimated, and the effects of other infrastructure on sedimentary sources of beaches were also studied. The port of Valencia’s barrier effect is responsible for the situation at the beaches to the north and south. This effect is total and impedes net sediment transport, predominantly to the south along the stretch of coastline. However, the port is not the only factor responsible for this situation, and the lack of continental sediments must also be considered. In addition, climate change has an influence on the behavior of the coastline. The vulnerability of the coast has increased due to changes in coastal morphology, variations in littoral transport rates, and coastal erosion. To promote sustainable port management, some correction measures, such as sand bypassing, dune rehabilitation, and dune vegetation, are proposed.

Investigating the Solid Transport Capability of Non-Newtonian Fluid in Annulus Bend Section

A directional drilling operation may include one or more bending sections along the drilling profile. These bend sections are the critical segments from the hole cleaning point of view. In this study, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method was used to investigate the hole cleaning behaviour in annulus bending section. Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase flow model was adopted in this study. The developed CFD model was validated with experimental data. Different non-Newtonian Herschel Bulkley fluids were used to simulate the drilling mud. Solid cuttings of different sizes (2 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm) were used to replicate the drill cuttings. Different fluid flow rate (0.5 m/s, 1.0 m/s, 1.5 m/s and 2.0 m/s) were investigated to observe the solid settling tendency in the horizontal and bending section. Cuttings accumulation behaviour at different bending radius (10 inch. and 20 inch.) and bending angle (15°, 30°, and 60° from horizontal) were investigated. The simulation study shows that higher viscous fluid performs better hole cleaning at low mud velocity. Furthermore, a turbulent flow regime performs better solid transport in the bending section. Finally, this study summarizes the hole cleaning behaviour of a bend section for a range of fluid velocity, cuttings size and radius of curvature and inclination.

ReNovRisk: a multidisciplinary programme to study the cyclonic risks in the South-West Indian Ocean

Today, resilience in the face of cyclone risks has become a crucial issue for our societies. With climate change, the risk of strong cyclones occurring is expected to intensify significantly and to impact the way of life in many countries. To meet some of the associated challenges, the interdisciplinary ReNovRisk programme aims to study tropical cyclones and their impacts on the South-West Indian Ocean basin. This article is a presentation of the ReNovRisk programme, which is divided into four areas: study of cyclonic hazards, study of erosion and solid transport processes, study of water transfer and swell impacts on the coast, and studies of socio-economic impacts. The first transdisciplinary results of the programme are presented together with the database, which will be open access from mid-2021.

Hydrology across disciplines: the experience of a Public Hydrological Service in Italy

<p>Water is very important for human consumption, production and services and also for inspiration, recreation, landscapes, ecosystems and wild life. UN and EU policies highlights the interaction of historical scientific, economic, societal and environmental factors and the linkage of water policies with biodiversity protection and Climate Change adaptation.  According to the European Green Deal (2019), for a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy working across sectors and disciplines, will be needed, also involving local communities. Moreover Political and management processes may take benefits from specific participatory Tools.</p><p>The Emilia-Romagna Regional Agency for Prevention, Environment and Energy (Arpae) helps sustainability developing  actions for water protection, water use, flood management and education to sustainability.  </p><p>Arpae Hydrological Service (HS) supports flood management and water management, as also design and management of hydraulic structures, through the Flood Early Warning System FEWS and  the Drought Early Warning System DEWS. Arpae HS also collect and publish hydrological time series (water, solid transport) and stage-discharge equations.</p><p>Within FP7 Enhance (2017) multi risk analysis and Public Private Partnership (PPPs) experiences were supported by  modeling tools combining flood /earthquake/Climate Change scenarios in a densely populated, highly developed land reclamation territory. An Application of the System for Economic and Environmental Accounting for Water (UN SEEA -Water) was developed in 2017. Within Interreg Proline-CE (2019), the FEWS and DEWS Systems, respectively supporting the Flood Forecasting Center and the Observatory on Water Uses, were proposed as Best Management Practices (BMPs) for land and water management useful for drinking water protection. BMPs where tested through workshops, questionnaires,  meetings and technical visits, useful for dissemination and  stakeholders involvement. H2020 Clara was useful to experience co-design/co-development approaches, to explore market segments and business models for water knowledge and climate services, and to set dedicated Policy Briefs for Water and Climate Change Adaptation; Arpae HS developed a set of modeling services  (Clara PWA) related to water management, solid transport, water quality and habitat availability, useful to understand the  influenced of climate change and the needs and proposal coming from market and  the institutions. Interreg boDEREC-CE is a current project on pharmaceutical and personal care pollutants (PPCPs), aimed at developing tools and strategies for protection of drinking water, water ecosystems and public health from pollution, bacterial resistance, toxicity and pathogens.</p><p>Arpae HS through these experiences has gained awareness of the inter linkage of hydrology with other sectors (economy, Earth sciences, ICT, health, ecology, society) and of the importance of developing specific decision support tools maximizing stakeholder participation, societal dissemination, transparency, education to sustainability and experts involvement.</p>

Nature-Based solutions for geo-hydrological risk reduction: the Portofino Park (Italy) experience in the H2020 RECONECT project

<p>The Horizon 2020 RECONECT - Regenerating ECOsystems with Nature-Based Solutions for hydro-meteorological risk rEduCTion - Project aims to contribute to a European reference framework on NBS by demonstrating, upscaling and spreading large-scale NBSs in natural areas.</p><p>The Italian RECONECT demonstrator is set in the Portofino Park, which represents a unique natural and cultural landscape but is severely endangered by geo-hydrological hazards.</p><p>The most frequent processes are shallow landslides and flash floods, sea-storm surges, rockfalls and mud-debris flows. Often, several different processes can occur simultaneously during an intense meteorological event, causing a location specific multi-hazard effect.</p><p>This research introduces the NBSs interventions designed within the RECONECT Italian case study in two pilot catchments (San Fruttuoso and Paraggi basins), accessed by thousands of tourists throughout the year.</p><p>Amongst all possible interventions that can be implemented in the protected area, NBSs are considered to be most suitable due to their minimal impact and the possibilities for integration within the natural environment. The Portofino Park has already been promoting interventions aimed at reducing the impact of geo-hazards within the protected area in response to climate change. As part of the RECONECT project, and in order to achieve sound engineering and technological solutions which can also preserve unique landscapes of natural and cultural heritage, the Park authority is realizing a set of NBSs in San Fruttuoso and Paraggi catchments. The purpose of the design is to demonstrate how NBSs can be integrated into such areas and how to reduce geo-hydrological risk for given climate change scenarios within the framework of an ecosystem based holistic approach for risk reduction.</p><p>The main scope of NBSs in San Fruttuoso is to address following basic challenges: stabilizing of rock masses; reduction of geo-hydrologic risks in order to intercept and reduce suspended and solid transport along the streams as well as reducing erosion; forest management focused to improve biodiversity, to remove non-native species and dangerous old specimen (Pine trees), not suitable in a Mediterranean climate, in order to select the climax species (i.e. Quercus ilex); restoration of dry-stone walls with the aim to valorize the terraced landscape as well as stabilizing the slopes.</p><p>The reconstruction of terraces and the regeneration of natural and man-made ecosystems will also be implemented within the Paraggi basin. In addition, hydraulic-forestry arrangements on water courses will be undertaken to improve the outflow and decrease solid transport and floating debris. Furthermore, other measures such as riverbed and tributary implementations, maintenance along hiking paths, slope stabilization, and cleaning and removing dead vegetation and dirt will also be undertaken.</p><p>The project also includes hydro-meteorological monitoring activities in the selected basins and the periodic checking of NBSs performance indicators. Lastly, remote sensing surveys are used to quantitatively assess the ongoing gemorphogical processes.</p><p>In relation to future projections of natural and socio-economic impacts of climate change, NBS represent a relevant mitigation and adaptation strategy for the Portofino case study, which may be upscaled to national and international level.</p>

Towards a Solid Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH)-Based Solids Transport Model Applied to Ultra-Low Water Usage Sanitation in Developing Countries

Distribution of toilet facilities and low-cost small-bore simplified sewerage systems (SS) in peri-urban areas provide opportunities to improve public health, provide safely managed sanitation, and protect the environment in low-to-middle income countries. Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) offers opportunities for optimisation of ultra-low water usage systems, but not without computational challenges. Results from SPH modelling of low cost, low water usage sanitary appliances were compared to a validated 1D finite difference model (DRAINET) for evaluation and calibration. An evaluation of system performance linked solid transport capabilities to physical geometries. The SPH model was developed for a pour-flush toilet pan connected to a 100 mm diameter pipe. The scheme utilized a free surface turbulent model to evaluate solid (faecal) transport efficacy. Performance was greatly influenced by the artificial viscosity factor, ViscoBoundFactor, within SPH, relating to the interaction of fluid and fluid particles and fluid and boundary particles. Results indicate that an increase in this factor leads to a reduction in fluid velocity with an attendant reduction in solid transportation distance, leading to inaccuracies. Other issues such as the use of density and mass in the definition of solid characteristics made it less predictable than the established 1D model for predicting solid transport. Overall, SPH was found to be useful for characterising the geometry of the pour flush pan but not for whole system assessment. A hybrid method is thus recommended whereby the design and performance characteristics for the input stage can be modelling in SPH but the whole system pipe network evaluation is better suited to the 1D DRAINET model.

An evaluation of solid versus liquid transport media for high-risk HPV detection and cervical cancer screening on self-collected specimens

Background The solid transport media is a small size card that allows fast, easy DNA extraction from a variety of biological samples. In 2016 we developed a solid media transport card; for that pilot study to control the self-collection we used a pseudo-self-collection technique. The current study expands this prior work using true self-collections and only the POI card, and aims to evaluate the solid media transport card to detect HR-HPV in self-samples compared to liquid transport media. Methods Ten thousand eight hundred eighty-five women between the ages of 30–59 with no screening for 3 years were enrolled. The self-collected sample was first applied to a new solid media transport card (Labeled as SC) then the brush placed in 6 ml ThinPrep liquid (Labeled as SL). Then a physician collected a direct endocervical specimen into ThinPrep liquid (Labeled as DL). Samples were tested with Cobas 4800 and the SeqHPV NGS assay for HR-HPV. Patients positive on any test were recalled for colposcopy and biopsy. Results Ten thousand three hundred thirty-nine participants had complete data. The mean age was 43.9 years. CIN 2+ rates were 1.4% (142/10339). The agreement in HPV detection between the two different self-sample collection media was also good (Cobas HPV kappa = 0.86; SeqHPV kappa = 0.98). Tested with Cobas, the sensitivity of Cobas-SL and Cobas-SC for CIN 2+ was95.07 and 94.37%; and for CIN3+ was 96.30, 96.30% respectively. The specificity of Cobas-SC, and Cobas-SL for CIN2+ was 88.74 and 87.35%; for CIN3 was 88.04and 86.65% respectively. Tested with SeqHPV, the sensitivity for CIN2+ of Seq-SC and Seq-SL was 95.77 and 96.48%; for CIN3+, both the SC and SL specimens had a sensitivity of 100%. The specificity for CIN2+ of Seq-SC and Seq-SL was 89.54 and 89.53%; for CIN3+ was 88.84,88.82% respectively. For both HR-HPV assays, the sensitivities were similar for the two self-sample media (SC vs SL, p = 1.00). Conclusions The solid transport card for collecting vaginal self-samples as accurate as liquid transport media assayed by two different PCR based HR-HPV tests. The solid transport media is a suitable medium for collecting and storing vaginal self-samples.