Air Pollutant Emission Measurement

One of the main methods for estimating air pollutant emissions from ships is the method developed by Carlo Trozzi, which was later accepted and recommended by the European Environment Agency in its air pollutant emission inventory guidebooks. Consequently, it has become the most commonly used methods for making inventories of air emissions in the shipping industry and for predicting future trends. The method and its equations use emission factors to calculate the emission of air pollutants from ships. Emission factors are calculated depending on fuel consumption or main engine power; results are given for different year of manufacture and engine speed. This paper presents the measurement of air pollutant emissions and some other parameters on marine engines operating in different conditions. The measured values are calculated to obtain values which will enable the next step, the comparison with the emission factors in the latest guide of the European Environment Agency on the inventory of pollutant emissions.

New national and regional Annex I Habitat records: from #21 to #25

New Italian data on the distribution of the Annex I Habitats 3170*, 6110*, 91E0*, 9320, 9330 are reported in this contribution. Specifically, one new occurrence in Natura 2000 sites is presented and six new cells are added in the European Environment Agency 10 km × 10 km reference grid. The new data refer to the Italian administrative regions of Sardinia, Sicily and Umbria.

Implementação do BIM no ensino do urbanismo para a engenharia

O texto apresenta as mudanças realizadas na disciplina de Urbanismo do curso de graduação em engenharia civil do Centro Universitário do Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia - CEUN-IMT, a partir da revisão das competências esperadas e de alterações na metodologia de ensino. A verificação dos objetivos da disciplina anual de urbanismo indicou a necessidade de se repensar a estrutura cronológica da abordagem de formação das cidades bem como da coleta e análise de dados urbanísticos tradicionalmente empregada. A reestruturação incluiu a forma de realizar a leitura da cidade, a maneira de se incorporar conceitos e utilizar instrumentos urbanísticos com o emprego de recursos tecnológicos mais atuais e de ferramentas BIM buscando aquelas que melhor se ajustavam aos objetivos de cada etapa do desenvolvimento projetual. Diferentes alterações, desde 2017, foram pensadas para a disciplina de urbanismo do curso de engenharia civil do CEUN-IMT. Sua estrutura estava dividida em conhecimentos históricos, instrumentos legais e desenvolvimento de projeto de loteamento. A disciplina de urbanismo possui carga horária de 80 horas em regime anual de oferecimento e faz parte de um conjunto de áreas com inserção de conteúdos BIM conforme projeto pedagógico do curso. O módulo que realizava a abordagem histórica foi substituído por discussões temáticas e análises morfológicas da cidade sob os aspectos da água, circulação, moradia e trabalho com o intuito de mostrar aos alunos da engenharia civil a importância da observação crítica do espaço construído e de suas infraestruturas. Os exercícios práticos, associados a esta etapa inicial, passaram a utilizar o Google Earth Pro na análise da forma das cidades considerando água e meio ambiente, circulação e moradia. Os instrumentos urbanísticos e legislação passaram a ser discutidos de maneira contextualizada e a partir de “cases” e problemas que ilustram de forma concreta a relação entre o regramento e o espaço urbano dele decorrente. A clássica forma de elaboração de mapas temáticos para o planejamento urbano foi substituída pela consulta aos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica – SIG, que permitem hoje a obtenção de informações associadas a bases cartográficas. Os alunos foram incentivados a utilizar estas informações para interpretar e avaliar as características de diferentes locais com a utilização de mapas online e dados abertos de plataformas como “Urban Atlas” da “European Environment Agency”, “NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration” e Geosampa que reúne dados georreferenciados da cidade de São Paulo. Os loteamentos eram desenvolvidos em Autocad e Revit com a aplicação da lei de parcelamento do solo e da legislação ambiental e davam ênfase à distribuição de lotes e vias em grandes glebas. A partir de uma avaliação a respeito das competências a serem adquiridas pelos engenheiros civis para trabalhar em equipes multidisciplinares na área do urbanismo e do planejamento urbano foram realizadas sucessivas alterações até que em 2020 foram estruturadas as novas linhas de abordagem e metodologias com o uso de ferramentas BIM que melhor se ajustavam aos objetivos das diferentes etapas do desenvolvimento da disciplina. Paralelamente, e logo após a finalização das análises temáticas, inicia-se o desenvolvimento de propostas para uma gleba urbana, objeto de edital público para a construção de habitações, comércio, equipamentos públicos, edifícios mistos, áreas verdes, galpões logísticos dentre outros. As tentativas anteriores contemplaram a modelagem em REVIT de todo o estudo preliminar e também a modelagem deste diretamente no Infraworks sem passar por outro software. A experiência de 2020 mostrou-se mais adequada ao estudo de viabilidade do empreendimento, simulações com diferentes densidades e posterior estudo de massas: setorização inicial em Autocad, massas no Revit e modelagem no Infraworks. Passar do desenho de vias e lotes para o desenvolvimento de possibilidades de ocupação em glebas utilizando instrumentos legais e ferramentas urbanísticas representou um ganho para a disciplina. A própria disciplina concebia a cidade em duas dimensões ao utilizar apenas o desenho em Autocad. A utilização do Revit no estudo de viabilidade não fez muito sentido, faltava uma etapa de estudo da topografia em Autocad e também uma primeira concepção que permitisse alterações rápidas. A modelagem precisa do Revit não atendia a necessidade de mudanças rápidas, mesmo utilizando os recursos de criação de massas. A utilização direta do Infraworks mostrou-se também inadequada por não permitir o estudo um pouco mais rigoroso e com dimensões precisas. Equilibrar o ensino de conceitos específicos desta área de conhecimento e o ensino de ferramentas tecnológicas aplicadas à prática projetual, dentro do tempo destinado à disciplina, é um desafio e ponto fundamental para a obtenção de resultados positivos e avanços nesta área. A disciplina de projeto de rodovias e vias urbanas, oferecida em paralelo à de urbanismo, passará a contribuir, a partir do segundo semestre de 2021, com o desenvolvimento de parte do projeto com a modelagem em Civil 3D de vias e ciclovias previstas nas diretrizes do edital adotado para a disciplina e que posteriormente será importada no Infraworks. Para os próximos oferecimentos existe a previsão de utilização do Spacemaker, software que utiliza sistema baseado em inteligência artificial, recentemente adquirido pela Autodesk e que permite explorar diferentes soluções de forma mais rápida tornando os processos de planejamento mais eficientes. Apresentação no YouTube: https://youtu.be/mMcn8qxsoig

White paper on the alignment and interoperability between the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and EU infrastructures - The case of the European Environment Agency (EEA)

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) Research Infrastructure (RI) is presently in its preparatory phase. DiSSCo is developing a new distributed RI to operate as a one-stop-shop for the envisaged European Natural Science Collection (NSC) and all its derived information. Through mass digitisation, DiSSCo will transform the fragmented landscape of NSCs, including an estimated 1.5 billion specimens, into an integrated knowledge base that will provide interconnected evidence of the natural world. Data derived from European NSCs underpin countless discoveries and innovations, including tens of thousands of scholarly publications and official reports annually (supporting legislative and regulatory processes on sustainability, environmental change, land use, societal infrastructure, health, food, security, etc.); base-line biodiversity data; inventions and products essential to bio-economy; databases, maps and descriptions of scientific observations; educational material for students; and instructive and informative resources for the public. To expand the user community, DiSSCo will strengthen capacity building across Europe for maximum engagement of stakeholders in the biodiversity-related field and beyond, including industry and the private sector, but also policy-driving entities. Hence, it is opportune to reach out to relevant stakeholders in the European environmental policy domain represented by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The EEA aims to support sustainable development by helping to achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public. The EEA provides information through the European Environment Information and Observation System (Eionet). The aim of this white paper is to open the discussion between DiSSCo and the EEA and identify the common service interests that are relevant for the European environmental policy domain. The first section describes the significance of (digital) Natural Science Collections (NHCs). Section two describes the DiSSCo programme with all DiSSCo aligned projects. Section three provides background information on the EEA and the biodiversity infrastructures that are developed and maintained by the EEA. The fourth section illustrates a number of use cases where the DiSSCo consortium sees opportunities for interaction between the DiSSCo RI and the Eionet portal of the EEA. Opening the discussion with the EEA in this phase of maturity of DiSSCo will ensure that the infrastructural design of DiSSCo and the development of e-Services accommodate the present and future needs of the EEA and assure data interoperability between the two infrastructures. The aim of this white paper is to present benefits from identifying the common service interests of DiSSCo and the EEA. A brief introduction to natural science collections as well as the two actors is given to facilitate the understanding of the needs and possibilities in the alignment of DiSSCo with the EEA.

A grid-based map for the Biogeographical Regions of Europe

Biogeographical units are widely adopted in ecological research and nature conservation management, even though biogeographical regionalisation is still under scientific debate. The European Environment Agency provided an official map of the European Biogeographical Regions (EBRs), which contains the official boundaries used in the Habitats and Birds Directives. However, these boundaries bisect cells in the official EU 10 km × 10 km grid used for many purposes, including reporting species and habitat data, meaning that 6881 cells overlap two or more regions. Therefore, superimposing the EBRs vector map over the grid creates ambiguities in associating some cells with European Biogeographical Regions. To provide an operational tool to unambiguously define the boundaries of the eleven European Biogeographical Regions, we provide a specifically developed raster map of Grid-Based European Biogeographical Regions (GB-EBRs). In this new map, the borders of the EBRs are reshaped to coherently match the standard European 10 km × 10 km grid imposed for reporting tasks by Article 17 of the Habitats Directive and used for many other datasets. We assign each cell to the EBR with the largest area within the cell.

POSSIBILITIES OF REDUCING AMMONIA EMISSIONS FROM AGRICULTURE – SCENARIO FOR 2030

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the possibility of ammonia emission reduction in 2030 by undertaking the activities specified in the “Advisory code of good agricultural practice for the reduction of ammonia emissions”. The methodology published by the European Environment Agency in 2016 has been used to estimate emissions. Projections were carried out for each type of category (animal production, use of mineral nitrogen fertilizers) and the total ammonia emission in 2030 was calculated, all results were compared to the base year 2005. Analyses have shown that the targets indicated in the NEC Directive would not be easy to achieve. Without the implementation of actions reducing ammonia emissions, it is expected that total emissions will rise by 2.7% by 2030. However, if we consider both emission categories separately, we can predict that NH3 emissions will increase more than 45% from the use of mineral fertilisers and decrease by 6% from animal production. The most significant reduction in total ammonia emissions can be achieved through ploughing manure immediately (preferably within 4 hours) after application. Another technique involves the replacement of urea with ammonium nitrate (-12.4%) and the splashless application of slurry with parallel ploughing of manure (-11.0%) that gives ample opportunity to achieve a notable reduction.

Dynamika zmian użytkowania ziemi małych miast województwa śląskiego

Współczesne miasta coraz częściej bardzo wyraźnie odczuwają, że przestrzeń jest zasobem ograniczonym. Potrzeba bardziej racjonalnego użytkowania gruntów jest powszechnie znana, stąd prowadzony jest monitoring zmian zachodzących w użytkowaniu terenu. W opracowaniu przedstawiono wyniki analizy zmian użytkowania terenu małych miast województwa śląskiego na podstawie danych pochodzących z Corine Land Cover na przestrzeni lat 1990–2018. Badanie zostało przeprowadzone w oparciu o wskaźniki skonstruowane przez European Environment Agency, związane z recyklingiem gruntów. Ponadto przeanalizowano kierunki rozwoju przestrzennego małych miast, wskazując na ogólną charakterystykę zaobserwowanych zmian.

Selected aspects of low emission management in the Middle Odra Region1

Summary According to the data of the European Environment Agency, due to excessive air pollution about 47 thousand people die prematurely every year in Poland. Although in recent years the level of industrial emissions in Poland has been significantly reduced, it is still a very serious problem of the so-called low emission. The aim of the paper was to determine the most important sources of low emission in the Middle Odra Region and to indicate activities that will optimally limit this problem. The article points out activities that help reduce low emission in the Middle Odra Region, where the problem is also noticeable, despite the lower population density and the lack of highly industrialized areas. Moreover, it pointed to the possible directions of low emission management, the implementation of which may contribute to a significant reduction of low emission in the Middle Odra Region.

Brief communication: Strengthening coherence between climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction

Reducing disaster risks and adapting to climate change are ever more important policy goals in Europe and worldwide. The commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and complementary multilateral frameworks, including the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, has galvanized pursuits for policy coherence. The report Climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction in Europe: enhancing coherence of the knowledge base, policies and practices of the European Environment Agency identified several ways for how coherence and resilience can be built through knowledge sharing, collaboration and investments.

The Effects of Land Use and Land Cover Geoinformation Raster Generalization in the Analysis of LUCC in Portugal

Multiple land use and land cover (LUC) datasets are available for the analysis of LUC changes (LUCC) in distinct territories. Sometimes, different LUCC results are produced to characterize these changes for the same territory and the same period. These differences reflect: (1) The different properties of LUC geoinformation (GI) used in the LUCC assessment, and (2) different criteria used for vector-to-raster conversion, namely, those deriving from outputs with different spatial resolutions. In this research, we analyze LUCC in mainland Portugal using two LUC datasets with different properties: Corine Land Cover (CLC 2006 and 2012) and LUC official maps of Portugal (Carta de Ocupação do Solo, COS 2007 and 2010) provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the General Directorate for Territorial Development (DGT). Each LUC dataset has undergone vector-to-raster conversion, with different resolutions (10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 m). LUCC were analyzed based on the vector GI of each LUC dataset, and with LUC raster outputs using different resolutions. Initially, it was observed that the areas with different LUC types in two LUC datasets in vector format were not similar—a fact explained by the different properties of this type of GI. When using raster GI to perform the analysis of LUCC, it was observed that at high resolutions, the results are identical to the results obtained when using vector GI, but this ratio decreases with increased cell size. In the analysis of LUCC results obtained with raster LUC GI, the outputs with pixel size greater than 100 m do not follow the same trend of LUCC obtained with high raster resolutions or using LUCC obtained with vector GI. These results point out the importance of the factor form and the area of the polygons, and different effects of amalgamation and dilation in the vector-to-raster conversion process, more evident at low resolutions. These findings are important for future evaluations of LUCC that integrate raster GI and vector/raster conversions, because the different LUC GI resolution in line with accuracy can explain the different results obtained in the evaluation of LUCC. The present work demonstrates this fact, i.e., the effects of vector-to-raster conversions using various resolutions culminated in different results of LUCC.