Search results for " impacts"
showing 10 items of 86 documents
Reducing waste and ecological impacts through a sustainable and efficient management of perishable food based on the Monte Carlo simulation
2019
Abstract In today’s competitive global market it is mandatory to improve warehousing operations integrating economic, environmental and social aspects. The recent advancement in monitoring technologies can greatly improve the performance of the food supply chain reducing product loss. In particular, in the perishable food supply chain, initially inventory operations are critical because they manage the material flows in very variable conditions. The deterioration level of the products as well as the market demand are the main factors that can influence warehouse strategy. This research aims to consider the application of sustainability principles in the context of warehouse storage, evaluat…
Severe effects of long-term drought on calcareous grassland seed banks
2018
Climate change models project shifts in precipitation patterns at regional and global scales. Increases in dry areas and the occurrence of drought predicted in future scenarios are likely to threaten grassland ecosystems. Calcareous grassland seed banks have proven to be resistant to short-term drought, but their responses to long-term drought are unknown. Here we show that 14 years of summer drought changed calcareous grassland seed bank composition, reducing its size and richness, and that these responses do not simply reflect patterns in the above-ground vegetation. Moreover, the effect of drought was larger on seed banks than on vegetation, and above-ground responses mediated by soil de…
Impact Analysis Using Life Cycle Assessment of Asphalt Production from Primary Data
2020
Road construction and maintenance have a great impact on the environment, owing to the huge volumes of resources involved. Consequently, current production procedures and technologies must be properly investigated, for identifying and quantifying the life cycle environmental impacts produced. In this paper, primary data, i.e., site-specific data directly collected or measured on a reference plant, are analyzed for calculating the impact of the production of a hot mix asphalt. The analysis is performed in a from &ldquo
Traits and risk factors of post-disaster infectious disease outbreaks: a systematic review.
2021
AbstractInfectious disease outbreaks are increasingly recognised as events that exacerbate impacts or prolong recovery following disasters. Yet, our understanding of the frequency, geography, characteristics and risk factors of post-disaster disease outbreaks globally is lacking. This limits the extent to which disease outbreak risks can be prepared for, monitored and responded to following disasters. Here, we conducted a global systematic review of post-disaster outbreaks and found that outbreaks linked to conflicts and hydrological events were most frequently reported, and most often caused by bacterial and water-borne agents. Lack of adequate WASH facilities and poor housing were commonl…
NON-NATIVE FLORA OF ITALY: SPECIES DISTRIBUTION AND THREATS
2010
In this paper, we provide an overview of the distribution and invasive status of non-native species in the Italian flora across its administrative regions, biogeographic regions and main land use types, and a synthesis of current knowledge on the threats they pose within the country. The information on non-native plant species collected during the project oA survey of the non-native Italian florao was used to compile comprehensive regional and national databases. The number of non-native species within a given administrative region increases in proportion to its size, resident population density and latitude, reaching the highest values in the intensively cultivated, heavily industrialized …
Artificial Neural Networks to assess energy and environmental performance of buildings: An Italian case study
2019
Abstract Approximately 40% of the European energy consumption and a large proportion of environmental impacts are related to the building sector. However, the selection of adequate and correct designs can provide considerable energy savings and reduce environmental impacts. To achieve this objective, a simultaneous energy and environmental assessment of a building's life cycle is necessary. To date, the resolution of this complex problem is entrusted to numerous software and calculation algorithms that are often complex to use. They involve long diagnosis phases and are characterised by the lack of a common language. Despite the efforts by the scientific community in the building sector, th…
When Climate Turns Nasty, What Are Recent and Future Implications? Ecological and Human Health Review of Climate Change Impacts
2020
Purpose of Review: The impacts of climate change on biodiversity in the last three decades have increasingly assumed from significant to threatening proportions and this causes major global concerns. This study aims at examining the recent and future impacts of global climate change on both ecological resources and human well-being. This review study is based on the general concept of ecological resilience: that coping with climate change stresses and disturbances depends on social resilience, political and environmental strategies accessible in a community. The study assessed over 300 peer-reviewed publications, both articles and books, which linked climate change impacts on ecosystems to …
Mitigating the Climate Change Impacts of Aviation through Behavioural Change
2020
Aviation plays a crucial role for economic development and social welfare, but at the same time it also significantly contributes to climate change. Therefore, if the industry wants to follow the same growth path as it has in the past, it will need to mitigate its environmental impacts more seriously or it may otherwise face regulatory restrictions. The current literature has discussed five mitigation strategies. These are technological changes, market-based changes, operational changes, regulatory changes and behavioural changes. While several authors have regarded behavioural changes as the measure with the greatest mitigation potential, it is also the measure that has received far less a…
Life cycle assessment of storage systems: the case study of a sodium/nickel chloride battery
2014
This study assesses the energy and environmental impacts of sodium/nickel chloride batteries, one of the emerging battery technologies for energy storage and smart grids. The analysis was conducted using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology according to the standards of the ISO 14040 series. The study system was one sodium/nickel cell battery providing electric storage for a photovoltaic system, and the manufacturing, operation, and end-of-life steps were analysed. The results indicated that the operation step has the greatest energy impact (55-70% of the total), with the manufacturing step, particularly cell manufacturing, contributing the greatest environmental impact (>60% of the total)…
An integrated energy simulation and life cycle assessment to measure the operational and embodied energy of a Mediterranean net zero energy building
2022
Abstract Net Zero Energy Buildings can play a key role in reducing the energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and the use of natural resources associated to the built environment. It is widely recognized that in low energy building a shift in relevance may occur from the operational to the embodied impacts. However, building performance assessment focus mostly on the operational phase and on primary energy consumption. This study aims to assess the energy and environmental impacts of a residential net zero energy building expanding the analysis to the full life cycle and to a wide range of environmental impact categories. The methodological approach integrates a non-steady state building ener…