Search results for "Environmental planning"
showing 10 items of 357 documents
Urban Storm-Water Quality Management: Centralized versus Source Control
2010
The continuous growth of urban areas and the increasing public awareness of the environmental impacts of storm water have raised interest on the quality of the receiving water bodies. In the past two decades, many efforts have been directed at improving urban drainage systems by introducing mitigation measures to limit the negative environmental impacts of storm water. These mitigation measures are generally called best management practices (BMPs), sustainable urban drainage systems, or low impact developments, and they include practices such as infiltration and storage tanks that reduce the peak flow and retain some of the polluting materials. Choosing the best mitigation measure is still …
Do International Urban Sustainability Monitoring Frameworks Respond to the Perceived Needs of Norwegian small and mediumsized cities? – Results of a …
2020
Cities are estimated to have a 70% contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. This makes urban sustainability monitoring necessary, but are urban sustainability monitoring frameworks applicable to cities of all sizes? And do they offer a consistent overview of the sustainability status of core urban development areas, such as transport? The present research tests if the specific needs of small and medium-sized Norwegian cities, as perceived by local stakeholders, are consistently covered by the indicators of urban sustainability monitoring frameworks. To this purpose, four international frameworks were evaluated in the frame of a workshop: Reference Framework for Sustainable Cities, K…
Diffusion of forest biorefineries in Scandinavia and North America
2012
Abstract Biomass-based energy has become a major focus of attention from a variety of directions due to the global challenges of meeting our energy needs. Bioenergy and bio-products are also currently being explored intensively in the forest cluster, as many elements that have in the past guaranteed success have largely disappeared. As the bioenergy and biorefining economies are evolving, there is a need for realistic estimates regarding the factors which affect the diffusion of forest biorefineries. This paper outlines global and national drivers for forest biorefineries in Scandinavia and North America. It explores the financial, political, technological, and ecological and raw-material r…
Koncepcja urban resilience : narzędzie strategicznej diagnozy i monitoringu miast
2015
Celem artykułu jest prezentacja propozycji metodyki badawczej dotyczącej oceny prężności miejskiej, w tym jej wstępna weryfikacja dla wybranych miast w Polsce. Uzupełnienie w tym zakresie stanowi sformułowanie wniosków odnoszących się do zastosowania analizowanej metodyki badawczej w procesie strategicznej diagnozy i monitoringu miast. Proponowana metodyka oceny prężności miejskiej zakłada, że miasto stanowi otwarty system adaptacyjny, składający się z atrybutów prężności i wrażliwości. Monitorowanie ich wartości jest elementem diagnozy strategicznej prowadzącym do identyfikacji działań wzmacniających prężność miasta.
Ecological Networks and Planning
2017
This chapter focuses on the regulation issue of the ecological networks/connections within planning instruments. In effect, the paradigm of ecological networks can be adopted within planning instruments to bridge the split existing in current development patterns between the use of the land and conservation of nature. About this issue, the work clearly explains the critical aspects, also referring to different ecological network models and specific local realities. In relation to this perspective, the most commonly adopted approach for the introduction of ecological networks into the planning process is the ecosystemic approach which, when applied to territory planning, shows it is particul…
Economic and Technical Efficiency of Drinking Water Systems: An Empirical Approach for Spain
2009
The objective of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of drinking water systems. Efficient performance, both in technical and economic terms guarantee minimum water losses in the network and reduced tariffs for the users. An analytical benchmarking methodology based on non-radial measures considering water losses as undesirable output gives us an efficiency indicator for each input used in the water supply process. These indicators, obtained by means of mathematical programming techniques, are used to rank suppliers' activity. The relation between the efficiency in the activity of the companies and the establishment of different tariffs is also analyzed. An empirical application is carry…
Integration of green roofs&walls in urban areas
2020
Growing urbanization is associated with the emergence of environmental problems, such as the reduction of natural resources, the atmosphere pollution and the increase of the heat islands phenomenon in cities. The integration of vegetation in the urban areas, through the creation of green hanging systems, represents a possible solution to improve the energy sustainability of buildings, to combat meteoric excesses, to improve stormwater management and to reduce pollutant levels. These energy and environmental benefits are related to the properties of evapotranspiration, shading and thermal insulation of the vegetation. The work reports the results of the main studies concerning the use of han…
A New Methodology to Assess Territorial Competence for Sustainable Local Development: The READI® (Resources-Actors-Dynamics) Matrix
2021
[EN] The ability of a territory to manage certain sustainable development processes increasingly depends on its capacity to apply previous diagnostic processes to its current situation. For this reason, methodologies that facilitate the detection of needs and/or potentialities of the territory are key to meeting its anticipated sustainable development goals. We present the most notable results of the research methodology carried out in the province of Valencia (Spain) that has enabled the construction of a matrix of indicators that allow these previous diagnostic processes to be put into practice at a local level, based on the participation of the territory's socioeconomic actors.
Sustainable Regeneration of Brownfields
2016
Our cities are really rich of building ensembles now deserted which were, in the recent past, sources of job and productivity for the community. They are generally inside the urban fabric or in the suburbs and they are often not particularly taken into consideration because they haven’t architectonic characteristics which could justify a restoration. Due to their big extension, the planning approach turns to be diffucult. Besides, these areas, if adequately restored, could become an important economic and cultural resource and a possibility of experimentation of new sustainable technologies. All this heritage requires a planning approach based on conservation and valorization of all the cul…
The Projection of a Sustainable Agriculture System Aiming for Supporting the Ecoeconomy and Ecosanogenesis Specific for the Hill-Mountain Areas – Con…
2010
The Romanian integration into the European Union – and also at its technological standards – means among others the adoption and implementation of transforming measures into the conventional agriculture. Thus the farmers should apply certain technologies to enable them to obtain good productions under specific conditions of the ecoeconomy and ecosanogenesis. The implementation of such a sustainable agriculture system for Romania is discussed into this article.