Search results for "Footprint"

Comparing Performances of Turbo-roundabouts and Double-lane Roundabouts

2012

Starting from assumptions regarding the arrival process of circulating streams and according to models based on the gap-acceptance theory, the paper is aimed at comparing operational performances between basic turbo-roundabouts and double-lane roundabouts. The paper proposes applications of the Hagring model for entry capacity estimations at double-lane roundabouts and turbo-roundabouts, these latter, in particular, featured by movements with only one or two conflicting traffic streams. This model allows to use, in fact, a bunched exponential distribution to quantify the distribution of major vehicle headways; it also considers specific values different by each lane for behavioural paramete…

The role of the transportation phase for a green management of municipal solid waste

2017

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) constitutes a high challenging issue to cope with to move towards sustainability of the urban policies. Despite new standards call for recycling and reusing materials contained in the city waste, several municipalities still use extensive landfills. Other than the environmental pressure exerted by these plants, the waste transportation from the recovery points of towns to landfills needs consideration to correctly assess the whole burden of the waste management. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint indicator is applied to the MSWM of the town of Palermo (Sicily). Results show that the effects produced by the involved transportation vehicles, both i…

The Carbon Footprint of Volunteer Tourism

2019

Abstract Tourism is growing at a fast rate and so is its carbon footprint. Alongside conventional tourism, a new form of tourism, so-called voluntourism, has emerged. The discussion on voluntourism in the existing literature has hereby mainly centred around its positive impacts on the health and education of communities and the local environment in developing countries. Nevertheless, little attention has been drawn to its climate impacts. This study set out to investigate the carbon footprint of voluntourism. The data were collected at a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) in India working with voluntourists. Both the carbon footprint of the stay in India and that from the round trip …

Eco-efficiency assessment of wastewater treatment plants using a weighted Russell directional distance model

2016

Abstract Improving the performance of wastewater treatment plants is essential to ensuring their long-term sustainability. Most of the previous studies on this topic have assessed the techno-economic efficiency of wastewater treatment plants and ignored the emission of greenhouse gases. For the first time, the weighted Russell directional distance model was applied to estimate the eco-efficiency of a sample of real wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, this approach allowed an inefficiency score to be obtained for each variable (cost factors, pollutant removal and greenhouse gases) involved in the model. Subsequently, a second stage of analysis was applied to identify factors influencing t…

Evidence for spatiotemporal shift in demersal fishery management priority areas in the western Mediterranean

2022

14 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, 1 appendix

Quantifying Mean Shape and Variability of Footprints Using Mean Sets

2005

This paper1 presents an application of several definitions of a mean set for use in footwear design. For a given size, footprint pressure images corresponding to different individuals constitute our raw data. Appropriate footwear design needs to have knowledge of some kind of typical footprint. Former methods based on contour relevant points are highly sensitive to contour noise; moreover, they lack repeatability because of the need for the intervention of human designers. The method proposed in this paper is based on using mean sets on the thresholded images of the pressure footprints. Three definitions are used, two of them from Vorob’ev and Baddeley-Molchanov and one morphological mean p…

The role of chemical cues in the host finding behaviour of Trissolcus basalis from a Conservation Biological Control perspective

In assessing successful biological control programs by parasitoids, the knowledge of important traits, such as the host finding capability, i.e. the ability to find host and food resources, play the key role. Moreover, parasitoids in their natural environment parasitoids deal with a variable mixtures of natural cues. Some chemical cues are used by the wasps to locate their hosts, some ones drive wasps to feeding resources. The parasitoid response to these cues can fluctuate according to biotic factors and abiotic condition. This dissertation focus in details on the role of two important tools, such as selective flowering plants as food resources to add within a crop area and the traces left…

The behavioral responses of the egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida to semiochemicals from first and second trophic level

2009

In this study the responses of females of the egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus telenomicida (Vassiliev) (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae) to volatile and contact chemicals from its host Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) and from host plant Solanum lycopersicum L. were investigated in a Y-tube olfactometer and in open arena. Our results in the Y-tube olfactometer tests showed that: (1) female wasps were attracted to volatiles from adult host virgin male and to volatiles from a host mated female, showing a clear preference for the volatiles emitted from the former; volatiles from host virgin females did not attract O. telenomicida females; (2) only volatiles produced by host-damaged plant com…

Rolling resistance and traffic delay impact on a road pavement life cycle carbon footprint analysis

2017

The application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to road pavements has been continuously evolving and improving over the last years, however there are several limitations and uncertainties in the introduction of some components in the framework, such as road pavement rolling resistance—in terms of pavement surface properties—and traffic delay during maintenance activities. This paper analyses the influence of methodological assumptions and the model used to estimate the increased emissions for traffic delay and road pavement rolling resistance on the results of an LCA. The Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions related to these two phases of a pavement LCA will be calculated for a UK case study, us…

Environmental assessment of a new building envelope material derived from urban agriculture wastes : the case of the tomato plants stems

2023

Abstract Purpose Decarbonizing cities is one of today’s biggest challenges. In this regard, particular attention has been paid on improving the environmental performance of buildings. In this framework, this work consists in assessing the environmental impact of an innovative building envelope component derived from urban agriculture (UA) wastes. In fact, rooftop UA seems to be a possible solution to the rising food demand due to increasing urban demographic growth. Consequently, rooftop UA wastes need to be treated in sustainable ways. Methods This study aims to determine the carbon footprint and embodied energy of a new infill wall material, derived from UA wastes produced by a building r…