Search results for "Life cycle"
showing 10 items of 378 documents
Towards More Sustainable Pavement Management Practices Using Embedded Sensor Technologies
2019
Road agencies are constantly being placed in difficult situations when making road maintenance and rehabilitation decisions as a result of diminishing road budgets and mounting environmental concerns for any chosen strategies. This has led practitioners to seek out new alternative and innovative ways of monitoring road conditions and planning maintenance routines. This paper considers the use of innovative piezo-floating gate (PFG) sensors and conventional strain gauges to continuously monitor the pavement condition and subsequently trigger maintenance activities. These technologies can help develop optimized maintenance strategies as opposed to traditional ad-hoc approaches, which often le…
Comparative life-cycle assessment of conventional (double lane) and non-conventional (turbo and flower) roundabout intersections
2016
Abstract This research studied and compared different construction techniques for the road subgrade, embankment and pavement of different types of roundabout intersections in order to assess their environmental sustainability. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was carried out on double lane, turbo- and flower roundabouts. We considered virgin materials and reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) for the pavement construction. Also the environmental effects due to in situ lime stabilization of fine-grained soils were assessed in order to reduce the use of virgin material in road subgrades. The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) can lead to a significant reduction in pollutant emissions and energy …
Demographic change, tourism expenditure and life cycle behavior
2015
Abstract The paper explores how demographic changes in human populations may impact on tourism decision-making of households over their life cycle. By means of hurdle models, the study focuses respectively on the decision to travel domestically or abroad and investigates if statistically significant differences exist as to the impact of age and cohort on the decision to travel and tourism expenditure. Using a vast dataset on Italian Household Expenditures over the period 1997–2007 the empirical results show that demographic aspects do have a strong effect on the tourism behaviour of families and that cohort and age effects act differently on the decision of households to make a trip and on …
Sustainable production and consumption in remote working conditions due to COVID-19 lockdown in Italy: An environmental and user acceptance investiga…
2021
Abstract In response to the disruptive changes brought upon our society by the COVID-19 pandemic, most work activities and service providers had to resort to remote working. This is credited to reduce emissions for transportation, however the role of forced confinement within dwellings, especially if not designed for hosting working stations, deserves to be properly evaluated in terms of both user acceptance and long-term environmental impact. In this work, a dedicated survey campaign is used for investigating the potential pros and cons of remote working. In more detail, logistic regression and generalized linear models are used for capturing the effect of several independent variables on …
The role of the building sector for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gases: An Italian case study
2013
The paper presents one of the first Italian experiences assessing the effectiveness of sustainable production and consumption strategies. The authors developed an energy and environmental extended input–output model, combined with the life cycle assessment, to analyse the role of the building sector in the reduction of Italian energy consumption and CO2 emissions. In detail, the model allows to assess the energy and environmental benefits arising from the Italian tax deduction policy for energy retrofit actions of buildings. Moreover, the authors defined an original model to assess the indirect rebound effect caused by the energy retrofit actions. The outcomes of the research point out that…
Consumption Patterns and Family Life-Cycle. Some Evidence from Italy
2015
As a social and economic entity the family is changing continuously. Changes in family size and composition have significant effects on the family decision making process. The Italian context is an interesting subject for research as a result of the impact of demographic and economic changes in the early 2000s on new family structures and economic behaviour. Furthermore, in Italy in contrast to the past, both men and women are aiming for job security and satisfaction before marrying and starting a family. In the light of that, it is particularly interesting to investigate if consumption behaviour changes along the life cycle stages. Considering different family life stages enables us to exp…
Perspectives on Cluster Evolution: Critical Review and Future Research Issues
2015
The past two decades have witnessed an ever-growing scholarly interest in regional clusters. The focus of research has mainly been on why clusters exist and what characteristics “functioning” clusters hold. Although the interest in more dynamic views on clusters is not new, in recent years, however, more attention has been paid to providing better explanations of how clusters change and develop over time, giving rise to an increasing popularity of different variants of the cluster life cycle approach. This article offers a critical review of various cluster life cycle models. We discuss the key ideas and arguments put forward by their main protagonists and we identify several shortcomings –…
Life-Cycle Land-Use Requirement for PV in Vietnam
2021
Over the last 15 years, photovoltaics (PV) in Vietnam has experienced development. The increased installed capacity of PV requires more land for installation sites as well as for manufacturing the plants’ component and waste treatment during the plants’ decommissioning. As a developing country, in which more than 80% of the population’s livelihood depends on agriculture, there are concerns about the competition of land for agriculture and solar development. This paper estimates the life-cycle land-use requirement for PV development in Vietnam, to provide the scientific-based evidence for policy makers on the quantity of land required, so that the land budget can be suitably allocated. The d…
A Conceptual Review on Using Consequential Life Cycle Assessment Methodology for the Energy Sector
2020
Energy is engaged in the supply chain of many economic sectors; therefore, the environmental impacts of the energy sector are indirectly linked to those of other sectors. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) is an appropriate methodology to examine the direct and indirect environmental impacts of a product due to technological, economic or social changes. To date, different methodological approaches are proposed, combining economic and environmental models. This paper reviews the basic concept of CLCA and the coupling of economic and environmental models for performing CLCA in the energy sector during the period 2006–2020, with the aim to provide a description of the different tools, …
Life Cycle Assessment of Luminescent Solar Concentrators Integrated into a Smart Window
2023
Energies : open-access journal of related scientific research, technology development and studies in policy and management 16(4), 1869 (2023). doi:10.3390/en16041869