Search results for "circularity"
showing 10 items of 15 documents
The Sustainability of Reclaimed Asphalt as a Resource for Road Pavement Management through a Circular Economic Model
2019
The transition of the road engineering industry to a circular way of doing business requires more efficient and sustainable resources, energy, and waste management. The rates in which reclaimed asphalt is being recycled or reused in the asphalt mixture production process constitutes a crucial parameter in this transition. This paper aims at establishing a further step towards the combined circularity and sustainability of asphalt pavements, by introducing a framework for quantifying their Material Circularity Index. The framework is based on the methodology proposed by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and accordingly tailored for the context of asphalt pavements. This study, thus, attempts to…
Comparing the Material Circularity Index of the Italian and Spanish motorways: A case study over the Mediterranean basin
2022
Closely following the attempt of the pavement engineering industry to comply with the principles of Circular Economy (CE) while simultaneously promoting its principles, it can be detected that a significant effort is being made towards the minimization of the energy and raw materials usually utilized. In this regard, Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) is a product that exhibits a tremendous exploitation potential. Knowing that by definition CE is restorative [1], regenerative, and aims to keep products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times [2], i.e. it supports the “re-circulation” of materials and energy within the same or alternative product systems and thus the e…
URBAN RESILIENCE AND WASTE MANAGEMENT: PROPOSALS OF NEW INFRASTRUCTURES FOR URBAN AREAS AND BUILDINGS
2015
La produzione ingente di rifiuti, quale conseguenza di costumi di vita volti allo spreco, rende vulnerabili i sistemi urbani che possono essere sottoposti, in casi emergenziali, a pressioni eccezionali e incontrollate con situazioni prossime al collasso. Un’opportuna e corretta gestione integrata dei rifiuti contribuisce alla resilienza dei sistemi urbani. Perciò si rendono necessarie la pianificazione e la progettazione di nuovi servizi e l’individuazione/integrazione di spazi e dotazioni tecnologiche per incentivare la popolazione a effettuare la raccolta differenziata in modo corretto e costante. Si presentano gli esiti di uno studio svolto in un piccolo centro siciliano. Partendo dalle …
Composite Material Recycling Technology—State-of-the-Art and Sustainable Development for the 2020s
2021
Recently, significant events took place that added immensely to the sociotechnical pressure for developing sustainable composite recycling solutions, namely (1) a ban on composite landfilling in Germany in 2009, (2) the first major wave of composite wind turbines reaching their End-of-Life (EoL) and being decommissioned in 2019–2020, (3) the acceleration of aircraft decommissioning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and (4) the increase of composites in mass production cars, thanks to the development of high volume technologies based on thermoplastic composites. Such sociotechnical pressure will only grow in the upcoming decade of 2020s as other countries are to follow Germany by limiting and ba…
NATURALLY AVAILABLE SOLUTIONS FOR BUILDING NEW METABOLIC TERRITORIES
2021
Building new metabolic territories is a proactive way of responding to the challenges and precariousness of the contemporary city. Byintegrating solutions inspired by new scientific advances in urban ecology, cities are able to address some of the environmental threats. Many European cities are implementing alternative nature-based solutions to protect their health and tackle water scarcity, land consumption and climate change, to increase citizens' well-being. Wellbeing and health (Agenda 2030) are the most important analytical parameters for measuring the results and impacts of environmental project actions. With this in mind, the study presents a "nature-action" project hypothesis for wh…
Dibujando una nueva cartografía de la colonialidad Sur-Norte en época de crisis: la reproducción de la episteme y el estilo de vida europeo en las mi…
2018
El artículo analiza la migración de cualificados españoles a los espacios de Educación Superior ecuatoriana desde 2010 a 2016, con el objetivo de entender la experiencia de movilidad cualificada española hacia Ecuador. Para ello se ha utilizado una metodología cualitativa a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas a españoles y ecuatorianos que trabajan en los espacios de la Educación Superior. Además, se ha complementado con encuestas online autoadministradas y con observación participante. Se concluye que entre España y Ecuador se han creado espacios de circularidad promovidos por un contexto de crisis económica en España y por una gran inversión en la Educación Superior ecuatoriana. Sin e…
Adaptive independent vector analysis for multi-subject complex-valued fMRI data.
2017
Abstract Background Complex-valued fMRI data can provide additional insights beyond magnitude-only data. However, independent vector analysis (IVA), which has exhibited great potential for group analysis of magnitude-only fMRI data, has rarely been applied to complex-valued fMRI data. The main challenges in this application include the extremely noisy nature and large variability of the source component vector (SCV) distribution. New method To address these challenges, we propose an adaptive fixed-point IVA algorithm for analyzing multiple-subject complex-valued fMRI data. We exploited a multivariate generalized Gaussian distribution (MGGD)- based nonlinear function to match varying SCV dis…
The emergency of resource flow management in Palermo, Italian Capital of Culture for 2018. A proposal for a circular management integrated in its old…
2017
The present study aims at examining the gap between both the exponential openness of Palermo to the international scene, causing a wide acknowledgement of its cultural attractiveness, and itsunflappable management of city services that will face after the consequent increase of tourist andurban flows to the historical and cultural areas of the city. Our interest is especially focused on waste to be intended as resource flows in a circular management system. Compared with the other urban areas, the management of city services in the old town center is characterized by some operative issues to be faced: its specified morphological urban texture and its immaterial, psychological, and symbolica…
Eliminating self-reference from Grelling's and Zwicker's paradoxes
2014
El objetivo de este artículo es ofrecer versiones de las paradojas de Grelling (sobre el predicado"heterológico") y de Zwicker (sobre el hiperjuego) inspiradas en la paradoja de Yablo. Nuestras versiones de estas paradojas no parecen involucrar ni autorreferencia ni circularidad viciosa. The goal of this paper is to present Yabloesque versions of Grelling¿s and Zwicker¿s paradoxes concerning the notions of ¿heterological¿ and ¿hypergame¿ respectively. We will offer counterparts of these paradoxes that do not seem to involve self-reference or vicious circularity.
Integrating Circularity in the Sustainability Assessment of Asphalt Mixtures
2020
Rising concerns about the impacts that the road engineering industry is imposing to the environment have redirected national road authorities to firmly re-consider the sustainability implications of their operations. Lately, though, sustainability has established a forceful correlation with the Circular Economy and its principles. The road engineering industry, therefore, is moving towards more circular approaches. However, this is occurring without the assessment of the potential impacts of such a transition. For this reason, in this study, a composite indicator, namely, Environmental Sustainability and Circularity indicator (ESCi), for investigating the potential effects that increased ci…