Search results for "environmental assessment"
showing 10 items of 25 documents
Disintegration of Italian rural landscapes to international environmental agreements
2015
In Italy, the first law that puts landscape and historical buildings under public control was implemented in 1922. While this represents a significant achievement for those times, for that law landscape essentially has an historical and aesthetic connotation, without any explicit reference to the components of flora, fauna and geology. Today, many protection policies and initiatives are still biased by the lack of reference to the intrinsic value that biodiversity and ecosystem services have for the maintenance of traditional landscapes, as well as for the survival of the human species. The priority accorded to historical and aesthetic values can lead to a lack of attention to the complex r…
Environmentally Assessing Buildings Characterized by Complex Shape and Innovative Materials
2013
This paper addresses the emerging problem consisting in a correct energy and environmental evaluation of buildings belonging to the new architectural tendency. In fact, innovative buildings are often characterized by new materials that, not rarely, are not contemplated in current environmental databases. Moreover, unconventional shapes of these buildings could require further manufacturing processes that involve additional energy consumption not included in the commercial environmental database. Through the work a spotlighting of the problem is presented with reference to a real innovative building.
Comparison of the greenhouse gas emissions of a high-rise residential building assessed with different national LCA approaches– IEA EBC Annex 72
2020
Introduction: The international research project IEA EBC Annex 72 investigates the life cycle related environmental impacts caused by buildings. The project aims inter alia to harmonise LCA approaches on buildings. Methods: To identify major commonalities and discrepancies among national LCA approaches, reference buildings were defined to present and compare the national approaches. A residential high-rise building located in Tianjin, China, was selected as one of the reference buildings. The main construction elements are reinforced concrete shear walls, beams and floor slabs. The building has an energy reference area of 4566 m2 and an operational heating energy demand of 250 MJ/m2a. An ex…
Similarities and Differences in the Evaluative Methods
2016
The awareness in the last few years surrounding the use of natural resources and landscape transformations has led to the development of several tools designed to evaluate the effects of human actions on them. The environmental evaluation methods, born in the USA, have known different disciplinary evolutions according to the following factors: firstly, regarding the object to assess; secondly, pertaining to the national juridical framework; and thirdly, relating to the progress in this field. Today we can affirm that we have, more or less, as many assessment techniques as countries. In fact, other than the Environmental Assessment Impact and Strategic Environmental Assessment, common to dif…
Energy and environmental benefits in public buildings as a result of retrofit actions
2011
Abstract The paper presents the results of an energy and environmental assessment of a set of retrofit actions implemented in the framework of the EU Project “BRITA in PuBs” (Bringing Retrofit Innovation to Application in Public Buildings – no: TREN/04/FP6EN/S07.31038/503135). Outcomes arise from a life cycle approach focused on the following issues: (i) construction materials and components used during retrofits; (ii) main components of conventional and renewable energy systems; (iii) impacts related to the building construction, for the different elements and the whole building. The results are presented according to the data format of the Environmental Product Declaration. Synthetic indi…
Testing the usability of the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) method for comparison of EIA and SEA results
2008
Abstract This study examines how the results of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) could be compared using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) method. There are many tools and techniques that have been developed for use in impact assessment processes, including scoping, checklists, matrices, qualitative and quantitative models, literature reviews, and decision-support systems. While impact assessment processes have become more technically complicated, it is recognized that approaches including simpler applications of available tools and techniques are also appropriate. The Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) is a tool for organizing, a…
An integrated and shared approach to sea of the regional town master plan of Sicily
2006
The work addresses one of the most important problems in contemporary environmental land planning. Already existing procedures, in fact, must now conform to the new requirements imposed by the recent national and international regulations and standards that call for a more conscious approach to the use of natural resources. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), for example, takes into account, the different effects of a plan in various fields such as the environment, the economy and the development. This obviously calls for global analysis tools that could help administrators, stakeholders and technicians in the decision-making process of such complex systems. SEA of the Town Master Pla…
Technical assessment and evaluation of environmental models and software: Letter to the Editor
2011
International audience; This letter details the collective views of a number of independent researchers on the technical assessment and evaluation of environmental models and software. The purpose is to stimulate debate and initiate action that leads to an improved quality of model development and evaluation, so increasing the capacity for models to have positive outcomes from their use. As such, we emphasize the relationship between the model evaluation process and credibility with stakeholders (including funding agencies) with a view to ensure continued support for modelling efforts. Many journals, including EM&S, publish the results of environmental modelling studies and must judge the w…
Strategic Environmental Assessment: Integrating Landscape and Urban Planning
2016
This book explores the opportunities offered by Strategic Environmental Assessment in the context of guaranteeing the synchronized integration of landscape (in all its aspects) within urban plans, thereby helping to overcome the constraints of rigidly framed, sector-focused laws and a purely aesthetic concept of landscape. In pursuit of this goal, various scholars have previously attempted to construct arrays of indicators relating to the different conceptions of “landscape”. This book critically examines the most complete proposals of this nature, systematizing and comparing them and, finally, offering some guidelines with respect to their codification within specific application protocols…
The role of transportation and its involved sources of energy in the environmental assessment of marble producing sites
2018
Marble is acquiring large popularity as building material. Since building materials are now required to be characterized by high energy and environmental performances, marble is entailed to fulfill top-level requirements. About its environmental performances an important European Decision establishes criteria for the award of the Community eco-label to this material. Unfortunately, this Decision is focused on mining and processing activities, seemingly neglecting marble transport. In contrast, this phase affects the whole working chain because it releases (pollutant) emissions and involves the use of primary and, in case, secondary energy sources. Here, the focus is on the role played by tr…