Search results for "saving"

Assessing opportunities for water savings in large-scale pressurized irrigation systems using actual evapotranspiration retrieved by surface energy b…

Remote sensing allows the observation of large land stretches and the acquisition of worthwhile information that can be used efficaciously in agro-hydrologic systems. Satellite imagery associated to computational models provide a reliable resource in estimating evapotranspiration (ET) fluxes based on surface energy balance. On irrigated crops, quantifying the spatial distribution of actual ET enables a broad range of applications such as irrigation management, monitoring water distribution, assessing crop water status and irrigation system performance. The general objective of the research was to propose a methodology to estimate ET by using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images and surface e…

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…

Green infrastructures for the energetic and environmental sustainability of cities

2019

The inexorable extension of urbanization is consuming huge amounts of soil drastically reducing natural vegetation, replacing it with buildings and low albedo surfaces. The changes due to the different thermal properties of surface materials and the lack of evapotranspiration in urban areas lead to a phenomenon known as "urban heat island effect". By reintroducing the vegetation back into the urban landscape, a partnership between nature and cities should be strengthened to create a new sustainable urban environment. Since the outer surfaces of building offer a great amount of space for vegetation, planting on roofs and walls has become one of the most innovative way to provide several envi…

Energy retrofit of a single-family house: Life cycle net energy saving and environmental benefits

2013

Abstract When a building undergoes a retrofit project, the goal of assessing energy and environmental performances of retrofit actions is a complex matter. Building and its environment are complex systems in which all sub-systems are strongly interdependent and influence the overall efficiency performance. In the following paper, starting from a literature review of building life-cycle studies, the authors highlight that there is a strong interplay among all the phases of a building life-cycle, as each one can affect one or more of the others. In detail, starting from the results of a “cradle to grave” life cycle study of an existing Mediterranean single-family house, a set of retrofit acti…

Expansión y crecimiento de las cooperativas de crédito durante el período 1993-2007 en la Comunidad Valenciana

2009

La Comunidad Valenciana es junto con Andalucía y el País Vasco, las Comunidades Autónomas donde más imbricadas se hallan las cooperativas de crédito; estas se han vinculado al sector agrario vía cajas rurales en las dos primeras, y al sector industrial, vía cajas populares, en la tercera. En este trabajo se analiza la evolución en los últimos quince años, período 1993-2007, del crédito cooperativo en la Comunidad Valenciana, materializado en el estudio de las cajas rurales con sede social en la misma. En él destacamos la experiencia de concentración de algunas entidades, así como la reciente creación de otras a partir de secciones de crédito de cooperativas agrarias. El estudio se efectúa c…

Assessing the performance of a large-scale irrigation system by estimations of actual evapotranspiration obtained by Landsat satellite images resampl…

2019

Abstract Remote sensing techniques allow monitoring the Earth surface and acquiring worthwhile information that can be used efficiently in agro-hydrological systems. Satellite images associated to computational models represent reliable resources to estimate actual evapotranspiration fluxes, ETa, based on surface energy balance. The knowledge of ETa and its spatial distribution is crucial for a broad range of applications at different scales, from fields to large irrigation districts. In single plots and/or in irrigation districts, linking water volumes delivered to the plots with the estimations of remote sensed ETa can have a great potential to develop new cost-effective indicators of irr…

The Global Side of the Investments-Savings Puzzle

2008

In this paper we re-examine the long standing and puzzling correlation between national savings and investment in industrial countries. We apply an econometric methodology that allows us to separate idiosyncratic correlation at the country level from correlation at the global level. In a major break with the existing literature, we find no evidence of a long run relationship in the idiosyncratic components of savings and investment. We also find that the global components in savings and investments commove, indicating that they react to shocks of a global nature.

The use of constructed wetlands for the treatment and reuse of urban wastewater for the irrigation of two warm-season turfgrass species under Mediter…

2017

Constructed wetlands (CWs) represent low-cost technology for the treatment and reuse of wastewater in urban areas. This study aimed to evaluate the pollutant removal efficiency of a CW system and to assess the effects of irrigation using treated urban wastewater on soil and on two warm-season turf species. The research was carried out in Sicily (Italy) on a pilot-scale horizontal subsurface flow system which was fed with treated urban wastewater following secondary treatment from an activated-sludge wastewater treatment plant. The pilot system was located in an open urban park and comprised two separate parallel planted units. Experimental fields of Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. and Paspalum …

The use of microfinance services among economically active disabled people: Evidence from Uganda

2010

Authors version of an article in the journal: Journal of International Development. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jid.1720 This study investigates the use of microfinance services among economically active disabled people in Uganda. The findings suggest that disabled people make more use of microfinance services than previously assumed. A total of 89 per cent of the survey's respondents state that they have used at least one type of microfinance service. Informal self-help schemes are more easily accessed than formal institutional schemes, and disabled people access more savings than loans. The multivariate analysis shows that access to microfinance service…

L'incremento della sostenibilità ambientale attraverso una corretta gestione dell'irrigazione.

2014

Lo scopo di questo lavoro è quello di mettere a punto, a partire dalle informazioni territoriali quali caratteristichemeteorologiche e pedologiche, uno studio capace di valutare la sostenibilità della gestione irrigua in tre ipotetiche parcelle sperimentali individuate nel territorio del sottobacino Iudeo-Bucari (TP). Sitratta di tre vigneti che rappresentano per caratteristiche morfologiche e gestionali l'intero sottobacino, ovvero una delle aree maggiormente vitate della Sicilia. Il fine è valutare la sostenibilità della gestione irrigua in termini di risparmio energetico, attraverso l'applicazione del modello di bilancio idrico FAO 56. Questo tipo di studio pone le basi per la redazione …