Water footprint of a wine bottle from the southern region of Portugal by using a life cycle assessment approach

The Water Footprint (WF) is currently the best tool to assess the amount of freshwater that is needed to produce a certain amount of product or service, by incorporating not only direct water uses, but also indirect water use and waste production. The main objective of this research was to calculate the WF of a common 0.75 L wine glass bottle, produced in the southern region of Portugal, by using a Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The system boundary was defined based on a cradle-to-gate approach, in order to analyze and improve the water use in both stages of wine production, i.e. the agricultural and the winery stages. Primary data was gathered from two different vineyards and wineries over two consecutive years of growing grapes and producing wine. The GaBi software, with its professional database, was used to assess the potential environmental impacts related to water availability and water quality as set out in the ISO 14046:2014 standard. Water availability was assessed with the main water scarcity regional characterization factors, such as Water Scarcity Index (WSI) and Available WAter REmaning (AWARE) and water quality was evaluated through acidification, eutrophication and aquatic ecotoxicology impact categories. The main results point out that the main wine hotspots are the viticulture phase, mainly due to fuel, fertilizer and pesticides consumption, and the wine primary packaging production. Water saving and efficiency measures are necessary to reduce the risks of severe water stress and water pollution.Este estudo recebeu financiamento do COMPETE 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI-0145-FEDER-023360), projeto Wine WATERFootprint. Os autores agradecem também à Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) e FEDER ao abrigo do Programa PT2020 pelo apoio financeiro ao CIMO UID/AGR /00690/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the seismic vulnerability assessment of urban areas using census data: The Lisbon metropolitan area as a pilot study area

This paper presents a procedure for the application of an index-based vulnerability assessment method to the seismic risk assessment of 292,978 reinforced concrete and 152,916 unreinforced masonry buildings in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA). A singular innovation of this proposed methodology is that it is tailored to be fed with data from the 2011 national population and housing Census. The vulnerability results are then combined with the seismic hazard component into a GIS tool used to map seismic risk across the LMA. The spatial representation of these results highlights the areas of different levels of vulnerability and risk

Understanding flood risk in urban environments: Spatial analysis of building vulnerability and hazard areas in the Lisbon metropolitan area

Climate change has brought about new risks while exacerbating existing ones, with floods now accounting for about 45% of global disasters. This trend indicates that the exposure to floods and resulting damages will continue to rise. This paper aims to contribute to the global efforts to enhance flood resilience in urban areas by introducing a physical vulnerability index for buildings in flood-prone urban areas and exploring its connection with flood hazard, as defined by the European Union Directive 2007/60/EC. An index-based methodology is proposed to assess the physical vulnerability of buildings to flooding, utilising the Portuguese Census and Georeferenced Buildings Database, collected on a nationwide scale. The physical vulnerability of buildings is evaluated in the context of the Lisbon metropolitan area (LMA) in Portugal, and the results are compared across different scales, contrasting flood hazard information for the entire LMA with the areas identified under the Flood Directive as having significant potential flood risk. Using cluster analysis, spatial patterns of flood risk are identified, highlighting areas where high flood depth and flood velocity overlap the high vulnerability of buildings. Lastly, potential adaptation paths are discussed, considering the diverse nature of the flood hazard and the lessons learnt from other flood events

Exposure and physical vulnerability indicators to assess seismic risk in urban areas: A step towards a multi-hazard risk analysis

Understanding the impacts of multi-hazard risk in urban areas is a fundamental step towards the adoption of resilience-enhancement and disaster prevention strategies, underpinning institutional adjustments aimed at improving the capacity of the authorities and stakeholders to manage risk. Within this framework, the work presented in this paper seeks to identify and analyze a set of exposure and buildings’ physical vulnerability indicators to be used as input to a parametric-based seismic vulnerability assessment methodology for the unreinforced masonry (URM) building stock of Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA). For this approach, data from the 2011 Census survey are used to define the parameters describing the building’s physical vulnerability and characterise the level of exposure in the study area. These results are then combined with the hazard component into a GIS tool. Seismic vulnerability results are presented for the URM building stock in LMA, and a more detailed analysis is conducted for the building stock of Setúbal municipality. Finally, risk outputs are presented and briefly discussed. Ultimately, understanding the impact and extent of multi-hazards can help prioritize resilience-increasing actions and disaster prevention measures to mitigate and manage natural hazards