Improving visual attractiveness to enhance city-river integration - a methodological approach for ongoing evaluation

The relationship between rivers and cities has evolved from a natural coexistence and interdependence to a progressive relationship of segregation and disintegration. This article uses a planning experiment to explore and discuss some concerns about visual attractiveness of city–river landscapes in promoting spatial integration of cities and rivers. It presents a methodological approach integrating expert opinions and public perception questionnaires. This is a contribution to making operational an ongoing aesthetic assessment of different dimensions and viewpoints at the city scale. This approach is illustrated with a case-study in the Lisbon metropolitan area and its main assessment results are integrated in a city–river profile that can be useful in ongoing evaluation processes of river landscapes and urban planning practice

CERELAC : the effective marketing strategy to attract Millennial parents

Through the analysis of CERELAC’s practical dilemma concerning the brand positioning in the Millennial generation, this thesis offers a examination of marketing related concepts such as marketing mix, positioning and also the importance a cohesive communication strategy to attract the desired target. CELERAC is a brand market leader in the infant cereal segment, full of history and tradition and for generations, moms have been using and recommending this brand. As one of the brands of Nestlé, the world leading company in nutrition, health and wellness, it can ensures the brand high quality and all the nutritional value for the baby’s especial needs, in the infant cereal category. However, today’s moms belong to the millennial generation, which can influence their purchasing behaviors. They are fully emerged in a digital world, and online reviews are the new word-of-moth. In addition, they aimed a healthier life style and gluten-free, GMO-free and organic are familiar terms. For that reason, this thesis aims to study, through primary and secondary research, if the current marketing strategy is prepared for the behavioral changes of millennial parents. Main results showed that millennial parents are shifting their eating habits and providing healthier options for their children. Even with a shift in the product and communication efforts to get closer to their life-style, there is no match between the CERELAC’s aimed positioning and the actual positioning, which is making millennial parents to choose other brands.Através da análise da problemática sugerida pela CERELAC no que diz respeito ao posicionamento da marca, esta dissertação irá abordar conceitos essenciais de marketing, como marketing-mix, posicionamento e a importância de estratégia de comunicação coesa para atrair o público-alvo. A CERELAC é uma marca líder em papas infantis, com história e tradição que durante gerações foi recomendada entre mães. Sendo uma das marcas da Nestlé –líder mundial em nutrição, saúde e bem-estar – consegue garantir qualidade máxima aos consumidores e ao mesmo tempo assegurar o valor nutricional necessário para o crescimento dos bebés. No entanto as mães de hoje pertencem à geração millennial, o que terá um impacto no seu comportamento durante a compra produtos para bebés. Estando totalmente emergida no mundo digital, onde os comentários online são o novo word-of-moth. Adotando um estilo de vida mais saudável, os produtos sem glúten/lactose e orgânicos, já são termos familiares. Por essa razão, esta dissertação pretende estudar, através de uma pesquisa primária e secundária, a viabilidade da estratégia de marketing atual da marca, tendo em conta a mudança comportamental desta nova geração de pais. Os resulta mostram que os pais millennial estão a mudar os seus hábitos alimentares não só para eles, como para os seus filhos. Mesmo com uma mudança no produto e na comunicação para se adaptar a estas novas tendências, o posicionamento da CERELAC não corresponde ao que a marca deseja, fazendo com que estes escolham outras marcas

O ensino da ecologia da paisagem em Portugal

Neste trabalho descreve-se a dinâmica da oferta do ensino da ecologia da paisagem desde o seu início em Portugal, no final dos anos 1980, até ao presente. Faz-se um apanhado das unidades curriculares atualmente em funcionamento no ensino superior, por ciclo de estudos e por instituição, e descrevem-se as tendências observadas nas últimas duas décadas no ensino desta disciplina. Em Portugal são lecionadas presentemente 17 unidades curriculares especificamente dedicadas à ecologia da paisagem, distribuídas por cursos de 1º e 2º ciclo e mestrados integrados, em 12 instituições. Depois de um período inicial marcado pelo rápido surgimento de unidades curriculares, observou-se o seu abandono, particularmente no âmbito da adequação dos cursos ao modelo de Bolonha. Recentemente, surgiram novas unidades, principalmente ao nível de programas de doutoramento (3º ciclo), que permitem compensar o anterior desaparecimento de unidades e manter uma considerável oferta de ensino em ecologia da paisagem no país

Ecologia da paisagem e suas aplicações profissionais em Portugal: os casos da gestão florestal e da conservação da biodiversidade

Neste trabalho avalia-se a aplicação da ecologia da paisagem à prática profissional em duas áreas distintas: a gestão florestal e a conservação da natureza e da biodiversidade. A partir de uma hipótese, de acordo com a qual a elevada aplicabilidade da ecologia da paisagem a determinadas áreas e a vasta experiência formativa nesta disciplina em Portugal deveria ser traduzida por um elevado número de aplicações práticas nos âmbitos da conservação da biodiversidade e a gestão florestal, avaliamos um conjunto de indicadores de utilização da estrutura teórica, dos conceitos e dos métodos desta disciplina a partir da análise de um conjunto de documentos concebidos a diferentes níveis organizacionais. Os resultados indicam que a presença da ecologia da paisagem nestas duas áreas profissionais é muito ténue, sendo muito poucos os casos onde é clara a influência da disciplina na conceção e desenvolvimento de políticas, planos e projetos. As explicações para esta situação podem envolver simultaneamente insuficiência de transferência de conhecimento da ecologia da paisagem para o mundo profissional e uma não sincronização entre a formação académica e a aplicação

Fluxes of gaseous elemental mercury on a Mediterranean coastal grassland

Coastal rural areas can be a source of elemental mercury, but the potential influence of their topographic and climatic particularities on gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) fluxes have not been investigated extensively. In this study, gaseous elemental mercury was measured over Mediterranean coastal grassland located in Northern Greece from 2014 to 2015 and GEM fluxes were evaluated utilizing Monin–Obukhov similarity theory. The GEM fluxes ranged from –50.30 to 109.69 ng m−2 h−1 with a mean value equal to 10.50 ± 19.14 ng m−2 h−1. Concerning the peak events, with high positive and low negative GEM fluxes, those were recorded from the morning until the evening. Rain events were a strong contributing factor for enhanced GEM fluxes. The enhanced turbulent mixing under daytime unstable conditions led to greater evasion and positive GEM fluxes, while, during nighttime periods, the GEM evasion is lower, indicating the effect of atmospheric stability on GEM fluxes. The coastal grassland with its specific characteristics influences the GEM fluxes and this area could be characterized as a source of elemental mercury. This study is one of the rare efforts in the research community to estimate GEM fluxes in a coastal natural site based on aerodynamic gradient method

The European Landscape Convention at urban scale: insights from an exploratory approach in Lisbon

Urban landscapes are an essential part of the daily lives of most of Europe’s citizens. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) recognises the value of everyday landscapes for the well-being of citizens, in urban areas as well. There is far more experience in dealing with landscape in rural and natural areas than in urban areas. Literature dealing with urban landscape is rather focalized on natural elements within the cities than on built areas. Downscaling the Landscape Character Assessment (LCA), using the ELC framework, in major urban areas is still a challenge. Thus, this paper aims at discussing how LCA approaches developed for broad-scale non-urban settings need to be reviewed, adapted and articulated with other disciplinary approaches. Within the exploratory exercise carried out in the city of Lisbon, it was also explored how different maps, as produced by different groups, can be integrated into a joined consensual view that captures the diversity and the uniqueness that provides the character of the urban landscape.Les paysages urbains représentent un élément essentiel dans le quotidien de la majorité des Européens. La CEP reconnaît tout autant la valeur des paysages pour le bien-être des habitants des zones urbaines. Il existe cependant nettement plus d’études consacrées aux paysages des zones rurales et naturelles que d’études dévolues à ce sujet au niveau des zones urbaines. La littérature se focalise davantage sur les éléments naturels à l’intérieur des villes plutôt que sur les zones bâties. La réduction d’échelle de l’évaluation du caractère d’un paysage par le biais du cadre de la CEP demeure un défi dans les grandes agglomérations. C’est pourquoi notre article vise à examiner comment les approches par l’évaluation du caractère du paysage (ECP) mises au point pour les configurations non urbaines à large échelle doivent être revues, adaptées et articulées autour d’autres approches disciplinaires. Dans cette étude exploratoire menée à Lisbonne, nous avons aussi examiné comment différentes cartes, produites par différents groupes, peuvent être intégrées dans une vision consensuelle commune à même de saisir la diversité et la singularité qui caractérisent les paysages urbains

Landscape ecology in meeting challenges in land management: the case of Portugal

The practice of planning and management at the landscape scale has increased over the year and in some fields, such as forestry, hydrology, or biodiversity conservation, the landscape approach is already a requirement. Management at this scale is a challenging task due to the complexity of the socio-economicecological systems under consideration but mostly due to the level of uncertainty of current and future drivers of change and their effects. Theoretical foundations and methods to support management of landscapes can be found within landscape ecology, an emerging science field in the 1990’s and 2000’s but now fully established despite the diversity of perspectives. In Portugal, landscape ecology has also emerged in the 1990’s but applications in real world cases are infrequent. The goal of this work was to analyse the role of the science of landscape ecology in meeting or contributing to meet challenges in landscape management in Portugal. We analysed approaches and methods used to address the sustainable management of landscapes as well as particular case studies in forestry, fire hazard reduction, biodiversity conservation and regional planning where landscape ecology based knowledge or methods have been applied. Considering the insufficiency of applications in Portugal revealed by this work, we additionally present principles, guidelines and measures to be used in land management in general and within in the fields described above based upon the foundations and the practice in the field of landscape ecology, particularly in Portugal

COVID-19 in pastoral contexts in the greater Horn of Africa: Implications and recommendations

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that continues to spread around the world, including to Africa where cases are steadily increasing. The African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is leading the pandemic response in Africa, with direction from the World Health Organization guidelines for critical preparedness, readiness, and response actions. These are written for national governments, lacking nuance for population and local differences. In the greater Horn of Africa, conditions unique to pastoralists such as inherent mobility and limited health and service infrastructure will influence the dynamics of COVID-19. In this paper, we present a One Health approach to the pandemic, consisting of interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration focused on the determinants of health and health outcomes amongst pastoralists. Our contextualized public health strategy includes community One Health teams and suggestions for where to implement targeted public health measures. We also analyse the interaction of COVID-19 impacts, including those caused directly by the disease and those that result from control efforts, with ongoing shocks and vulnerabilities in the region (e.g. desert locusts, livestock disease outbreaks, floods, conflict, and development displacement). We give recommendations on how to prepare for and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its secondary impacts on pastoral areas. Given that the full impact of COVID-19 on pastoral areas is unknown currently, our health recommendations focus on disease prevention and understanding disease epidemiology. We emphasize targeting pastoral toponymies with public health measures to secure market access and mobility while combating the direct health impacts of COVID-19. A contextualized approach for the COVID-19 public health response in pastoral areas in the Greater Horn of Africa, including how the pandemic will interact with existing shocks and vulnerabilities, is required for an effective response, while protecting pastoral livelihoods and food, income, and nutrition security.Peer reviewe