Promoting low carbon behaviours through personalised information? Long-term evaluation of a carbon calculator interview

The UK needs to accelerate action to achieve its 80 per cent carbon reduction target by 2050 as it is otherwise in danger of lagging behind. A much discussed question in this context is whether voluntary behaviour change initiatives can make a significant contribution to reaching this target. While providing individuals with general information on climate change or low carbon action is increasingly seen as ineffective, some studies argue that personalised information has greater potential to encourage behaviour change. This mixed methods study examines this claim through a longitudinal field experiment which tested the effectiveness of a carbon calculator interview. It finds that the intervention significantly raised awareness of ways in which participants could reduce their carbon footprint. However, this increased awareness did not translate into measurable behaviour changes in relation to home energy and travel. Qualitative analysis shows that participants refer to infrastructural, social and psychological barriers to change. This indicates that more ambitious government and corporate action is required to speed up carbon reductio

Current tidal power technologies and their suitability for applications in coastal and marine areas

A considerable body of research is currently being performed to quantify available tidal energy resources and to develop efficient devices with which to harness them. This work is naturally focussed on maximising power generation from the most promising sites, and a review of the literature suggests that the potential for smaller scale, local tidal power generation from shallow near-shore sites has not yet been investigated. If such generation is feasible, it could have the potential to provide sustainable electricity for nearby coastal homes and communities as part of a distributed generation strategy, and would benefit from easier installation and maintenance, lower cabling and infrastructure requirements and reduced capital costs when compared with larger scale projects. This article reviews tidal barrages and lagoons, tidal turbines, oscillating hydrofoils and tidal kites to assess their suitability for small-scale electricity generation in shallow waters. This is achieved by discussing the power density, scalability, durability, maintainability, economic potential and environmental impacts of each concept. The performance of each technology in each criterion is scored against axial-flow turbines, allowing for them to be ranked according to their overall suitability. The review suggests that tidal kites and range devices are not suitable for small-scale shallow water applications due to depth and size requirements respectively. Cross-flow turbines appear to be the most suitable technology, as they have high power densities and a maximum size that is not constrained by water depth

How sharing can contribute to more sustainable cities

\ua9 2017 by the authors. Recently, much of the literature on sharing in cities has focused on the sharing economy, in which people use online platforms to share underutilized assets in the marketplace. This view of sharing is too narrow for cities, as it neglects the myriad of ways, reasons, and scales in which citizens share in urban environments. Research presented here by the Liveable Cities team in the form of participant workshops in Lancaster and Birmingham, UK, suggests that a broader approach to understanding sharing in cities is essential. The research also highlighted tools and methods that may be used to help to identify sharing in communities. The paper ends with advice to city stakeholders, such as policymakers, urban planners, and urban designers, who are considering how to enhance sustainability in cities through sharing

Computational prediction of pressure change in the vicinity of tidal stream turbines and the consequences for fish survival rate

The presence of Tidal Stream Turbines (TST) for tidal power production, leads to changes in the local physical environment that could affect fish. While other work has considered the implications with respect to conventional hydroelectric devices (i.e. hydroelectric dams), including studies such as physical impact with the rotors and pressure variation effects, this research considers the effects of sudden changes in pressure and turbulence on the hypothetical fish with respect to TSTs. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to investigate changes to the environment, and thus study the implications for fish. Two CFD methods are employed, an embedded Blade Element representation of the rotor in a RANS CFD model, and a blade resolved geometry using a moving reference frame. A new data interpretation approach is proposed as the primary source of environmental impact data; ‘rate of change of pressure’ with time along a streamtrace. This work also presents results for pressure, pressure gradients, shear rates and turbulence to draw conclusions about changes to the local physical environment. The assessment of the local impact is discussed in terms of the implications to individual fish passing a single or array of TST devices

Hydrokinetic Turbine Effects on Fish Swimming Behaviour

Hydrokinetic turbines, targeting the kinetic energy of fast-flowing currents, are under development with some turbines already deployed at ocean sites around the world. It remains virtually unknown as to how these technologies affect fish, and rotor collisions have been postulated as a major concern. In this study the effects of a vertical axis hydrokinetic rotor with rotational speeds up to 70 rpm were tested on the swimming patterns of naturally occurring fish in a subtropical tidal channel. Fish movements were recorded with and without the rotor in place. Results showed that no fish collided with the rotor and only a few specimens passed through rotor blades. Overall, fish reduced their movements through the area when the rotor was present. This deterrent effect on fish increased with current speed. Fish that passed the rotor avoided the near-field, about 0.3 m from the rotor for benthic reef fish. Large predatory fish were particularly cautious of the rotor and never moved closer than 1.7 m in current speeds above 0.6 ms-1. The effects of the rotor differed among taxa and feeding guilds and it is suggested that fish boldness and body shape influenced responses. In conclusion, the tested hydrokinetic turbine rotor proved non-hazardous to fish during the investigated conditions. However, the results indicate that arrays comprising multiple turbines may restrict fish movements, particularly for large species, with possible effects on habitat connectivity if migration routes are exploited. Arrays of the investigated turbine type and comparable systems should therefore be designed with gaps of several metres width to allow large fish to pass through. In combination with further research the insights from this study can be used for guiding the design of hydrokinetic turbine arrays where needed, so preventing ecological impacts

Query Migration from Object Oriented World to Semantic World

In the last decades, object-oriented approach was able to take a large share of databases market aiming to design and implement structured and reusable software through the composition of independent elements in order to have programs with a high performance. On the other hand, the mass of information stored in the web is increasing day after day with a vertiginous speed, exposing the currently web faced with the problem of creating a bridge so as to facilitate access to data between different applications and systems as well as to look for relevant and exact information wished by users. In addition, all existing approach of rewriting object oriented languages to SPARQL language rely on models transformation process to guarantee this mapping. All the previous raisons has prompted us to write this paper in order to bridge an important gap between these two heterogeneous worlds (object oriented and semantic web world) by proposing the first provably semantics preserving OQLto-SPARQL translation algorithm for each element of OQL Query (SELECT clause, FROM clause, FILTER constraint, implicit/ explicit join and union/intersection SELECT queries)