Re-member: rehabilitation, reintegration and reconciliation of war-affected children

Reseña a cargo de uno de los co-editores,Prof. Dra. Cindy Mels.   Departamento de Psicología del Desarrollo y Educación Facultad de Psicología. Universidad Católica del Uruguay

Expanding the exergy concept to the urban water cycle

The world is urbanizing fast and this increases the pressure on available resources. In a world of cities, it is therefore crucial to take a new look at the way urban systems function: where do the resources come from and where do the wastes end up? It is essential to find ways to minimize urban impacts on resource depletion and environmental impacts and also to improve cycles within the systems. Energy and water cycles are vital to support urban life. Over the last decades, important advances have been made separately in the field of integrated water management and energy efficiency in urban areas. However, for urban planning purposes a shared framework is required that allows planners to model and understand the dynamics of the broader system to achieve an integrated management of the resources. Natural energy and water cycles are modified by metabolic profiles of the cities. The metabolic profile varies with the local resource availability and the level of technological development. To cope with this complexity, the concept of Exergy, based on Thermodynamic laws, and defined as the non-used fraction of energy, has been used to understand the energy cycle in the built environment. This will lead to new approaches towards urban planning and better resources use. This paper aims to find out if the exergy concept can be expanded to the water cycle defined as the use of the non-used water(-fraction). This way the cycle can be optimized and closed at a high efficiency level. In order to achieve this, we want to study to what extend the energy and water cycles are comparable, and how they can learn from each other in order to optimize their management

Waste water as a source for secondary resources and linkage to other urban systems

Urban metabolism studies have shown that, in terms of sheer mass, water is the largest and the most vital component. Population growth and higher living standards will cause ever increasing demands for good quality municipal and industrial water, and ever increasing sewage flows within a limited area. Within this paper we will address the question whether there are better ways of meeting the various qualities and consequently reduce our water needs. The quantitative assessment of water quality and its relationships with management activities is a necessary step in efficient water resources managemen

Low impact urban design by closing the urban water cycle

Abstract Current fast urbanization and increasing quality of life result in increments on resources’ demand. Increasing resources demand implies as well increments on waste production. However, limited availability of resources such us: oil, fresh water, phosphorus, metals (Boyle et al., 2010, Gordon et al., 2006; Rockström et al., 2009) and limited earth’s productive and carrying capacity (Rees, 1999) are potential restrictions to urban growth and urban sustainability. These pressures, however, are drivers towards more efficient resource use. In a world of cities, urban systems play a key role to find solutions for these global pollution and depletion problems (Xu et al., 2010). To alleviate these pressures, it is needed to minimize demand and to shift from linear to circular metabolism, in which recycling and reusing are key activities (Girardet, 2003)

Analysis of the Impact of Tax Incentives on the Consumption of Electric Vehicles

Laura Wheeler, a senior research associate, and Mels de Zeeuw, M.A. (economics), presented their work on electric vehicle tax incentives […] SEPTEMBER 30, 201

Water en nutriënten in de Kringloop

Zonder tegenmaatregelen zullen in 2050 gebruik en verspilling van zoet water op wereldschaal minstens drie keer groter zijn dan nu. Het watertekort op de planeet beperkt dan de voedselvoorziening en brengt nog meer schade toe aan ecosystemen. Er moet sterk worden ingezet op hergebruik van water, door het sluiten van kringlopen. Hier wordt een start gegeven vanuit de Millieu- en Watertechnologie. Wie reikt de technologen de hand vanuit Landinrichting en Planning, om een geïntegreerde aanpak te helpen ontwikkelen?