Carbon dioxide emissions of Antarctic tourism

The increase of tourism to the Antarctic continent may entail not only local but also global environmental impacts. These latter impacts, which are mainly caused by transport, have been generally ignored. As a result, there is a lack of data on the global impacts of Antarctic tourism in terms of energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. This paper presents and applies a methodology for quantifying CO2 emissions, both for the Antarctic vessel fleet as a whole and per passenger (both per trip and per day). The results indicate that the average tourist trip to Antarctica results in 5.44 t of CO2 emissions per passenger, or 0.49 t per passenger and day. Approximately 70% of these emissions are attributable to cruising and 30% to flying, which highlights the global environmental relevance of local transport for this type of touris

Ecodisseny urbà a la ciutat de Barcelona

El disseny de ciutats sostenibles es perfila com la millor solució per fer front als problemes ambientals globals que ha creat la nostra societat. Per fer-ho, calen noves perspectives i instruments amb els quals millorar el disseny i la planificació urbanístics. Ateses les circumstàncies l'ecodisseny sorgeix com una de les eines essecials per avançar vers unes ciutats més sostenibles. En aquest article presentem tres estudis de cas d'aplicació de l'ecodisseny a Barcelona: un fanal, un punt verd de barri i un barri sencer

Ecodiseño urbano en la ciudad de Barcelona

El diseño de ciudades sostenibles se perfila como la mejor solución para hacer frente a los problemas ambientales globales que ha creado nuestra sociedad. Para ello, se requieren nuevos enfoques e instrumentos con los que mejorar el diseño y la planificación urbanísticos. Dadas las circunstancias, el ecodiseño surge como una de las herramientas esenciales para avanzar hacia unas ciudades más sotenibles. En este artículo presentamos tres estudios de caso de aplicación del ecodiseño en Barcelona: una farola, un punto limpio de barrio y un barrio entero

Introducing ergonomics requirements in the eco-design of energy-related products from users' behaviour approach

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Ergonomics has been a very important activity in the design process. However, ergonomics rarely includes the environmental requirements into the design of products. The article proposes and presents the Eco-Ergo model through its application to a real-world product, a washing machine, to allow designers and ergonomists to establish product design requirements in order to minimise environmental impacts related to user-product interaction during the use stage. This model uses a visual language of representation, Blueprinting-based, that helps designers explore problems they have not previously considered during the market research when a wide variety of products with different interaction elements is analysed. The application of this model allows direct efforts and attention on the user analysis phase in the most influential user's actions on the environmental performance of energy-related products during use, establishing ergonomics requirements related to users behaviour at the initial design phase.Practitioner summary: This study provides a proposal to incorporate ergonomics into the practice of eco-design through the use of human factors in the establishment of initial eco-design requirements. This blueprint-based model combines an empirical and theoretical approach, based on the product test developed by designers, ergonomists and environmentalists

LCM in urban planning for diminishing GHG: case study on concrete sidewalks

The Kyoto protocol, signed by 160 countries, pledges greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions of at least 5% relative to 1990 levels [1]. Besides the global concern and action to mitigate GHG emissions, national-level policies are increasingly being supplemented with city-scale actions to mitigate climate change [2]. Marshall [3] makes us notice that although much attention on mitigating climate change has focused on alternative fuels, energy consumption in vehicles, and electricity generation, better urban design represents an important yet undervalued opportunity. The built environment is responsible for huge amounts of pollution and waste generation [4] at millions of different locations worldwide. And one of the major construction materials is concrete.Postprint (published version

Medi ambient, Energia i Residus

Postprint (published version

Resolving differing stakeholder perceptions of urban rooftop farming in Mediterranean cities : promoting food production as a driver for innovative forms of urban agriculture

Urban agriculture (UA) is spreading within the Global North, largely for food production, ranging from household individual gardens to community gardens that boost neighborhood regeneration. Additionally, UA is also being integrated into buildings, such as Urban Rooftop Farming (URF). Some URF experiences succeed in North America both as private and community initiatives. To date, little attention has been paid to how stakeholders perceive UA and URF in the Mediterranean or to the role of food production in these initiatives. This study examines the promotion and inclusion of new forms of UA through the practice of URF and contributes to the nascent literature on the stakeholder and public perceptions of UA. It seeks to understand how those perceptions shape the development of new urban agriculture practices and projects. Barcelona (Spain) was used as a Mediterranean case study where UA and URF projects are growing in popularity. Through semi-structured interviews with 25 core stakeholders, we show that UA is largely perceived as a social activity rather than a food production initiative, because the planning of urban gardens in Barcelona was traditionally done to achieve leisure and other social goals. However, several stakeholders highlighted the potential to increase urban fertility through URF by occupying currently unused spaces. As a result, the positive valuation of URF depends on the conceptualization of UA as a social or food production activity. In turn, such conceptualization shapes barriers and opportunities for the development of URF. While most UA-related stakeholders (e.g., food co-ops, NGOs) preferred soil-based UA, newer stakeholders (e.g., architects) highlighted the economic, social and environmental opportunities of local and efficient food production through innovative URF

The ecodesign and planning of sustainable neighbourhoods : the Vallbona case study (Barcelona)

Global sustainability is increasingly an issue of urban sustainability, being essential to encourage more benign trajectories of urbanisation. For this, there is need for a framework that could aid in the process of designing and redesigning (retrofitting) cities. The aim of this paper is to present and describe the methodology of urban ecodesign, which is characterized by a systematic incorporation of environmental life cycle considerations into the design of urban systems. The paper presents a case study of neighbourhood ecodesign from the city of Barcelona (Vallbona neighbourhood). This practical experience shows that the inclusion of sustainability criteria at an early stage of the design and planning of urban systems is the best strategy for environmental protection.In addition; a methodological framework is described in order to provide planners with a structured way of designing urban settlements so as to move towards sustainable urban environments.La sostenibilidad global es cada vez más un tema de sostenibilidad urbana. Por este motivo, es necesario un marco de trabajo que pueda ayudar en el proceso de diseño y rediseño (rehabilitación) de nuestras ciudades. El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar y describir la metodología de ecodiseño adaptada a los entornos urbanos, la cual se caracteriza por la incorporación sistemática de las consideraciones ambientales a lo largo de su ciclo de vida. El documento presenta un caso de estudio de ecodiseño del barrio de Vallbona (Barcelona). Esta experiencia demuestra que la inclusión de criterios de sostenibilidad en las etapas iniciales de diseño y planificación de los sistemas urbanos es la mejor estrategia para la prevención ambiental. Además, se presenta un marco metodológico con el fin de proporcionar a los planificadores una forma estructurada de diseño de los asentamientos urbanos que les permita avanzar hacia entornos urbanos más sostenibles