CARBON FOOTPRINT OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTION IN THE TREVISO AREA (ITALY)

Carbon Footprint (CF) is an environmental indicator used in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that allows measuring the total amount of CO2 emissions caused directly or indirectly by an activity or accumulated through the life cycle stages of a product (ISO 14064-14067). In this article CF was used to analyse and assess the environmental impacts of the resources used for the collection of municipal solid waste by the company Contarina S.p.A. Contarina oversees waste management for part of the Treviso province (Italy), serving about 260,000 appliances in 50 municipalities distributed in the territory. The presented case study assessed CF of year 2015 related the whole fleet involved in door-to-door collection of municipal solid waste without taking into account treatment processes. In addition, a future scenario, in which part of the current fleet is replaced by compressed natural gas engine (CNG) based vehicles, was assessed and compared to the current status. The CF was performed by adapting the SimaPro software from PRè, one of the most widely used LCA software since the nineties, by introducing fuel based analysis and creating CNG lorries. The analysis aimed at improving sustainability of Contarina’s services while fostering an informed development and testing of new technologies aimed at reducing its overall greenhouse gas emissions

Assessment of Climate Change Impacts in the North Adriatic Coastal Area. Part II: Consequences for Coastal Erosion Impacts at the Regional Scale

Coastal erosion is an issue of major concern for coastal managers and is expected to increase in magnitude and severity due to global climate change. This paper analyzes the potential consequences of climate change on coastal erosion (e.g., impacts on beaches, wetlands and protected areas) by applying a Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) methodology to the North Adriatic (NA) coast of Italy. The approach employs hazard scenarios from a multi-model chain in order to project the spatial and temporal patterns of relevant coastal erosion stressors (i.e., increases in mean sea-level, changes in wave height and variations in the sediment mobility at the sea bottom) under the A1B climate change scenario. Site-specific environmental and socio-economic indicators (e.g., vegetation cover, geomorphology, population) and hazard metrics are then aggregated by means of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) with the aim to provide an example of exposure, susceptibility, risk and damage maps for the NA region. Among seasonal exposure maps winter and autumn depict the worse situation in 2070–2100, and locally around the Po river delta. Risk maps highlight that the receptors at higher risk are beaches, wetlands and river mouths. The work presents the results of the RRA tested in the NA region, discussing how spatial risk mapping can be used to establish relative priorities for intervention, to identify hot-spot areas and to provide a basis for the definition of coastal adaptation and management strategies.publishedVersio

SADA and DESYRE DSSs descriptive classification criteria (main issues related to DSS's)

Brownfield rehabilitation is an essential step for sustainable land-use planning and management in the European Union. In brownfield regeneration processes, the legacy contamination plays a significant role, firstly because of the persistent contaminants in soil or groundwater which extends the existing hazards and risks well into the future; and secondly, problems from historical contamination are often more difficult to manage than contamination caused by new activities. Due to the complexity associated with the management of brownfield site rehabilitation, Decision Support Systems (DSSs) have been developed to support problem holders and stakeholders in the decision-making process encompassing all phases of the rehabilitation. This paper presents a comparative study between two DSSs, namely SADA (Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistance) and DESYRE (Decision Support System for the Requalification of Contaminated Sites), with the main objective of showing the benefits of using DSSs to introduce and process data and then to disseminate results to different stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. For this purpose, a former car manufacturing plant located in the Brasov area, Central Romania, contaminated chiefly by heavy metals and total petroleum hydrocarbons, has been selected as a case study to apply the two examined DSSs. Major results presented here concern the analysis of the functionalities of the two DSSs in order to identify similarities, differences and complementarities and, thus, to provide an indication of the most suitable integration options

Redefining coherence : interaction and experience in new music, 1985-1995

This thesis presents an analytical exploration of a number of works from 1985 to 1995, many of which have not previously received detailed attention. Although they stem from quite varied stylistic and aesthetic backgrounds, all these pieces are situated in a particular position within the tradition of Western art music: they show an approach which is neither ‘avant-garde’ in its commitment to continual formal and technical novelty, nor clearly associated with any other existing compositional school. Instead, they engage with a diverse range of models, both musical and external; intra-musical connections range from the legacy of the broader Classical and Romantic common-practice tradition to the varied timbral and formal developments of the twentieth-century avant-garde, whilst extra-musical connections seem almost endless, encompassing fields from art to astronomy, literature to horticulture. Alongside this stylistic and referential plurality, they display an often seemingly intuitive approach towards structure and system, with their most striking musical effects often arising out of layered, non-hierarchical interactions between different materials and processes. As such, they present clear challenges to traditional conceptions of analysis, which are often based around the systematic generation of clear (albeit often very complex) organisational structures. It is argued that this music, in spite of these challenges, displays a striking level of expressive and aural coherence; conventional ways of understanding this term – whether they be based around unity of material or form or process – need to be redefined to take this into account. Chosen works are approached by way of a ‘patchwork’ of different perspectives and techniques: the core of the thesis is a series of four case studies which connect narratives of listener experience with analytical and contextual detail, making particular use of the clarifying potential of metaphor. These close readings are interleaved with chapters which consider the wider challenges and implications for the study of this repertoire, drawing upon a number of strands in contemporary musicological and philosophical thought.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A Sustainability Decision-Making Framework to support the assessment, adoption, and implementation of corporate sustainability

In recent decades, sustainability concepts applied to organizations have become an integral part of society and governments as stakeholders are increasingly aware of the negative externalities of companies’ operations and require them to implement sustainable strategies in their business models. To address these issues, various tools (i.e., ratings, standards and frameworks) have been developed to assist organizations in the transition towards sustainable practices . However, the lack of shared procedures, often not standardized, cause uncertainty in the identification of the most suitable tools to reach this objective. The purpose of this work is to design a Sustainability Decision Making Framework (SDMF) that can support companies in the process of identifying an objective and strategic path towards sustainability. Specifically, the rationale behind the SDMF is to guide companies in i) the assessment of key materiality externalities through stakeholders’ engagement and ii) the assessment and implementation of sustainability through a proactive approach in a way that is tailored to the specific needs of the company under assessment

Socio-Economic Life Cycle-Based Framework for Safe and Sustainable Design of Engineered Nanomaterials and Nano-Enabled Products

This manuscript describes an innovative approach to socio-economic assessment of (advanced) engineered nanomaterials and nano-enabled products (NEPs) to support safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) decision making by industries in the early stages of product development. This semi-quantitative methodology is based on a sound conceptual framework grounded in the combination of social life cycle analysis and multi-criteria decision analysis methods and supports decision making based upon socio-economic impacts assessed over the full life cycle of a product. To facilitate its application by industries, the methodology was implemented as an Excel-based self-assessment tool. This easy-to-use, cost- and time-efficient tool can guide users through their SSbD decision making regarding newly developed nanomaterials and NEPs and can also be applied to re-evaluate existing materials and NEPs in order to improve their sustainability from a socio-economic perspective. The relatively low requirements of this tool regarding the level of efforts and expert knowledge needed for its application make it a good starting point for initial assessment to highlight socio-economic issues in the value chain. The results of this initial screening can be further used for more detailed analysis in the later stages of product development by performing a full social life cycle assessment (S-LCA)

Socio-Economic Life Cycle-Based Framework for Safe and Sustainable Design of Engineered Nanomaterials and Nano-Enabled Products

This manuscript describes an innovative approach to socio-economic assessment of (advanced) engineered nanomaterials and nano-enabled products (NEPs) to support safe-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) decision making by industries in the early stages of product development. This semi-quantitative methodology is based on a sound conceptual framework grounded in the combination of social life cycle analysis and multi-criteria decision analysis methods and supports decision making based upon socio-economic impacts assessed over the full life cycle of a product. To facilitate its application by industries, the methodology was implemented as an Excel-based self-assessment tool. This easy-to-use, cost- and time-efficient tool can guide users through their SSbD decision making regarding newly developed nanomaterials and NEPs and can also be applied to re-evaluate existing materials and NEPs in order to improve their sustainability from a socio-economic perspective. The relatively low requirements of this tool regarding the level of efforts and expert knowledge needed for its application make it a good starting point for initial assessment to highlight socio-economic issues in the value chain. The results of this initial screening can be further used for more detailed analysis in the later stages of product development by performing a full social life cycle assessment (S-LCA)

Assessment of Climate Change Impacts in the North Adriatic Coastal Area. Part II: Consequences for Coastal Erosion Impacts at the Regional Scale

Coastal erosion is an issue of major concern for coastal managers and is expected to increase in magnitude and severity due to global climate change. This paper analyzes the potential consequences of climate change on coastal erosion (e.g., impacts on beaches, wetlands and protected areas) by applying a Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) methodology to the North Adriatic (NA) coast of Italy. The approach employs hazard scenarios from a multi-model chain in order to project the spatial and temporal patterns of relevant coastal erosion stressors (i.e., increases in mean sea-level, changes in wave height and variations in the sediment mobility at the sea bottom) under the A1B climate change scenario. Site-specific environmental and socio-economic indicators (e.g., vegetation cover, geomorphology, population) and hazard metrics are then aggregated by means of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) with the aim to provide an example of exposure, susceptibility, risk and damage maps for the NA region. Among seasonal exposure maps winter and autumn depict the worse situation in 2070–2100, and locally around the Po river delta. Risk maps highlight that the receptors at higher risk are beaches, wetlands and river mouths. The work presents the results of the RRA tested in the NA region, discussing how spatial risk mapping can be used to establish relative priorities for intervention, to identify hot-spot areas and to provide a basis for the definition of coastal adaptation and management strategies.publishedVersio