Industrial Heritage Assessment and Guidelines for the Architectural Conservation of Hydroelectric Plants

Hydroelectric plants, constructed as modern, industrial, innovative and technological structures of the 20th century, after approximately a century of existence, have become subjects of industrial heritage. Within the article, the interdisciplinary field is approached through the perspective of architectural conservation with consultancies of experts from related disciplines. The study discusses hydroelectric facilities of the past century in terms of industrial heritage focusing on their features, types and elements, investigates the theoretical framework in order to specify criteria for their assessment as cultural heritage, and develops a guideline for the architectural preservation, conservation, restoration and re-use of these structures. The proposed set of criteria and the guideline are applied for 17 selected case studies of dams and powerhouses in Northern Italy. The process and the results of the study are discussed with a purpose of serving as a model for further studies on the preservation, conservation and restoration of hydroelectric plants

MANAGEMENT OF 20TH CENTURY HYDROELECTRIC PLANTS AS INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE

Abstract. By rapidly increasing the production of energy and widely extending the usage of electricity in the 20th century, hydroelectric plants and dams have radically affected the social, technological and industrial aspects of the period. Therefore, as an integral part of industrial heritage, the cultural assets of these energy facilities are required to be preserved. As a requirement of this hypothesis, it is necessary: to develop management strategies for these assets; to provide scientific data and information on these buildings / facilities; to define criteria of 'planned conservation' with long-term preventive measures in order to provide the continuation of the original function as long as possible. Hydroelectric plants are a common subject of interest for several disciplines, such as: engineering, hydrology, ecology, geo-sciences and remote sensing. Therefore, the conservation of the plants also requires the interdisciplinary study and collaboration of these disciplines.Within the study, the considerations of an interdisciplinary approach – such as dam safety, ecological concerns and energy requirements – are presented, and examples from different countries are examined through the framework of architectural conservation, considering cases of dam failures, intended removal of dams and upgrading of facilities. Preventive measures for the planned conservation of hydro electrical facilities such as: constant maintenance of technical components; management of the sediment accumulated in the reservoirs; methods of analysis for the structure of the embankment are introduced briefly, concentrating on gravity dams, in order to provide conclusions for the conservation of Sarıyar Dam and Hydroelectric Plant (1956) in Turkey.</p

Rates of ecological knowledge learning in Pemba, Tanzania: Implications for childhood evolution

Humans live in diverse, complex niches where survival and reproduction are conditional on the acquisition of knowledge. Humans also have long childhoods, spending more than a decade before they become net producers. Whether the time needed to learn has been a selective force in the evolution of long human childhood is unclear, because there is little comparative data on the growth of ecological knowledge throughout childhood. We measured ecological knowledge at different ages in Pemba, Zanzibar (Tanzania), interviewing 93 children and teenagers between 4 and 26 years. We developed Bayesian latent-trait models to estimate individual knowledge and its association with age, activities, household family structure and education. In the studied population, children learn during the whole pre-reproductive period, but at varying rates, with the fastest increases in young children. Sex differences appear during middle childhood and are mediated by participation in different activities. In addition to providing a detailed empirical investigation of the relationship between knowledge acquisition and childhood, this study develops and documents computational improvements to the modelling of knowledge development

Design of a 7.5 kW Dual Active Bridge Converter in 650 V GaN Technology for Charging Applications

High-voltage GaN switches offer low conduction and commutation losses compared with their Si counterparts, enabling the development of high-efficiency switching-mode DC-DC converters with increased switching frequency, faster dynamics, and more compact dimensions. Nonetheless, the potential of GaN switches can be fully exploited only by means of accurate simulations, optimal switch driving, suitable converter topology, accurate component selection, PCB layout optimization, and fast digital converter control. This paper describes the detailed design, simulation, and implementation of an air-cooled, 7.5 kW, dual active bridge converter exploiting commercial 650 V GaN switches, a compact planar transformer, and low ESL/ESR metal film capacitors. The isolated bidirectional converter operates at a 200 kHz switching frequency, with an output voltage range of 200-500 V at nominal 400 V input voltage, and a maximum output current of 28 A, with a wide full-power ZVS region. The overall efficiency at full power is 98.2%. This converter was developed in particular for battery charging applications, when bidirectional power flow is required

DISCOVERING AND COMMUNICATING THE RATIONALIST ARCHITECTURE OF FORLÌ. AN INTEGRATED PROCESS

A partnership between the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna and ATRIUM aimed at enhancing the knowledge and communication of the rationalist architecture, built in the city of Forlì during the Fascist regime. The importance of finding an interpretative key for this dissonant heritage, bearers of an “uncomfortable” memory but at the same time able to strongly characterize the architectural quality of cities, was a primary goal.The cooperation started with the development of a pilot project regarding three architectures considered iconic for this context but also able to foster more complex urban policies. The first deliverable of the programme was the search, record, and management of the archival materials related to the whole history of these buildings. The enormous amount of data acquired revealed the importance of working on a dual track, aimed at both the stakeholders involved in the management process of this heritage and those who experience it.For what concerns the “technical level” which is related to the knowledge field, the first challenge was to understand how to manage information boosting interoperability, guaranteeing easy access and above all making the research implementable. According to the “touristic level” instead, a further objective of the project was related to the communication of this heritage to a varied audience of visitors.</p

ENVIRONMENTAL MICROCLIMATE MANAGEMENT AND RISK IN THE UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE OF VILLA BARBARO MASER (ITALY)

Indoor environment in heritage buildings can be cause of damage for architecture and artefacts which depend on several physical and chemical parameters: air temperature, relative humidity, volatile organic compounds, etc. How is it possible to evaluate their damage, or the risk of damages? How “aggressive” is indoor microclimate? The scientific literature proposes several different criteria for the evaluation of the risk of damages, especially in the field of museums, while there are few studies which take into consideration historic buildings. In this paper we propose an index – the Heritage indoor Microclimate Risk (HMR) – that allows to define the risk concerning the whole environment and not only the artefacts. Moreover, we propose its application to a real case study of a UNESCO Heritage World Site, obtained through indoor microclimate on-site monitoring and building simulation. The case study reported is Villa Barbaro, built in Maser (1554–1560) by the architect Andrea Palladio and registered in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 1996, as Palladian Villa of Veneto. The research is structured as follows: monitoring campaign of the microclimatic parameters; virtual modelling of Villa Barbaro and its validation (by comparing the simulated data and the monitored ones); construction of scenarios which can aid to guarantee the historic building’s conservation and the occupants’ comfort; definition of HMR. The innovative aspect of the proposed methodology is the use of a virtual building model of heritage buildings, to determine, through a single index, the degree of risk and the level of indoor microclimate aggression

Navigating cross-cultural research: methodological and ethical considerations

Copyright © 2020 The Authors. The intensifying pace of research based on cross-cultural studies in the social sciences necessitates a discussion of the unique challenges of multi-sited research. Given an increasing demand for social scientists to expand their data collection beyond WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic) populations, there is an urgent need for transdisciplinary conversations on the logistical, scientific and ethical considerations inherent to this type of scholarship. As a group of social scientists engaged in cross-cultural research in psychology and anthropology, we hope to guide prospective cross-cultural researchers through some of the complex scientific and ethical challenges involved in such work: (a) study site selection, (b) community involvement and (c) culturally appropriate research methods. We aim to shed light on some of the difficult ethical quandaries of this type of research. Our recommendation emphasizes a community-centred approach, in which the desires of the community regarding research approach and methodology, community involvement, results communication and distribution, and data sharing are held in the highest regard by the researchers. We argue that such considerations are central to scientific rigour and the foundation of the study of human behaviour.Department of Human Behaviour, Ecology and Culture at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; French National Research Agency under the Investments for the Future (Investissements d'Avenir) programme (ANR-17-EURE-0010)