Photoacclimation strategies in northeastern Atlantic seagrasses: Integrating responses across plant organizational levels

Seagrasses live in highly variable light environments and adjust to these variations by expressing acclimatory responses at different plant organizational levels (meadow, shoot, leaf and chloroplast level). Yet, comparative studies, to identify species' strategies, and integration of the relative importance of photoacclimatory adjustments at different levels are still missing. The variation in photoacclimatory responses at the chloroplast and leaf level were studied along individual leaves of Cymodocea nodosa, Zostera marina and Z. noltei, including measurements of variable chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis, photoprotective capacities, non-photochemical quenching and D1-protein repair, and assessments of variation in leaf anatomy and chloroplast distribution. Our results show that the slower-growing C. nodosa expressed rather limited physiological and biochemical adjustments in response to light availability, while both species of faster-growing Zostera showed high variability along the leaves. In contrast, the inverse pattern was found for leaf anatomical adjustments in response to light availability, which were more pronounced in C. nodosa. This integrative plant organizational level approach shows that seagrasses differ in their photoacclimatory strategies and that these are linked to the species' life history strategies, information that will be critical for predicting the responses of seagrasses to disturbances and to accordingly develop adequate management strategies.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal [PTDC/MAR-EST/4257/2014

Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions: A Handbook for Practitioners

The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks

Designing a public library network in Madrid is one of our greatest challenges

Entrevista a María Jaudenes, responsable de la Subdirección General de Bibliotecas de la Comunidad de Madrid. Es descriu el sistema de lectura pública de to-ta la regió de Madrid; particularment, es fa revisió de l'evolució de les biblioteques públiques des de l'any 2001. Es veuen iniciatives tan importants com és el Bibliometro.An interview with María Jaudenes, in charge of the General Subdirection of Libraries of the Community of Madrid, centering on a description of the public library system of the entire region of Madrid. In particular, the evolution of pubic libraries since 2001 is reviewed. Important initiatives such as Bibliometro are described

QROWD: a platform for integrating citizens in smart city data analytics

Optimizing mobility services is one of the greatest challenges Smart Cities face in their efforts to improve residents’ wellbeing and reduce emissions. The advent of IoT has created unparalleled opportunities to collect large amounts of data about how people use transportation. This data could be used to ascertain the quality and reach of the services offered and to inform future policy—provided cities have the capabilities to process, curate, integrate and analyse the data effectively. At the same time, to be truly ‘Smart’, cities need to ensure that the data-driven decisions they make reflect the needs of their citizens, create feedback loops, and widen participation. In this chapter, we introduce QROWD, a data integration and analytics platform that seamlessly integrates multiple data sources alongside human, social and computational intelligence to build hybrid, automated data-centric workflows. By doing so, QROWD applications can take advantage of the best of both worlds: the accuracy and scale of machine computation, and the skills, knowledge and expertise of people. We present the architecture and main components of the platform, as well as its usage to realise two mobility use cases: estimating the modal split, which refers to trips people take that involve more than one type of transport, and urban auditing.</p

Application of the NBS impact evaluation framework: NBS performance and impact evaluation case studies

Selecting appropriate indicators of NBS performance and impact can bechallenging, and is context-dependent. In this chapter, we present case studiesfrom a variety of NBS demonstrations across Europe and Asia that illustrate theapplication of the NBS indicators and methods presented in Chapter 4 andthoroughly described in Evaluating the Impact of Nature-Based Solutions:Appendix of Methods. Each case study presents a brief NBS description, reasonsfor the selection of specific indicators for that particular NBS and a brief overviewof the ways the indicators are applied and/or monitored. The case studiesdescribe the stakeholders involved in co-design and co-monitoring of NBS anddiscuss the barriers and lessons learned during or after the process. Each casestudy provides key references for further reading.The case studies in this chapter focus on the selection of recommended indicatorsfor NBS performance and impact, which are generally of primary importancewhen creating NBS monitoring and evaluation plans. The case studies furtherdemonstrate how and why additional indicators can be selected to reflectparticular objectives of projects and local challenges