Demand side management in district heating systems by innovative control

Demand side management can be successfully applied to district heating systems for shaving thermal peaks. Peak shaving allows increasing share of convenient and less pollutant sources (waste heat, cogeneration and renewables) and enabling further building connections without modifying the pipelines. Demand side management in district heating is mainly done by shifting the load. Another interesting option consists in adjusting the substation regulation strategy; this approach not affects the heating schedule. This paper aims at analysing the opportunities for peak shaving using an innovative regulation strategy in the district heating substations, by controlling with a building model the effects on the indoor comfort conditions. The regulation strategy adopted is the Differential of Return Temperatures (DRT), that includes a constraint on the cold outlet section of the heat exchanger. This paper shows that thermal peak of building demand reducing on average of 15% by using the DRT regulation. Considering an entire distribution network, taking into account its thermal dynamics, the total peak request can be shaved of about 24%. Setting of the DRT regulation strategy has been shown being crucial for achieving satisfying peak shaving without compromising the indoor comfort conditions

Academic publishing in disaster risk reduction: past, present, and future

Nowadays there are approximately 80 Anglophone journals that deal primarily with disaster risk reduction (DRR) and allied fields. This large array signals a sustained, if uneven, growth in DRR scholarship but also competition between the offerings of different publishers and institutions. The purpose of this article is first to summarise the development of academic publishing on DRR from its early beginnings to the present day. The paper then evaluates the current state of publishing in this field and discusses possible future trends. Next, it identifies some possible opportunities, challenges, expectations, and commitments for journal editors both within DRR and academia more broadly, including those that refer to changes in the use of terminology, the relentless increase in the number of papers submitted, the expansion and dangers of predatory journals, different peer review models, open access versus paywalls, citations and bibliography metrics, academic social networks, and copyright and distribution issues

A conceptual governance framework for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction integration

Climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR) have similar targets and goals in relation to climate change and related risks. The integration of CCA in core DRR operations is crucial to provide simultaneous benefits for social systems coping with challenges posed by climate extremes and climate change. Although state actors are generally responsible for governing a public issue such as CCA and DRR integration, the reform of top-down governing modes in neoliberal societies has enlarged the range of potential actors to include non state actors from economic and social communities. These new intervening actors require in-depth investigation. To achieve this goal, the article investigates the set of actors and their bridging arrangements that create and shape governance in CCA and DRR integration. The article conducts a comprehensive literature review in order to retrieve main actors and arrangements. The article summarizes actors and arrangements into a conceptual governance framework that can be used as a backdrop for future research on the topic. However, this framework has an explorative form, which must be refined according to site- and context-specific variables, norms, or networks. Accordingly, this article promotes an initial application of the framework to different contexts. Scholars may adopt the framework as a roadmap with which to corroborate the existence of a theoretical and empirical body of knowledge on governance of CCA and DRR integration

Geoinformatics and Communication Technologies for Climate Change Hazards: Musing Beyond the Technical Issues

Information and communication technologies (ICTs), including geospatial analysis tools, are part of both the triggering causes of and the possible solutions for the climate change issue. In 2007, it was estimated that the operation of ICT equipment accounts for about 2% to 2.5% of the global greenhouse gas emissions annually (Kumar and Mieritz 2007). Yet, at the same time, ICTs are substantially contributing to reduction in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, for example, by replacing paper-based technology with online publishing. In addition, the use of these technologies permits better understanding of climate change and facilitates the transfer of the acquired knowledge. ICTs hold immense potential in the area of natural hazard prediction and detection. The chapter provides an insight on the non thechnological dimensions of the latest developments in teh application of geoinformatics and ICT to climate change studies

Marine Realms Information Bank, a Distributed Geolibrary for the Ocean.

The Marine Realms Information Bank (MRIB) is a prototype web-based distributed geolibrary that organizes, indexes, and delivers online information about the oceanic and coastal environments. It implements the distributed geolibrary concept to organize, index, and deliver online information about the oceanic and coastal environments. The significance of MRIB lies both in the utility of the information bank and in the implementation of the distributed geolibraries concept

Exposure to geo-hydrological hazards of the metropolitan area of Genoa, Italy: A multi-temporal analysis of the Bisagno stream

Geo-hydrological risk reduction policies are becoming a critical challenge for environmental sustainability, both at the national and international levels. The reason is twofold: On the one hand, climate change has increase rainfall frequency and intensity, while on the other, reckless urban expansion has increased exposure to such hazards over time. Italy is a country that is very vulnerable to flood and landslide hazard; the city of Genoa, which, in recent decades, has been frequently hit by severe floods, has risen to symbolize Italian geo-hydrological risk. Recent studies on Genoa's geo-hydrological hazard have focused on the analysis of hydro-geomorphological features of the Bisagno stream basin, yet their main focus was on hazard control. Very little research has been done to enhance the understanding of the source of risk in such catchments. This paper presents a study on the increased urban exposure and vulnerability to geo-hydrological hazard along the Bisagno stream catchment area over the last 200 years. Morphometric analyses were coupled with historical documents showing the evolution of the urban layout in this area. The results show that the "Bisagno Master Plan", a territorial planning strategy aimed at reducing geo-hydrological hazard and risk, has not produced the expected benefits. In spite of the plan, critical changes in land use and the hydrographic network, along with uncontrolled anthropization of the Genoa metropolitan area, has continued over the last two decades

Can a Simulated Flood Experience Improve Social Resilience to Disasters?

The increase of extreme meteorological phenomena, along with continuous population growth, has led to a rising number of flooding disasters. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop better risk reduction strategies, among which is increased social resilience. Experiencing a disaster is recognized as a factor that positively influences overall community resilience, with particular effects on social resilience; it appears to be more influential than school education. It also has many negative effects, though. Previous studies underline that citizens do not distinguish between different types of experiences. Thus, we investigated whether a simulated experience of a flood can improve social resilience, without being hampered by negative repercussions. The study was executed in five municipalities in three Italian regions involved in the European project LIFE PRIMES, which planned simulation activities for each studied area. Data, collected through the administration of anonymous questionnaires before and after a flood drill, were processed by applying a multicriteria decision analysis tool (PROMETHEE). Results show that the drill significantly augmented perceived social resilience in the smaller studied communities but not in the larger ones, a fact that should be further investigated. Key Words: multicriteria decision analysis, simulated flood experience, social resilience to disasters

Torrential floods in the upper Soana Valley (NW Italian Alps): Geomorphological processes and risk-reduction strategies

This paper investigates two severe floods that occurred in the upper Soana Valley (NW Italian Alps) in September 1993 and October 2000. In both events, intense rainfall triggered violent inundations along the Soana stream and its lateral creeks, producing extensive damage to several small urban areas along the riverbeds. Comparing these two very similar flood events, which occurred 7 years apart, we tried to understand the reasons why the new remediation implemented along the riverbanks after the first flood of 1993 failed to protect houses and infrastructure during the flood of 2000. Numerous field surveys have been carried out since the flood of October 2000 to gather information about the instability on the slopes and along the streams as well as to assess damage to the built environment. Physiography, geomorphology and land-use analyses were also performed using multitemporal aerial photographs and old maps. Additional information was collected using historical archives. The results highlight that land-use decisions, in particular urban planning and management that occurred in the 1960s and 1980s, along with design flaws in the flood defence infrastructure, in particular the rip-rap and reins built after the 1993 event, were responsible for the many collapses and damage suffered during the flood of 2000. An issue with such remediation projects is the wrongly held belief that these structures are perfectly adaptable to the typology and location in any geomorphodynamic context, regardless of the characteristics of the basin and watercourse