There has recently been a conscious push for cities in Europe to be smarter and more sustainable, leading to the need to benchmark these cities’ efforts using robust assessment frameworks. This paper ranks 28 European capital cities based on how smart and sustainable they are. Using hierarchical clustering and principal component analysis (PCA), we synthesized 32 indicators into 4 components and computed rank scores. The ranking of European capital cities was based on this rank score.
The pollution of the marine environment by solid wastes, either directly introduced into the sea or discharged into the oceans from rivers or pipelines, is considered from the perspective of both their impacts and their regulation. The waste materials covered include dredged material, particulate wastes from sand/gravel extraction, and land reclamation, and industrial wastes including mining wastes, munitions, and plastics/litter.
Elsevier,
Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, Volume 4: Encyclopedia of Ecology (Second Edition), 2019, Pages 344-351
This book chapter addresses goals 11, 12, and 15 by showing that human population growth is not the only matter for consideration in ecological engineering. What matters for the future is not only how many people there will be, but what they will do in their everyday life; this will impact the life systems surrounding them and how equipped they will be to face emerging challenges. In coming decades, the survival and well-being of humans and the security of environmental resources will continue to be challenged by rapid population growth.
This book chapter addresses goals 7, 11 and 12 by introduces the main technologies available for recovery of chemicals and fuels from plastic waste, enabling cities and communities to become more sustainable and responsible by transforming this waste into a source of affordable energy.
Elsevier,
Sustainable Urban Mobility Pathways: Policies, Institutions, and Coalitions for Low Carbon Transportation in Emerging Countries, 2019, Pages 23-63
This book chapter addresses goals 9, 10, and 11 by summarising the conditions, trends, and implications of sustainable urban mobility solutions in China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Israel, and Morocco.
Furthering goal 11, this paper seeks to demonstrate that while the recentralization of urban governance has some potential to generate more sustainable human settlement patterns, it is less likely to foster sustainable and socially just transitions within cities.
Ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) have been suggested to replace gas-based heating in urban environments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help to comply with the Paris Agreement. The emission reduction from GSHP depends on the carbon intensity of the electricity generation mix. Moreover, grid capacity may be limiting the introduction of these high-electricity demand GSHP systems. Photovoltaics (PV) systems help to provide additional emission reductions for residential GSHP systems.
Cyclists form the most vulnerable road user group in terms of injury from traffic accidents, as well as exposure to traffic-related air pollution. Ironically, commuter cyclists are often motivated by improvement in health and fitness. Cycleways away from traffic with lower concentrations of pollutants from motorised vehicles sometimes result in longer distances and hence require longer travel times, while alternative routes sharing the road with other traffic, sometimes with buses, might result in exposure to higher pollutant concentrations.
Elsevier,
Daniel A. Fiscus, Brian D. Fath, Chapter 8 - Technology and applications in the context of holistic life–environment, Editor(s): Daniel A. Fiscus, Brian D. Fath, Foundations for Sustainability, Academic Press, 2019, Pages 205-230
This chapter contributes to SDGs 15, 13, and 11 by presenting technologies and applications for addressing climate change as a result of human activity on land.
Challenges posed by the intermittency of solar energy source necessitate the integration of solar energy conversion with scalable energy storage systems. The monolithic integration of photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion and electrochemical energy storage offers an efficient and compact approach toward practical solar energy utilization. Here, we present the design principles for and the demonstration of a highly efficient integrated solar flow battery (SFB) device with a record solar-to-output electricity efficiency of 14.1%.
