Multilevel analysis of factors affecting participants’ land reconversion willingness after the Grain for Green Program

Understanding the postprogram land use plans of participants is necessary for the sustainability of the conservation achievements from payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs. Previous studies have analyzed many individual factors affecting participants’ reconversion plans after PES programs. However, whether the regional ecosystem services changes caused by PES programs affect reconversion willingness remains elusive. Here, we used the multilevel linear model to determine the effects of regional ecosystem services changes and individual characteristics on participants’ land reconversion willingness after the Grain for Green Program (GFGP) in the Yanhe watershed of the Loess Plateau. We found that household income, ecological awareness, and employment changes negatively affected reconversion willingness, while nonfarm employment positively affected it at the individual level. At the regional level, the grain production and water yield changes could influence the reconversion willingness of respondents with different individual characteristics. With improved understanding of the factors affecting reconversion willingness, several suggestions to improve the sustainability of the GFGP were proposed. Our study provides a template for analyzing the multilevel factors that affect the sustainability of other PES programs.     

Planning and governing nature-based solutions in river landscapes: Concepts,cases, and insights

Nature-based solutions (NBS), understood as actions that use ecosystem processes to address societal needs, can play important roles to future-proof river landscape development for people and nature. However, knowledge gaps exist how NBS can be planned and implemented at landscape scales. This Special Issue brings together insights and experiences from studies of assessing, planning, and implementing NBS in river landscapes in Europe and beyond. It addresses three research fields: (i) NBS effects, looking at the effectiveness of NBS to achieve ecological, social, and/or economic outcomes, (ii) NBS planning, focusing on approaches for planning and designing NBS, and (iii) NBS governance, relating to governance and business models for implementation. The twelve contributions deliver evidence on how NBS outperform conventional, rather technical solutions, provide guidance and tools to operationalize the NBS concept into practice, and showcase successful governance models of NBS in different contexts. The editorial ends with an outlook on further research needs.     

Development and modelling of realistic retrofitted Nature-based Solution scenarios to reduce flood occurrence at the catchment scale

Decentralized Nature-based Solutions such as Urban Green Infrastructures (UGI) are increasingly promoted to reduce flooding in urban areas. Many studies have shown the effectiveness of flood control of UGI at a plot or neighbourhood level. Modelling approaches that extrapolate their flood reducing impact to larger catchment scales are often based on a simplistic assumption of different percentages of UGI implementation. Additionally, such approaches typically do not consider the suitable space for UGI and potential implementation constraints. This study proposes a scenario development and modelling approach for a more realistic upscaling of UGI based on empirical insights from a representative neighbourhood. The results from this study, conducted in the metropolitan area of Costa Rica, show that upscaling the full potential for UGI could significantly reduce surface runoff, peak flows, and flood volumes. In particular, the permeable pavement has the highest potential for flood reducing in public space while cisterns perform best at the property level. These results can guide the formation of policies that promote UGI.Supplementary InformationThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01493-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

用于库房温湿度控制的太阳能发电系统研究

设计了采用离网光伏发电和大容量蓄电池储能为基本供电模式的智能库房温湿度监控系统,以太阳能发电系统关键技术为研究重点,分析建立了与气候条件和库房管理要求相关联的发电系统负载计算、发电系统容量计算的数学理论方法,阐述了太阳能电池板优化原理,为太阳能发电技术在库房温湿度环境控制上的应用提供了模式和方法。     

Sheep's wool insulation: A sustainable alternative use for a renewable resource?

Material selection in manufacturing may be characterized as a series of trade-offs between characteristics, properties, environmental impacts, sustainability, availability, and economics. Societal concerns about the environmental impacts of construction practices and materials have been expressed through an increase in the demand, production and use of “green” building products. This, combined with a desire to integrate more bioproducts and natural and renewable resources into the construction industry, has extended to the production and promotion of insulation made from sheep's wool.Although substantial literature exists on the insulation properties and other benefits of wool, less is known about the economics and manufacturing processes of sheep's wool insulation at varying scales of production. This paper contributes to this field of enquiry through presentation of the preliminary results of a wool insulation manufacturing pilot project, in which the scale and economics of the production of sheep's wool insulation were considered. Processing techniques, the impact of sheep breed, yield, energy use, and manufacturing costs were also examined. The results of the pilot project indicate that, while sheep's wool insulation produced at a smaller, or artisanal scale shows some potential, scale of operation and volume of production need to be carefully considered in order to ensure long-term sustainability of the operation. Using the least expensive sheep's wool available for the manufacture of wool batt insulation (and thereby reducing production costs) did not, in this pilot study, have a negative impact on productivity or product performance. Diversion of this waste stream of currently less marketable, and consequently less valuable wool, into the production of a green building material may offer small but significant benefit to sheep producers and the broader agricultural community, as well as consumers.     

Mixed methodology to analyze the relationship between maturity of environmental management and the adoption of green supply chain management in Brazil

The aim of this research is to verify the relationship between the maturity levels of environmental management and the adoption of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices by electro-electronic companies in Brazil. In this work a two-phase research was conducted, with one quantitative and the other qualitative. The quantitative phase aimed to test whether a relationship between the maturity levels of environmental management and GSCM exists, while the qualitative phase tried to detail the characteristics of this relationship. The quantitative phase was conducted through a survey with 100 Brazilian electro-electronic companies and the collected data were processed using Structural Equation Modeling. For the qualitative phase, a multiple case study was conducted with three companies located in Brazil. The results indicate that: (1) The main hypothesis was confirmed and considered statistically valid, indicating that, indeed, the maturity level of environmental management influences the adoption of GSCM practices; (2) a coevolution tends to occur between the environmental maturity and the GSCM practices; that is, the more developed is the company's environmental management, more complex GSCM practices are adopted; and (3) the GSCM internal practices tend to present a greater relative adoption than the external practices; these external practices of GSCM tend to be adopted when the company is inserted in a higher environmental stage and/or operates under a scenario of stronger normative environmental pressure. By the way, this is the first research mixing survey and case studies on GSCM in Brazil.     

绿色创新及其激励机制

环境问题的最终解决需要绿色创新。绿色创新表现为一切关注环境－经济－社会协调发展，并使之得以实现的创新性活动。绿色创新的大量涌现需要从产权、市场、企业内部及政府政策等方面给予激励。     

燃煤电厂PM_(2.5)捕集增效技术的研究及应用

介绍了一种燃煤电厂PM2.5捕集增效技术—烟尘预荷电微颗粒捕集增效装置的结构组成和工作原理,研究了双极荷电对粉尘凝并的影响及扰流柱的产涡效果,在中试平台上测试了热态模拟烟气条件下该装置的增效结果。该技术在300MW机组工程上应用的测试结果为:电除尘器出口PM2.5下降30%,烟尘总质量浓度下降20%。     

绿色环保修井作业配套装置的研究与应用

油水井小修作业施工时,在起下油杆、油管和清蜡作业中,油杆、油管会将井内油水带出地面,对作业施工现场和周围环境造成污染。为解决这一问题,研究开发了一套绿色环保修井作业配套装置。从油井修井作业过程中的起下油杆、起下油管、清蜡作业三道作业工序,控制井内油水的排放,减少对周围环境的污染,消除安全隐患,实现绿色环保作业,节约了作业成本,提高了经济效益。     

An Exergy Aware Optimization and Control Algorithm for Sustainable Buildings

Abstract

Heating and air-conditioning systems have very low exergetic efficiency as they dissipate primary energy resources at low temperatures usually between 90 and 60°C. This compounds the problem that buildings spend approximately 30% of all the energy consumed in the U.S. for heating and air-conditioning. The overall result is a large entropy production and long-term environmental degradation that can be resolved only by substituting primary energy resources by low-temperature, waste, or alternative energy resources, usually available below 50°C. For such a replacement to be feasible the environmental cost of exergy production must be factored into calculations and compatible HVAC systems must be developed without any need for temperature peaking or equipment oversizing. This article addresses environmental and often-conflicting problems associated with exergy production by HVAC systems and presents an analytical optimization and control algorithm. Results indicate that when a careful design optimization is accompanied by a dynamic control of the split between radiant and convective means of satisfying thermal HVAC loads, exergy efficient sustainable buildings may be cost effective and environmentally benign.