Capítulos de livros

Between ca.8400-7000 cal BP Late Mesolithic communities occupied the Sado valley embankments, upstream Alcácer do Sal, Portugal. The consumption of marine resources is attested by the shell waste abandoned in several sites (known as shell middens) and later confirmed by isotopic analyses on bone collagen from individuals buried in these locations. During the Mesolithic sea level was rising in response to global warming, allowing the flooding of the pre-incised Sado valley by marine water. Consequently, a question arose: did these communities colonize the margins of an estuarine environment where marine resources were available? A geophysical survey using the Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) method was performed to characterize the subsurface configuration of the Sado valley and its tributaries, close to the area where shell-middens are located. Additionally, cores were collected in the proximity of the ERT profiles and sediments analysed for multi-proxies contributing to reconstruct the Mesolithic environmental conditions and landscapes. ERT models interpretation allowed recognising a deeply incised valley (~40m) in the Sado channel and less deep valleys in the tributaries. Sediment analysis suggested the presence of a brackish environment since, at least, 8400 cal BP pointing to influence of marine water near the area occupied by the Mesolithic groups.

The WADI project (Water-tightness Airborne Detection Implementation), integrated within the H2020 initiative, is developing an airborne water leak detection surveillance service, based on manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. This service aims to provide water utilities with adequate information on leaks in large water distribution infrastructures outside urban areas. Given the high cost associated with water infrastructure networks repairs, a reliability layer is necessary to improve the trustworthiness of the WADI leak identification procedure, based on complementary technologies for leak detection. Herein, a methodology based on the combined use of Sentinel remote sensing data and a water leak pathways model is presented, based on data-intensive computing. The resulting water leak detection reliability service, provided to the users through a web interface, targets prompt and cost-effective infrastructure repairs with the required degree of confidence on the detected leaks. The web platform allows for both data analysis and visualization of Sentinel images and relevant leak indicators at the sites selected by the user. The user can also provide aerial imagery inputs, to be processed together with Sentinel remote sensing data at the satellite acquisition dates identified by the user. The platform provides information about the detected leaks location and time evolution, and will be linked in the future with the outputs from water pathway models

Este artigo apresenta uma etapa de uma pesquisa mais abrangente que está em andamento na Universidade do Porto, no âmbito do grupo de pesquisa Construct-Geo, que visa avaliar os aspectos geomecânicos de materiais alternativos para uso como camada de lastro em vias férreas do tipo heavy haul. São apresentados resultados de ensaios triaxiais monotônicos e cíclicos conduzidos em corpos de prova de 150 mm de diâmetro por 300 mm de altura, em escala reduzida numa proporção de 1:2,5 em relação à granulometria de lastro padrão AREMA N. 24. Analisou-se um agregado de escória de aciaria, quimicamente e ambientalmente, inerte comparativamente a um agregado de granito, relativamente à resistência e à deformabilidade. Os ensaios cíclicos foram conduzidos em dois escalões de carga de 500.000 ciclos, sendo cada escalão compatível com o carregamento imposto por vias do tipo heavy haul com, respectivamente, 32,5 toneladas/eixo e 40 toneladas/eixo. Os resultados mostraram que o lastro de escória de aciaria apresentou parâmetros de resistência superiores comparativamente ao lastro de granito e um melhor comportamento quanto à deformabilidade, expresso por maiores valores de módulo de resiliência, menores índices de quebra e degradação de partículas e uma maior tendência de estabilização das deformações plásticas, fenômeno conhecido como shakedown e que também foi investigado.

The chapter considers the link between urban transformations in the Mouraria neighbourhood in Lisbon and the digital environment.The guiding thread of reflection is based on the tension between the production of sociocultural symbolic local references, and their (dis)appropriation by a creative economy that, relying on digital as a resource, helps to reshape the sociocultural local world into marketing. It concludes that digital has, not only a tangible social dimension, but also a tangible dimension in the processes of urban transformation. As such, it is pertinent to create alternative ways in defence of the right to the city that economize the social and its imageries taking more advantage of the articulated combination between real-digital.

Coastal forecast systems provide coastal managers with accurate and timely hydrodynamic predictions, supporting multiple uses such as navigation, water monitoring, port operations and dredging activities. They are also useful to support recreational activities. Still, the widespread use of coastal forecasts is limited by the unavailability of open forecasts for consultation, the expertise needed to build operational forecast systems and the human and computational resources required to maintain them in operation every day. A new service for the generic deployment of forecast systems at user-specified locations was developed to address these limitations. Denoted OPENCoastS, this service builds circulation forecast systems for user-selected coastal areas and maintains them in operation using the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) computational resources. OPENCoastS can be applied to any coastal region and has been in operation since 2018, forced by several regional and global forecasts of the atmospheric and ocean dynamics. It has attracted over 150 users from around 45 institutions across the globe. However, most users come from research institutions. The only requirement needed to use this service – a computational grid of the domain of interest – has proven difficult to obtain by most coastal managers. Herein, a new way to bring coastal managers and the general public to the OPENCoastS community is proposed. By creating an open, scalable and organized repository of computational grids, shared by expert coastal modelers across the globe, the benefits from the use of OPENCoastS can now be extended to all coastal actors

This chapter is concerned with how digital technologies are changing habits, expectations and motivations in the use of public open spaces. These digital developments are a societal challenge with reflections on social practices and, on planning and design approaches to public spaces. This might also challenge the future development of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The discussion in this Chapter is based on knowledge and experience exchanges carried out within the COST Action CyberParks. The leading issue of CyberParks is how to use ICTs to transform our cities into more human environments, rather than just more high-tech places, and to understand that “smartness” should be people friendly. Through the structure of the project, the importance of comprehensive and trans-disciplinary development is introduced and justified. A theoretical approach and frameworks from ethnographic and technological perspectives that help us to better understand (potential) interactions are being developed, and both are at the centre of this discussion.

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the production of mediated public open spaces by investigating the impact of ICTs in a participation process, and from this discussion to develop arguments to base a theory on co-creating a cyberpark. It focuses on how digital interconnectivity, through its potential for engaging potential users, gives rise to new forms of agency in the design of public spaces.The conceptual framework is backed by the COST-Action Cyberparks, and the Project Flussbad, both tackle the reflection of the proliferation of ICT-related media in public open spaces.

UBEST aims at improving the global understanding of present and future biogeochemical buffering capacity of estuaries through the development of Observatories, computational web-portals that integrate field observation and real-time MPI (Message Passing Interface) numerical simulations. HPC (High- Performance Computing) is applied in Observatories to serve both on-the-fly frontend user requests for multiple spatial analyses and to speed up backend’s forecast hydrodynamic and ecological simulations based on unstructured grids. Backend simulations are performed using the open-source SCHISM (Semi- implicit Cross-scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model). Python pro- gramming language will be used in this project to automate the MPI simulations and the web-portal in Django.

Water scarcity and asymmetric space-time distribution is driving many countries to seek nonconventional water sources. Treated wastewater is an emerging alternative water source but, depending on its use(s), it may require an increased level of water treatment. At the same time, the list of emerging contaminants (ECs), including pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs), of great relevance to the environment and to public health continues to grow. Further, many of these contaminants are partly or strongly resistant to conventional treatment in water and wastewater treatment plants (WTPs and WWTPs). Therefore, advanced treatment processes are being developed or optimised for improved PhC control. Amongst them, hybrid processes of adsorption – low pressure membranes are promising for their low risk of oxidation by-product formation and low operating pressures (< 2 bar). The fine powdered activated carbon (PAC), if properly selected for the target contaminants and background water matrix, can effectively adsorb the small dissolved molecules (such as the PhCs) passing through low-pressure membranes, whereas these membranes (usually microfiltration or ultrafiltration membranes and more recently “loose” nanofiltration membranes) safely retain the PAC particles, turbidity and bacteria. In LIFE aWARE project “Innovative hybrid MBR-(PAC-NF) systems to promote Water Reuse"", the combination of a membrane bio-reactor (MBR) with PAC / loose Nanofiltration (PAC/NF) is demonstrated at El Prat WWTP (Barcelona, Spain), being LNEC responsible for the PAC/NF design, namely for (i) selecting the PAC suitable for PhC control and (ii) assessing, at laboratory scale, different PAC/NF configurations to select the one to be implemented for demonstration at pilot scale, using a recently developed NF membrane (Pentair HFW 1000). This hollow fibre, hydrophilic polyethersulfone membrane with around 1000 Da cut-off constitutes a safe barrier also against viruses and provides higher retention of high molar mass organics. This paper presents LNEC’s PAC selection methodology and the bench-scale results of PhC removal by adsorption and by PAC/NF. The methodology developed allowed (i) identifying four target compounds representative of the set of ECs previously detected in El Prat WWTP and in Llobregat River and (ii) selecting a PAC suitable for controlling the four target ECs. The adsorption studies and modelling further developed allowed calibrating predictive models of the PAC adsorption capacity and rate. The PAC/NF bench-scale results showed high removal efficiencies of the target PhCs and the PAC continuous dosing to be more efficient than the pulse dosing, achieving an overall PhC removal of 68% (ranging from 58% to 89%). The results were successfully used in the design and operation of the PAC/NF pilot for the technology demonstration in El Prat WWTP.