The role of public transport in sustainable urban development is recognized and promoted to mitigate climate change and improve mobility. The railway infrastructure has specific constraints that lead to the need of maximizing of the availability of infrastructure, with high levels of safety and quality, associated with an optimized cost. Following EU decisions, it is urgent to carry studies to support investment projects in different areas. The use of methodologies based on cost-benefit analysis (CBA) contribute positively to support decisions. The expansion of light-rail transit (LRT) systems in recent decades is due, among numerous factors, the fact that they are non-polluting systems, benefiting the urban environment, as they are safe and reliable and, through channel segregation, guarantee fast urban routes, avoiding congestion. The LRT can be a fundamental tool in a movement to revalue the centers and may represent an important element for the urban regeneration. The analysis presented in the paper highlights the need to take advantage of the high transport capacity ensured by the railway service essentially in commuting to Lisbon in view of the existing quadruplication of the railway line between Póvoa and Lisbon, based in a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The solution presented aims to promote the most sustainable mobility patterns

The recognition of the high costs of the vulnerabilities of cities and communities due to various types of disaster risks have helped build the business case for investments improving the quality and resilience of buildings and civil engineering works. This important issue has attracted the attention of several stakeholders, including engineering professionals from different fields, scientists, standardization bodies, investors and financial institutions, regulatory agencies, user groups of several, as well as administrative services at national and regional level. This research work discusses the application of a resilience rating system to show the impacts of capital investment in building refurbishment and renewal. It highlights aspects in building renovation programs that efficiently and quickly increase their resilience in face of extreme events. The work presented builds on previous discussions on ways to measure the resilience of built assets, namely based on a rating system composed by different dimensions, several indicators, and parameters. It covers not only the building's intrinsic qualities, but also its interdependence with the community, surroundings, and users in the post-disaster context.

As praças de uma cidade são espaços públicos consagrados historicamente à vida coletiva. Nesta publicação estão reunidos artigos que têm algumas importantes praças da área central da cidade do Rio de Janeiro como tema de estudo. As praças são analisadas a partir de suas dimensões material e simbólica, como produtos de ações que perpassam vários projetos para o espaço público. São destacadas as praças XV de novembro; Tiradentes; Mauá e Onze -esta última, já não mais existente fisicamente. As praças, portanto, se afirmam como estruturas espaciais de destaque no ambiente construído e como lugar para a representação da memória em tempos de constantes transformações. - The city's squares are public spaces historically dedicated to collective life. This publication brings together articles that have some important squares in the central area of the city of Rio de Janeiro as their subject of study. The squares are analyzed from their material and symbolic dimensions, as products of actions that permeate various projects for public space. There are highlighted the squares XV de Novembro; Tiradentes, Mauá and Onze - the latter, no longer physically existing. The squares, therefore, assert themselves as prominent spatial structures in the built environment and as a place for the representation of memory in times of constant transformation

Earth mortars and gypsum mortars present ecological advantages compared to mortars made with other common binders. When applied as plasters, they are also referred as having advantages in improving comfort and indoor air quality. For earth plasters, this improvement is associated with the hygroscopic capacity of the clay minerals, which promotes high sorption and desorption capacity of water vapor. So, earth plasters can contribute to the regulation of the indoor relative humidity. Another important advantage of plasters could be their ability to capture carbon dioxide (CO2). In the present study, the sorption and desorption performance, and the capacity to capture CO2 by earth and gypsum plasters are evaluated. It is confirmed that the earth plaster has the greatest sorption and desorption capacity, but also higher CO2 capture capacity than gypsum plaster. This confirmation opens new perspectives for the use of functionalized plasters that guarantee greater control of air quality inside buildings.

Innovation in structures and construction materials demands a more accurate performance analysis during the life cycle. In addition, climatic changes pose new challenges to civil infrastructures that were not so relevant in the past. In most cases, the traditional test methods cannot accurately assess the complex phenomena involved in durability. The modern and complex factors require a different approach to durability analysis. The purpose of this chapter is to present innovative durability tests on construction materials: wood; rammed earth, cob and unfired blocks; natural stone; bituminous binders and mixtures; and Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) to concrete bonded connections. Most of these tests concern the accelerated simulation of the main phenomena involved in durability performance

In the construction sector, overall policies on resource efficiency and the circular economy have as one of their objectives the shift from the use of natural mate-rials to industrial by-products and materials recovered from waste. In this context, the assessment of the presence of hazardous substances in construction products and the corresponding implications for the environment

A partir de uma incursão teórica sobre a noção de memória social, investiga-se como esta tem sido um recurso para incrementar a conexão das pessoas com os rios urbanos. A reflexão realiza-se no âmbito do estudo de caso presentemente em curso em Lisboa e que se dedica à investigação do contributo da memória no resgate da paisagem fluvial para o imaginário social e urbano contemporâneo. Para o efeito, aqui parte-se da relação da memória com os espaços materiais, naturais e mentais das sociedades humanas ligados à recordação de experiências passadas. Neste sentido, explora-se o seu contributo para recuperar os cursos de água para o imaginário social e urbano contemporâneo. Analisa-se como a memória tem sido discutida relativamente aos rios urbanos e que, em decorrência da iminência de riscos e de situações de catástrofes associadas ao sistema fluvial urbano, se tem destacado como recurso para a criação de dinâmicas de adaptação e resiliência. Seguidamente, analisam-se iniciativas que, fazendo recurso à memória ligada aos rios, contribuem para sensibilizar e influenciar a conexão das pessoas com os cursos de água em meio urbano, ainda que isto possa ser sugestivamente. Palavras-chave - Memória social, paisagem fluvial, imaginário social e urbano

Laboratory tests were carried out to define production parameters of innovative eco-efficient composites made up of hazelnut shells as aggregate and a sodium silicate solution as adhesive. The aim was to maximize the content of bio-aggregates and minimize the amount of adhesive, guaranteeing the feasibility of producing samples. Therefore, after preliminary testing, the percentages of hazelnut shells and the sodium silicate solution were kept constant: 70% and 30% of the total volume, respectively. However, the characteristics of the considered composites did not allow the production of uniform samples. The sodium silicate solution was not rapidly absorbed by the bio-aggregates; during the drying process, it was deposited on the bottom side of the samples. The uniformity of the samples is required to guarantee a correct evaluation of their performance and future homogeneous panels. Hence, different production parameters were investigated, such as drying at T

The resilience of buildings and civil engineering infrastructures has increasingly attracted the attention of different stakeholders, including engineering professionals from different areas, scientists, standardization bodies, investors and financial institutions, regulatory agencies, different user groups, as well as national and regional administrative services. This interest has motivated the development of methods for classifying the resilience of built assets, to identify aspects that can be improved and establish investment priorities, to increase their resilience when facing extreme events or other types of risks. The paper presents contributions to improve a system for classifying the resilience of built assets organized in dimensions, indicators and parameters that cover not only the intrinsic characteristics of buildings, but also their exposure to natural and man-made hazards, with the community and with the users. The paper specifically focuses on the resilience of public treasury buildings elementary schools in the municipality of Lisbon, some of which have been object, throughout their life cycle, of different interventions carried out within the scope of different public investment programs.

O livro RIOS URBANOS NA IBERO-AMÉRICA - CASOS, CONTEXTOS E EXPERIÊNCIAS apresenta o primeiro conjunto de reflexões produzidos no âmbito da rede temática Ibero-americana RUN