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Background.European cities are placing a larger emphasis on urban data consolidation and analysis for optimizing public transport in response to changing urban mobility dynamics. Despite the existing efforts, traffic data analysis often disregards vital situational context, including large-scale events, weather factors, traffic generation poles, social distancing norms, or traffic interdictions. Some of these sources of context data are still private, dispersed, or unavailable for the purpose of planning or managing urban mobility. Addressing the above observation, the Lisbon city Council has already established efforts for gathering historic and prospective sources of situational context in standardized semi-structured repositories, triggering new opportunities for context-aware traffic data analysis.Research questions.The work presented in this paper aims at tackling the following main research question: How to incorporate historical and prospective sources of situational context into descriptive and predictive models of urban traffic data?Methodology.We propose a methodology anchored in data science methods to integrate situational context in the descriptive and predictive models of traffic data, with a focus on the three following major spatiotemporal traffic data structures: i) georeferenced time series data; ii) origin-destination tensor data; iii) raw traffic event data. Second, we introduce additional principles for the online consolidation and labelling of heterogeneous sources of situational context from public repositories. Third, we quantify the impact produced by situational context aspects on public passenger transport data gathered from smart card validations along the bus (CARRIS), subway (METRO) and bike sharing (GIRA) modes in the city of Lisbon.Results.The gathered results stress the importance of incorporating historical and prospective context data for a guided description and prediction of urban mobility dynamics, irrespective of the underlying data representation.Overall, the research offers the following major contributions:1.A novel methodology on how to acquire, consolidate and incorporate different sources of context for the context-enriched analysis of traffic data;2. The instantiation of the proposed methodology in the city of Lisbon, discussing the role of recent initiatives for the ongoing monitoring of relevant context data sources within semi-structured repositories, and further showing how these initiatives can be extended for the context-sensitive modelling of traffic data for descriptive and predictive ends;3. A roadmap of practical illustrations quantifying impact of different context factors (including weather, traffic interdictions and public events) on different transportation modes using different spatiotemporal traffic data structures; and4. A review of state-of-the-art contributions on context-enriched traffic data analysis.The contributions reported in this work are anchored in the empirical observations gathered along the first stage of the ILU project (see footnote 1), providing a study case of interest to be followed by other European cities.

Neste artigo, dedicado a uma reflexão sobre as opções de compartimentação na habitação, inicia-se o desenvolvimento da temática com a indicação do que se considera ser a urgência da abordagem do tema e numa perspetiva ampla e integradora.Avança-se, em seguida, para a exploração de diversos caminhos de consideração das opções domésticas de compartimentação, primeiro de uma forma mais ampla e de certo modo

Artificial neural networks (ANN) are extremely powerful analytical, parallel processing elements that can successfully approximate any complex non-linear process, and which form a key piece in Artificial Intelligence models. Its field of application, being very wide, is especially suitable for the field of prediction. In this article, its application for the prediction of the overtopping rate is presented, as part of a strategy for the sustainable optimization of coastal or harbor defense structures and their conversion into Waves Energy Converters (WEC). This would allow, among others benefits, reducing their initial high capital expenditure. For the construction of the predictive model, classical multivariate statistical techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), or unsupervised clustering methods like Self Organized Maps (SOM), are used, demonstrating that this close alliance is always methodologically beneficial. The specific application carried out, based on the data provided by the CLASH and EurOtop 2018 databases, involves the creation of a useful application to predict overtopping rates in both sloping breakwaters and seawalls, with good results both in terms of prediction error, such as correlation of the estimated variable.

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Abstract. Night natural ventilation systems have been receiving increased attention in recent years because of their energy saving potential and environmental protection when used in passive instead of active cooling. A recently proposed novel system for cooling the building concrete slab is studied numerically in the present work. It consists of a new type of a Suspended Ceiling (SC) with a peripheral gap between it and the walls, combined with the positioning of the air supply and extraction grilles between the ceiling slab and the SC. The system relies only on night ventilation as a means for cooling down the structure of the building. This study focuses on the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to predict the airflow and thermal performance of this strategy and it is applied to a full scale office room. The calculations show that a SC with a gap can reduce the difference between the average temperatures at the end of the heating and the end of the cooling periods by 25% compared with the case of a full covered slab room scenario (tight SC). CFD proved to be a useful and accurate tool to predict indoor conditions in buildings.

Considerable amounts of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) are produced every year,as the road network requires maintenance to ensure the safety and comfort of its users. RAP is a 100%recyclable material and a useful fit to be re-introduced into another cycle without downgrading itsfunctionality. Despite the current knowledge about the benefits associated with RAP use, it is not yetlargely applied in several countries. This paper aims to validate, on the basis of both short- and longtermmechanical behaviours, the application of a bituminous mixture with a high RAP incorporationrate (75%) in road pavement wearing courses. A crude tall oil rejuvenator was used. Both short- andlong-term oven ageing procedures were employed to simulate the ageing that occurs during mixtureproduction and in-service life, respectively. The tests for validating the RAP mixture as an alternativesolution comprised stiffness, resistance to fatigue, permanent deformation, and determination ofthe water sensitivity. Furthermore, the RAP bitumen mobilisation degree was evaluated and amixing protocol was established. In comparison with virgin bituminous mixtures, it was found that,in general, the high RAP mixtures presented similar or better behaviour. The ageing process hada hardening effect namely in terms of stiffness and resistance to permanent deformation, withoutsignificant effects on the resistance to fatigue and water damage.

Performance assessment is essential to effectively evaluate and monitor the activity of waterutilities, support decision making, and encourage continuous improvement. Performance assessmentsystems (PAS), covering several service objectives and criteria, have been successfully applied inwater supply and wastewater systems. Tailored approaches focusing on the assessment of the energyuse and efficiency in wastewater systems are still limited. This paper aims at the developmentand demonstration of a comprehensive PAS for energy efficiency, tailored for wastewater systems,incorporating criteria related to energy consumption, operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, andenvironmental impacts, such as untreated discharges and greenhouse gases emissions, among others.Management and control of excessive or undue inflows to these systems is specifically addressed byseveral novel criteria and metrics. The proposed PAS should be adapted by each utility to be alignedwith the objectives of the organisation and with the implemented asset management strategy. Theproposed approach and the resulting consolidated PAS are thoroughly described. Results from theapplication of the PAS to several Portuguese utilities are discussed. This PAS aims at contributing toa reliable and replicable process to assess energy efficiency in wastewater systems and to encouragea more rational energy management.