During the peak rush hour, motorists and residents spend considerable time trying to weave their way through between their work places and homes. This article is based on a study that examined determinants of traffic congestion in the Harare Metropolitan Province. The researchers adopted a mixed method approach and a cross-sectional survey design. The study population was comprised of urban planning and zoning officials, transport planners, residents, motorists and other stakeholders in the Zimbabwean transport sector. Stratified sampling and purposive sampling technique were used to select respondents. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaires were translated from English to Shona to cater for monolingual respondents. The researchers read out and explained the questions to the respondents where necessary. The questionnaires used were closed ended with five-point Likert scale. Respondents were given the chance to tick or rank the most appropriate response(s). The data gathered was presented in descriptive statistics using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. Descriptive data was analysed using, mean and standard deviation. The study concluded that poor land-use planning, increase in vehicle ownership, uncivil driving behaviour; inadequate road capacity and poor traffic control were the key determinants of traffic congestion in Harare Metropolitan Region. The study recommended the integration land-use between transportation plans can play a crucial role in alleviating traffic congestion. Furthermore, the police and other traffic law enforcement agencies such as the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe National Roads Authority among others should encourage the enforcement of traffic laws and offer public enlightenment or traffic education to road users. These programmes should be designed not merely as means to raise revenue but to create awareness.
Freshwater plays a crucial role in human life and is also necessary for economic and ecosystem stability. Freshwater resources around the globe are under significant pressure because of increasing consumption and pollution of water by society, and decreasing water availability due to climate change. Therefore, many tools for sustainability assessment of water use have been developed in the last several decades. One of the popular methodologies is water footprinting. The intensity of water footprint research can show the importance of water-related issues in individual communities. This paper aims to make a review of water footprint research in Brazil, its influence, and internationality. The main research methods for scoping review described in this article include bibliometric analysis. Scopus database was used for the data aquisition. The term “water footprint” and affiliation to the institution in Brazil were used as eligible criteria. The number of publications, its citations and co-authorship analysis were used for the analysis of research groups and influence of its research outputs. Co-authorship analysis was used for the description of international collaboration of Brazilian researchers. Keyword analysis was used for the identification of main topics in the water footprint research in Brazil. The analyses showed the high intensity of water footprint research in Brazil and its importance for the scientific community. International collaboration of Brazilian research is on the level of 30%. The main topics of water footprint research in Brazil are sustainability, life cycle assessment, and water resources. This scoping review will be conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Statement.
The environment will be critically polluted if the enormous amount of rubber tyres is not adequately reprocessed and disposed of. One of the feasible solutions to the reduction of wastes is using recycled crumb rubber particles in concrete. In this research waste tire rubber were used to study the effectiveness of concrete with replacement of tire rubber crumb in conventional concrete. The rubber crumb were prepared and replacing by 11%, 13%, 15% and 17% of fine aggregate in terms of the density. The concrete cubes were prepared in size of 150 x 150 x 150 (mm) and tested for compressive strength test. The ductility of the concrete were studied by getting the deformation of the cube through dial gauge and plotted the stress strain curve. It was found that the workability of the concrete mix reached its highest slump value in sample with 11% of rubber crumb replacement which was 97mm, and the slump value decreased when the percentage of rubber crumb replacement increased. Overall, the results obtained for compressive strength of the concrete cubes with rubber crumb replacement achieved a lower compressive strength than the control sample. As well, all of the concrete cube samples with rubber crumb replacement obtained a higher strain than that of the control sample.
Constructed wetland systems have stood out for their efficiency for the treatment of wastewater. However, they usually have large dimensions, which can make it unfeasible in urban areas. The objective of this work is to evaluate if a compact constructed wetland system can treat the grey water from the shower, in order to reuse the treated water in sanitary toilets. For this purpose, a field system with easily available materials was built, and samples of grey water and treated effluent were evaluated. The system could remove organic matter (removal of BOD and COD equal to 89% and 84%, respectively), color (96% removal) and turbidity (70% removal). Thermotolerant coliforms were not detected in the majority of the samples. With the exception of turbidity (70% removal) and solids (67% removal), the other results are according to the limits of the quality parameters of the reference documents. It is important to consider an initial period until stabilization is reached and maintains constant and a greater organic matter removal. This also happens after system maintenance, when usually a superficial layer of sand is removed. This maintenance was necessary after 16 weeks of operation; thus, it is important that users are aware of this task when choosing this system.
Este estudo apresenta uma análise da literatura científica através de uma revisão sistemática, a respeito da aplicação de microalgas para recuperação de recursos presentes em águas residuais domésticas, como nitrogênio e fósforo. Foi realizada análise bibliométrica e metassíntese qualitativa dos dados obtidos na revisão sistemática, para a qual artigos construídos com dados experimentais e publicados no período de 2018 a 2023 disponibilizados no ScopusTM banco de dados foram considerados. Para definir tendências de coocorrência foi utilizado o software VoSviewer, que apresentou os principais termos abordados nos artigos científicos mapeados, que foram: algas, biofilme, microalgas, recuperação de nutrientes, remoção de nutrientes, águas residuais e tratamento de águas residuais. Através da metassíntese qualitativa foi realizado um portfólio final que fornece um panorama atual do objeto de estudo, permitindo identificar lacunas e apontar áreas em desenvolvimento para futuras pesquisas e foram identificados desafios quanto à recuperação de nutrientes no polimento lagoas de biomassa de algas e viabilidade econômica para este tipo de tratamento.
Precarious settlements in the periphery of cities are a consequence of forced displacement and increasing poverty. Approximately eight million people in Colombia live in marginal conditions. Bogotá is one of the cities that receive the largest amount of displaced people and in its marginal neighborhoods the conditions of the internal environment of the housing and the neighborhood setting present multiple risk factors for the quality of life and health of the inhabitants. The objective of this article is to describe the housing conditions in a marginal neighborhood of Bogotá and the health of its inhabitants. For this purpose, a social characterization was carried out and environmental risk factors were identified. The results corroborate the fact that the neighborhood was formed by people displaced by violence from different Colombian regions, especially from rural areas. They arrive without economic assets, often without support networks and with a very low education level and little work experience, which limits their possibilities of finding jobs or forms of economic support. In general, the only options they find to generate income is through informal trades such as recycling, domestic activities and street vending. The housing environment in such urban informal settlements is adverse due to low temperatures, its location on steep terrain, and the lack of urban infrastructure and public service networks. The most recurrent health problems are respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases, associated with inadequate housing and environmental conditions.
This study was conducted with the aim of obtaining directly from the user the factors that should be considered in the design, structuring, and rehabilitation processes of the physical environment. Real spatial environment was selected as the experimental environment. To obtain the necessary data, the Beck depression test was performed before the experiment, and the relevant measuring devices were adapted to the subjects for EEG-HRV measurements during the experiment. The main purpose is to physiologically measure how people are affected by different environments in the city; To determine the effects of the city on people and to reveal the cognitive effects of different environments. Users themselves were directly involved as subjects in the study. Results will contribute to the management of the user-oriented design process in making the urban physical environment more qualified. The study, unlike other approaches, aimed to measure two different environmental effects physiologically and to offer suggestions about how it can affect in practice.
One of the ways to improve road safety is a predictive analysis of the risks of critical events depending on the dynamics of changes in accident rates, traffic violations, and the influence of objective and subjective factors. The analysis of accident rates and factors influencing the risks of road incidents is performed by studying the data presented in the form of time series using a deep learning neural network model. A type of recurrent neural network model with LSTM layers, a transformer, and a multi-headed attention mechanism is proposed as a tool for predictive analysis of time series. Time series are formed based on data extracted from photo radar systems for photo and video recording in the road transport environment. In the course of the study, a methodology for training a model for predicting the activation time of critical incidents in the road transport environment was developed through the analysis of time series of accident rates, traffic violations, and a number of objective influencing factors. The article presents the results of training and research of model variants for choosing its structure and selecting parameters in order to obtain an acceptable forecast error. The article presents studies of the influence of the number of training epochs, the number of neurons in the output LSTM layers, the batch size, the early stopping technique, and the number of heads in the attention layers on the forecast. The purpose of training and using a neural network is to predict the moments in time when the risks of critical events exceed the permissible level, as well as to determine the location of the incident activation taking into account the influencing factors, the combination and values of which can lead to accidents with visualization in the form of a heat map of hazardous areas.
Urban solid wastes need to be properly disposed and one of these means is the landfill, where wastes organic fraction degradation occurs. One of the by-products generated in this environment shows high ammonia nitrogen concentrations in its constitution, which can cause the increase in nitrous oxide (N2O) production rates. N2O is one of the main greenhouse gases, with high global warming potential. In view of the scarce information on the N2O emission in landfills, the objective of this study was to evaluate the research trends on the emissions of this gas, especially in landfills, using the bibliometric analysis as a tool. The publications survey was conducted in the Web of Science database from 1991 to 2021. First, papers on N2O emission sources were researched and, later, the scientific studies that were only related to landfill emissions were verified. The following parameters were evaluated: scientific journals, authors, countries, number of publications over time, research institutions, keywords occurrence, and Web of Science categories. 3,988 papers on N2O sources in general and, 146, on landfill emissions were found. In both analyses, there was a predominance of Chinese publications and very few Brazilian publications, since among the studies on the various emission sources, 125 Brazilian papers and no paper in the case of landfills were found. Regarding the temporal analysis, there was a trend of linear increase in the number of publications for both analyses. With this survey, the need to conduct more research on the N2O emission in landfills was found, especially in Brazil, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge on how this source can affect the global balance of this gas with high impact in climate changes.
O conhecimento dos fatores climáticos e seu impacto na superfície serve de base para a concepção de planos de drenagem urbana, zoneamento, gestão de riscos e outros instrumentos de planejamento e gestão da cidade. O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi avaliar o comportamento das chuvas intensas e sua distribuição espacial em Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil. Este estudo utilizou dados de 4 estações pluviométricas localizadas na região, cujas séries históricas de dados variam entre 6 e 58 anos. As equações IDF foram obtidas a partir do método de decomposição pluviométrica da CETESB, para períodos de retorno de 2,5, 10, 25, 50 e 100 anos, e duração de 15, 30, 60, 120, 240, 360, 720 e 1440 minutos. A aderência dos dados ao modelo Gumbel-Chow foi comprovada pelo teste de Kolmogorov-Smirnov a 5% de significância. A regionalização da intensidade máxima foi obtida pela técnica de interpolação espacial usando krigagem ordinária para duração de chuva de 30 e 60 minutos e períodos de retorno de 2, 10 e 50 anos. Os resultados mostraram uma variação da intensidade máxima de chuva entre as estações pesquisadas, com valores em torno de 19% superiores à intensidade máxima média da cidade. Indica que a intensa distribuição das chuvas em Florianópolis ocorre de forma heterogênea, sendo possível identificar, por superfície de interpolação, diferentes cenários a existência de 3 zonas de precipitação distintas: Zona 1 está localizada no sul de Florianópolis, Zona 2 está localizada no Continental , regiões Central e Sudeste de Florianópolis, e a Zona 3 está localizada nas regiões Norte e Nordeste.
Rapid industrial and technological development has significantly improved the quality of life around the world. However, this advancement has also created a significant challenge in terms of waste management and disposal. This issue has become crucial for the 21st century as the rate of waste accumulation is exceeding the rate of urban growth. Since the onset of industrialization, humanity has produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste. Of this, only 9% has been recycled and 12% incinerated, leaving the majority buried in landfills or simply discarded. This waste causes serious environmental problems, including pollution of air and soil that can lead to health issues such as diarrhea, respiratory disease, and even cancer. In addition, uncontrolled use of natural resources and ineffective environmental management exacerbate the situation, reducing the quality of life of people living near landfills. This study aims to comprehensively assess the epidemiological situation in areas with solid waste landfill sites around the world. Special attention will be given to the investigation of techniques used to mitigate the negative impacts of landfills on human health and the environment. The aim of this review is to carry out a comprehensive analysis of current practices in municipal solid waste management and to evaluate their impact on the environment and public health. The analysis will pinpoint the main obstacles posed by ineffective and outdated methods, and propose solutions to address these issues. This study has practical significance as it can inform the development of strategies to optimize waste management. Findings from this research can form the basis for creating guidelines to improve environmental conditions in regions, enhance legislative and regulatory frameworks for waste management, and raise public awareness of environmental concerns.
Urban surface runoff management refers to the strategies and practices used to control and manage the flow of rainwater, reduce urban flooding, enhance groundwater recharge, disaster risk management, and urban sustainability. This study focuses on improving water management practices and reducing flooding risks in urban areas by optimizing the management of surface runoff using the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The primary objective is to analyze water management practices and water bodies in Villupuram Municipality, evaluate surface runoff under varying urban and environmental conditions, and identify areas prone to waterlogging and urban flooding, Villupuram Municipality has a population of 141,162 in the 2011 census and covers an area of 33.13 square kilometers, divided into 42 wards. While it has historically been viewed as having low vulnerability to natural disasters, recent severe flooding incidents have highlighted significant issues in its water management strategies. The municipality's transportation infrastructure, including the Chennai-Trichy highway and the railway system, Housing, agriculture, and physical infrastructures has suffered due to unexpected flooding, emphasizing the urgent need for effective surface runoff and water management strategies to bolster resilience and sustainability. By utilizing the SWAT model alongside GIS, surface runoff can be simulated, and spatial patterns can be visualized, offering essential insights for urban planners and decision-makers to develop effective mitigation strategies. Ultimately, this research aims to enhance the resilience of Villupuram Municipality's infrastructure and promote community sustainability by tackling the challenges associated with surface runoff and improving water management practices.
The heavy rain forecasts are important in disaster prevention as well as agricultural planning. In this paper parameters of the heavy rainfall equation were estimated using a machine learning model applying the random forests technique and with a case study in the region of Noroeste Fluminense, Brazil. The same parameters were also estimated, using the Levenberg-Marquardt optimization method, using data from satellite images. Both the Machine Learning parameters predicted by the Levenberg-Marquard model are compared with the parameters found in the literature.
This paper presents the design and development of a multifunctional air pollution treatment device capable of removing dust, odors, airborne pollutants, and bacteria, while also regulating air temperature seasonally—cooling in summer and heating in winter. The device integrates multiple air treatment technologies, including HEPA filtration for particulate removal, UV light for sterilization, activated carbon for pollutant removal, water mist for cooling, and air heating for winter. Experimental results show the system achieves a PM2.5 filtration efficiency of up to 99.97%, a bacterial sterilization efficiency of 95%, and a VOC removal efficiency of 90%, while effectively maintaining seasonal air temperature balance. With its versatile operation and high efficiency, this device has significant potential for real-world applications, particularly in households, offices, hospitals, and other enclosed environments.
Services provided by green infrastructure are relevant to sustainability. This importance can be observed by the increase in quantitative approaches in the area recently developed. However, many available tools do not allow to evaluate the sustainability of urban floristic composition practically and efficiently. Hence, planning for urban trees in cities is usually not based on sustainable principles. And this is critical for encouraging sustainable mobility, given the importance of the trees growing in streets for walkability. From this context, the present study aimed to analyze the features of street trees species from the perspective of sustainability. For this, a census survey of tree specimens of height, above 1.0 meter, present along the sidewalks of a Brazilian town, was conducted. The inventoried species were evaluated based on sustainable principles, which were identified based on official documents resulting from UN-led conferences. From a total of 73 tree species surveyed (n=4,081 specimens), 23 showed no less sustainable features (n=3,072; f=75.3%). In the town, the peripheral areas are the ones that most demand interventions to promote more sustainable public spaces. From actions aligned with sustainable urban planning, it is possible to promote safer and more inclusive spaces for citizens.
Abstract: The increase in the world's urban human population generated of the scarcity of natural resources. Then, to minimize local drainage problems caused by unplanned urbanization, this paper proposes to analyse results simulated using compensatory measures in the Imboassica neighborhood, city of Macaé, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It objectives assess the model's response to different choices of Coefficient of Manning and Curve Number. In addition, It compares the influence of the height of buildings and roads on the distribution of water in space. This paper uses the MOHID Platform by means of the OpenFlows Flood© software to simulate 10 and 50 years return period Rain Design for the studied region. It simulated the adoption of Compensatory techniques in sustainable urban drainage, the use of green roof and permeable pavement. The changes adopted for different uses of the territory were described using the QGIS© software. It was possible to conclude that the difference in the water depth decrease ranges from about 11.1% and 14.3% because of adopting the compensatory measures for the 50 and 10 years return period Rain Design, respectively. Another evaluation performed was the change of the topography data, considering information of the height of buildings and the roads.
Urban areas are the significant contributors of local and regional climatic changes. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) formation can influence the microclimate of urban areas, making them warmer than the surrounding regions. The temporal and spatial variation of UHI effect in a typical southernmost peninsular part of India was studied for around two decades using geospatial techniques. The Land Surface Temperature (LST) was found using ETM+ and OLI/TIRS satellite imageries. The Ecological Evaluation Index (EEI) is a tool that can be used to assess an areas’ ecological quality based on human comfort, from excellent to worst zones. Urban Thermal Field Variance Index (UTFVI) is a term that can be used to scale the intensity of UHI based on EEI. It was observed from the study that the UHS was mostly concentrated in the central business region of the study area. It was also seen that over the years, although there was a reduction in the area of urban hotspots, an increase in the area of worst zones according to UTFVI classification happened. Shifting of zones from ‘excellent’ to ‘worst’ areas was also observed. UHI and Urban Cool Islands (UCI) are identified. The study will be highly helpful in realizing the climatic changes happening in this region and adopting preventive measures in a systematic way based on the baseline data generated.
As cities face population growth and infrastructure challenges, adapting to modern technologies is crucial. Particularly, the renewal of technology-supported infrastructures within smart cities leads to significant changes in urban areas. The management system of cultural heritage sites, like other urban areas, undergoes various transformations under the influence of digital transformation. Digital Twin technology offers significant opportunities for the creation and detailed analysis of large-scale knowledge bases for conservation policies in cultural heritage areas. This article searches for the theoretical basis of a prospective Digital Twin technology in cultural heritage sites, focusing on the development of a fundamental model for creating digital replicas of the physical assets. The aim is to provide a framework for leveraging Digital Twin technology in the management systems of cultural heritage sites. In this context, an alternative model is proposed by recommending the establishment of a digital information system, with the aim of enabling the continuous monitoring of indicators related to each proposed action in the management of cultural heritage sites. The parameters of the management system are identified as key factors of this method, with sustainable preventive conservation and the realization of potential predictions being defined as the main characteristics targeted by this method.
When dimensioning photovoltaic systems, the accuracy and efficiency of the complete system are usually sought. The system's overall performance and efficiency are typically assessed by taking into account energy demand, solar irradiation, and the technological characteristics of its various components. However, for owners, architects, and builders, the geometrical magnitudes of the panels (length, width, and the resulting area they will occupy) are decisive in the estimation and architectural design phase, during which the energy demand may not have been defined, but the aim is to include the PV system in the building's design. The objective of the study is to determine existing ranges and correlations between power and solar panel area as a reference point for the architectural design phase, providing a basis for considering photovoltaic systems based on the available roof area. To this end, technical information was collected on the different types of panels offered in Lima city, complemented by surveys of dealers and installers, taking into account the main brands and models on offer. Using technical data sheets linked to the panels, correlations between available geometric dimensions, power ranges and possible efficiencies per panel are sought. In this way, there is a wide range of geometric dimensions, however, the 1.50m2 threshold divides two groups of panels, one with lower efficiency which tends to generate less energy and the second group with more efficient panels and a larger format. Similarly, the width is a dimension that shows little variation, with comparable measurements and similarities observed across different brands and panel capacities. Other related aspects such as frame thickness, reliability and warranty of the panels could be studied in further research, as well as estimation for projects with the potential to include PV installations at the available roof area in the design phase.
Urban parks make up the most significant proportion of green areas in cities and significantly help to mitigate climate change and improve the physical and mental well-being of the city inhabitants. In Latin America, one of the predominant species within the vegetation in these parks is Ficus benjamina (F. benjamina). However, this species has a questionable history due to the damage it produces to public infrastructures and its invasive non-native origin has biased its potential to provide ecosystem services. This study quantifies the capacity F. benjamina has for storing carbon (C) and producing oxygen (O2) in seven parks of one of the most affected districts of Lima, the Peruvian capital. The average C captured ranged from 2.31 ± 0.27 to 8.19 ± 1.88 t C ha-1, ranging from 8.48 ± 0.99 to 30.04 ± 6.91 t CO2 ha-1 and producing between 6.17 ± 0.72 and 21.85 ± 5.01 t O2 ha-1. These results show the benefits of these species in urban areas and should be considered for conserving these trees. Further research on ornamental plants, management policies implementation based on an ecological approach and good arboricultural practices will guarantee urban center purification in this global context.
