Energy payback time of grid connected pv systems: comparison between tracking and fixed systems

A review of existing studies about LCA of PV systems has been carried out. The data from this review have been completed with our own figures in order to calculate the Energy Payback Time of double and horizontal axis tracking and fixed systems. The results of this metric span from 2 to 5 years for the latitude and global irradiation ranges of the geographical area comprised between −10◦ to 10◦ of longitude, and 30◦ to 45◦ of latitude. With the caution due to the uncertainty of the sources of information, these results mean that a GCPVS is able to produce back the energy required for its existence from 6 to 15 times during a life cycle of 30 years. When comparing tracking and fixed systems, the great importance of the PV generator makes advisable to dedicate more energy to some components of the system in order to increase the productivity and to obtain a higher performance of the component with the highest energy requirement. Both double axis and horizontal axis trackers follow this way, requiring more energy in metallic structure, foundations and wiring, but this higher contribution is widely compensated by the improved productivity of the system.

Repercusión medioambiental del uso de la cerámica estructural en España. Energía embebida y huella de carbono

La producción y el transporte a obra de los productos cerámicos de carácter estructural suponen un importante consumo energético, que conlleva la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero a la atmósfera. El objetivo de la presente Tesis es demostrar la existencia de importantes diferencias en el valor del impacto ambiental asociado a los productos de cerámica estructural fabricados en España, y que estas diferencias podrían quedar cuantificadas y reflejadas mediante un análisis de Huella de Carbono y de la Energía Embebida. Se parte de la inexistencia en España, de base de datos contrastada y consensuada, que establezca las cargas medioambientales en función del tipo de producto cerámico a utilizar. Se realiza en la primera parte del estudio una revisión del estado actual de la Huella de Carbono y la Energía Embebida en el campo de los materiales de construcción, y más concretamente en el sector de la cerámica estructural, que sirve para acotar los límites del estudio y justificar el objeto de la Tesis. La investigación se acota a las etapas de producción y transporte a obra de los productos (estudio cuna a puerta con opciones), al considerar que son éstas, a priori, las que tienen una mayor incidencia en el comportamiento ambiental del producto. Siguiendo los pasos definidos en la normativa aplicable (definición del mapa de procesos – límites y alcance – inventario – cálculo y evaluación), se establece un método específico de identificación y cuantificación de las variables que determinan la Huella de Carbono y Energía Embebida de los productos cerámicos, en función de la tipología de producto. La información necesaria (inventario) se obtiene principalmente con recogida de datos “in situ” de fábricas de productos cerámicos, lo que garantiza que la información tratada en este estudio es de primer nivel. La información se complementa/contrasta con fuentes bibliográficas. Se determinan 6 variables con influencia global en el impacto ambiental, 44 variables principales y 39 secundarias, estableciendo las fórmulas de cálculo a partir de dichas variables. Los resultados de cálculo y evaluación determinan que, para unas mismas condiciones de fabricación, las diferencias entre productos cerámicos llegan hasta un 27% para la Huella de Carbono y un 35% para Energía Embebida. La relevancia que alcanza el impacto asociado al transporte del producto a obra puede llegar hasta un 40% del total. El método de cálculo y las fórmulas desarrolladas se integran en una hoja de cálculo, para el cálculo de Huella de Carbono y Energía Embebida de los productos cerámicos, que permite, a su vez, conocer la repercusión medioambiental que tiene la introducción de modificaciones o innovaciones en el proceso de producción o transporte a obra. Así mismo, el trabajo desarrollado ha servido para poner en relieve una serie de problemas y falta de información en el campo de la cerámica estructural y el medioambiente que pueden ser objeto de futuras líneas de investigación, tanto para el sector de la edificación como para la comunidad científica, pudiendo implementar la metodología desarrollada en otras investigaciones. Se considera que la investigación realizada y sus resultados suponen una aportación importante para conocer y reducir el impacto ambiental de los edificios, desde la perspectiva del ciclo de vida y considerando que el impacto ambiental de un edificio comienza desde el momento en que se extraen las materias primas para la fabricación de los materiales con los que se construyen los edificios. ABSTRACT The production and transport of structural ceramic products involves an important energy consumption, which leads to the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The objective of the research is to demonstrate the existence of significant differences in the value of the environmental impact of structural ceramic products manufactured in Spain, and these differences could be quantified by the Carbon Footprint and Embodied Energy. It starts from the absence in Spain, of contrasted and agreed databases that establish the environmental loads depending on the type of ceramic product. In the first part of the study reviews the current state of the Carbon Footprint and Embedded Energy in the field of building materials, and more specifically in the field of structural ceramics, which serves to limit the scope of the study and justify the purpose of this Thesis. The Research is bounded to production and transportation stages of (cradle to gate with options), considering they are the stages that have a greater impact on the environmental performance of the product. Following the steps defined in applicable rules (definition of process map - boundaries and scope – inventory analysis- calculation and impact assessment), it sets a specific method for the identification and quantification of the variables that determine the Carbon Footprint and Embedded Energy of structural ceramic products, depending on the type of product. The information (inventory) is given mainly with a data collection in ceramic factories (and in a consultation with the manufactures of the products), ensuring that the information handled in this Thesis is a first rate data. It is established 6 variables with a global influence in the environmental impact, 44 primary and 39 secondary variables, establishing calculation formula from these variables. The results of calculation and assessment determined that, for same manufacturing conditions, the differences between ceramic products reach 27% for Carbon Footprint and 35% for Embodied Energy. The relevance that reaches the impact of transport can reach 40% of the total. The method of calculation and formulas developed are integrated into a simple calculation tool, excel base, to calculate the Carbon Footprint and Embodied Energy of structural ceramic products, which allows, know the environmental impact of changes or innovations in the production process or transport to work. The work also has served to find a problems and gaps in the field of structural ceramics and the environment that may well be the subject of future research, both for the building sector to the scientific community, implementing the methodology developed in other research. It is considered that the research and its results represent an important contribution to understand and reduce the environmental impact of buildings from the perspective of the life cycle, considering that the environmental impact of a building starts from the time that the raw materials are extracted for the manufacture of building materials.

Ampliación de un portal Wordpress para el diseño de cursos basados en la metodología PBL

La metodología PBL propone el aprendizaje basado en problemas. A grandes rasgos sugiere que el estudiante sea el protagonista de su propio aprendizaje mediante el desarrollo de proyectos. Con esa idea, el grupo de innovación educativa DMAE-DIA (Desarrollo de nuevas Metodologías de Aprendizaje/Evaluación del Departamento de Informática Aplicada), comenzó la construcción de un portal web para mostrar los principios de dicha metodología, que permitiese a los usuarios del mismo conocerla y aprender a utilizarla en un entorno colaborativo. El objetivo de este trabajo es ampliar este portal para que los usuarios sean capaces de crear, eliminar y mantener sus propios proyectos para posteriormente utilizarlos como base para su práctica docente. El trabajo se ha planteado siguiendo el paradigma de la orientación a objetos, mediante la metodología UML y siguiendo el ciclo de vida del software y se ha implementado utilizando como base el CMS Wordpress y desarrollando con los lenguajes que más adelante se especificarán. Wordpress por su parte es un sistema de gestión de contenidos dotado de gran potencia que permite, de una manera muy sencilla, construir entornos web con el mínimo esfuerzo. ABSTRACT The PBL methodology proposed problem-based learning. Roughly suggests that the student is the protagonist of their own learning by developing projects. With that, the group of educational innovation DMAE-DIA (Development of new Learning/Assessment methodologies, Department of Applied Computing) began building a web portal to show the principles of this methodology, which would allow users to know and learn to use it in a collaborative environment. The aim of this work is to extend this website so that users are able to create, delete and maintain their own projects for later use as the basis for their teaching practice. The work has been raised following the paradigm of object orientation, by following the UML methodology and software life cycle and has been implemented using as a basis the CMS Wordpress and developed with the languages that will be specified later. Meanwhile Wordpress is a content management system endowed with great power that allows,in a very simple way to build web environments with minimal effort.

Evaluación de la sostenibilidad de sistemas de construcción industrializados de fachada en edificios de vivienda colectiva

Esta tesis parte de una reflexión sobre la integración de la construcción industrializada en la arquitectura y el desarrollo sostenible de nuestro planeta y, más concretamente, de la inquietud de querer comparar los diferentes sistemas de construcción industrializados bajo el punto de vista de su sostenibilidad. Supone una introspección en la industrialización sostenible de la construcción en cuanto a la conservación de energía y los recursos naturales, la reutilización de estos recursos y la gestión del ciclo de vida de los materiales y componentes utilizados. Las consideraciones se refieren tanto a aspectos concernientes a los materiales empleados, como a las tecnologías utilizadas, gestión de los edificios y su disposición final, para obtener una mayor eficiencia energética de los edificios y las técnicas de construcción. El estudio se concreta en el desarrollo un marco teórico para la investigación de la sostenibilidad de los sistemas industrializados de fachadas en edificios de vivienda colectiva en España; desarrollando una herramienta que permite, por un lado, guiar a los diferentes agentes en el diseño de sistemas constructivos de fachada con las mejores prácticas de sostenibilidad y, por otro lado, evaluar la sostenibilidad de los sistemas constructivos de una forma objetiva. Por último, se lleva a cabo la evaluación y comparación de once ejemplos de sistemas de fachadas realizados en España en los últimos años. Esto ha permitido emitir juicios críticos soportados por una base fáctica sobre el grado de sostenibilidad de unos sistemas con respecto a otros, realizando un análisis del estado actual del sector de la construcción de fachadas en vivienda colectiva en España, concluyendo en unas directrices que permitan mejorar los sistemas existentes. ABSTRACT The starting point of this thesis is a reflection on the integration of industrialized building and sustainable development concepts. This integration is specifically focused on providing a framework for comparing different systems of industrialized components used in the construction of collective housing, from the point of view of sustainability. Consequently, it involves research on the sustainable industrialization of construction in regards to energy conservation and natural resources, reuse of these resources and life cycle management of materials and components. These considerations refer to both the aspects concerning the materials used, and to the technologies applied to achieve greater energy efficiency in buildings and construction techniques. In tune with this, this thesis puts forward a theoretical framework for the research of sustainability of industrialized façade systems used in collective housing in Spain, leading to the development of a tool for design and assessment that can potentially be applied to any system. This analytical framework is then used to evaluate ten examples of façade systems made in Spain in recent years, therefore providing a factual basis to comparatively determine the degree of sustainability of existing solutions. Moreover, the implementation of this tool also allows to analyse the current state of the sector of façade construction for collective housing in Spain, as well as to propose several guidelines for the improvement of existing systems.

Análisis y propuesta de metodologías para la normalización de los informes de evaluación ambiental que permita la gestión, documentación y participación social

El desarrollo de la Ingeniería Civil en el siglo XXI debe estar dirigido a proporcionar de forma simultánea tanto las necesidades funcionales del proyecto como la conservación y sostenibilidad del territorio. Para que este proceso se pueda realizar de forma eficiente debe integrarse a los promotores (públicos y privados), a la administración y a los ciudadanos y sus asociaciones en el mecanismo de gestión y documentación del proyecto. Las directrices de la Unión Europea y el nuevo marco legislativo actual (Ley 21/2013) está orientado en esta dirección, pero las herramientas que estamos utilizando en este momento no cumplen adecuadamente estas necesidades. La norma UNE 157921:2006 y sucesivas debería renovarse contemplando tanto el nuevo marco legislativo como sobre todo la nueva realidad tecnológica para la gestión de la documentación técnica y científica mediante los lenguajes extensibles, la integración de bases de datos, las herramientas de participación social y las herramientas de protección y conservación del territorio todo ello a lo largo del ciclo de vida del proyecto En esta tesis vamos a presentar los trabajos que estamos realizando de análisis y propuesta de metodologías para la normalización de los informes de evaluación ambiental. que permita la gestión, documentación y participación social ABSTRACT The development of Civil Engineering in the XXI century should be leading towards a simultaneous sustenance of both the functional needs of the project, and the conservation and sustainability of the territory. Public and private promoters should collaborate with administration, citizens and their associations in the management mechanism and project documentation, in order to perform this process efficiently. The guidelines of the European Union and the current legislative framework (Law 21/2013) are oriented towards this, but the tools which are being used at the moment do not adequately meet the mentioned needs. The UNE 157921: 2006 and successive should be renewed in order to contemplate both the new legislative framework and the new technological reality for the management of technical and scientific documentation by the extensible languages, integration of databases, tools of social participation and tools protection and conservation of land all along the project life cycle. The analysis and proposal of different methodologies for the standardisation of environmental assessment reports, which admits for the correct management, documentation and social participation, will be presented in this paper.

Caracterización y análisis comparativo del comportamiento medioambiental de los materiales de aislamiento térmico utilizados en la envolvente del edificio, en función del sistema constructivo y de la situación geográfica

La construcción es uno de los causantes de mayor impacto ambiental y energético en el entorno. Por ello, los profesionales del sector deben empezar a cambiar la manera en la que diseñan la arquitectura, incorporando técnicas y parámetros sostenibles desde las primeras etapas del diseño, controlando la elección de los materiales y las soluciones constructivas. A través de las Declaraciones Ambientales de Producto (DAP) es posible conocer el perfil ambiental de los productos de la construcción, sin embargo, la mayoría de estos documentos solo poseen información de la etapa de producto (A1-A3) y de la etapa de fin de vida, contemplando solo un tipo de tratamiento (vertedero o incineración). Lo que propone esta investigación es generar información medioambiental del resto de las etapas del ciclo de vida relacionado con el producto, haciendo especial hincapié en la etapa de transporte (A4), puesta en obra (A5), transporte de obra a planta de tratamiento (C2) y etapa de fin de vida con vertedero e incineración. Para la realización de la investigación se ha generado un Inventario de Ciclo de Vida (ICV) con valores medios facilitados por las empresas. El ámbito de actuación es la península ibérica, considerándose un transporte en camión. La evaluación ambiental se ha realizado con la herramienta informática SimaPro (versión 7.3.3). Para los procesos que no han podido ser modelizados por falta de información, se ha recurrido a la base de datos Ecoinvent (versión 2.0). Las categorías de impacto analizadas son las contempladas en la UNE-EN ISO 15804+A1. Con esta investigación se propone una catalogación medioambiental del material de aislamiento térmico según los impactos asociados al transporte, puesta en obra y fin de vida del producto para que el prescriptor pueda escoger qué material es el más adecuado a incorporar en el proyecto, desde el punto de vista medioambiental. ABSTRACT _ Construction is one of the main causes of environmental and energy impacts in the environment. Therefore, the professionals of the sector should begin changing the way they design architecture, incorporating sustainable techniques and parameters from the first design stages, controlling the choice of materials and building solutions. It is possible to know the environmental profile of construction products through Environmental Product Declarations (EPD). However, most of these documents only provide information for the product stage (A1-A3) and the end-of-life stage, taking into account only one type of treatment (landfill or incineration). This research proposes the generation of environmental information for the rest of the life cycle stages related to the product, with particular emphasis on the transportstage (A4), construction installation (A5), transport from the construction site to the recycling facilities (C2) and end-of-life stage with landfill and incineration. A Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) has been generated for the development of the research, with mean values provided by the firms. The scope of action is the Iberian Peninsula, considering transport by lorry. The environmental assessment has been carried out with the SimaPro software (version 7.3.3). The Ecoinvent database (version 2.0) has been used for the processes that couldn’t be modelled due to lack of information. The impact categories analysed are those considered in standard UNE-EN ISO 15804+A1. This research proposes an environmental cataloguing of the thermal insulation material depending on the impacts associated with transport, construction installation and end-of-life of the product so that the prescriber might choose which material is the most suitable to implement in the project from an environmental point of view.

Offshoring of Information-intensive Services: Structural Breaks in Industry Life Cycles. ACES Working Papers, August 2010

The emergence of widespread offshoring of information-intensive services is arguably one of the more impactful phenomena to transform business in the last ten years. A growing body of research has examined the firm-level drivers andlocation factors (i.e., the why's and where's) of services offshoring. However, little empirical research has examined the maturation sequencing (or when's) of services offshoring. Adopting industry life cycle theory as a framework, the key research questions examined in the paper are: when do different categories of offshoring services provision change from being emergent sectors to more mature ones, and how does the timing of this sequence relate to the type of service offshored. Using a database of 1420 offshore services FDI projects, we find that the value-add as well as the information sensitivity of the service category are related to when the service categories progress through the industry life cycle. Implications for future waves of service offshoring are discussed.

Pollination ecology of the Australian cycad Lepidozamia peroffskyana (Zamiaceae)

Experiments carried out to investigate the reproductive ecology of the Australian cycad Lepidozamia peroffskyana (Regal, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 1857, 1: 184) revealed that this species is pollinated exclusively by host-specific Tranes weevils (Pascoe 1875). The weevils carry out their life cycle within the tissues of the male cones but also visit the female cones in large numbers. Female cones from which insects ( but not wind) were excluded had a pollination rate that was essentially zero. In contrast, female cones from which wind ( but not insects) were excluded had a pollination rate comparable with naturally pollinated cones. Assessment of Tranes weevil pollen load indicated that they are effective pollen-carriers. No other potential insect pollinators were observed on cones of L. peroffskyana. Sampling of airborne loads of cycad pollen indicated that wind-dispersed grains were not consistently recorded beyond a 2-m radius surrounding pollen-shedding male cones. The airborne load of cycad pollen in the vicinity of pollination-receptive female cones was minimal, and the spatial distribution of the coning population indicated that receptive female cones did not usually occur close enough to pollen-shedding male cones for airborne transfer of pollen to explain observed natural rates of seed set. These multiple lines of evidence suggest that wind-once considered the only pollination vector for cycads and other gymnosperms-plays only a minimal role in the pollination of L. peroffskyana, if any at all. The global diversity of insects associated with cycads suggests that some lineages of pollinating beetles may have been associated with cycad cones since Mesozoic times.

The effect of life expectancy on fertility, saving, schooling and economic growth: theory and evidence

We construct a simple growth model where agents with uncertain survival choose schooling time, life-cycle consumption and the number of children. We show that rising longevity reduces fertility but raises saving, schooling time and the growth rate at a diminishing rate. Cross-section analyses using data from 76 countries support these propositions: life expectancy has a significant positive effect on the saving rate, secondary school enrollment and growth but a significant negative effect on fertility. Through sensitivity analyses, the effect on the saving rate is inconclusive, while the effects on the other variables are robust and consistent. These estimated effects are decreasing in life expectancy. Copyright The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics 2005.

The Bali bombs and the tourism development cycle

This paper analyses the impact of the Bali bombings on international visitor arrivals in Bali and compares this crisis with previous crises with reference to Butler’s hypothetical tourism area life cycle. The paper demonstrates that the Bali bombings had by far the greatest impact on international tourism visitation than any other crisis in the island’s history. Such was the severity of the decline in Bali that both national and local measures were taken to restore confidence. Important though these measures were, they do not fully account for the strong resurgence in international arrivals, suggesting that the destination has not yet reached consolidation in accordance with Butler’s hypothesis and that the strength of the resurgence owes much to the underlying trend of the development phase associated with the general picture proposed by Butler.

Valutazione del rischio ecologico e sviluppo di strategie innovative per il monitoraggio della qualita’ dei corpi idrici: applicazione di un nuovo approccio integrato in un bacino pilota.

Freshwater is extremely precious; but even more precious than freshwater is clean freshwater. From the time that 2/3 of our planet is covered in water, we have contaminated our globe with chemicals that have been used by industrial activities over the last century in a unprecedented way causing harm to humans and wildlife. We have to adopt a new scientific mindset in order to face this problem so to protect this important resource. The Water Framework Directive (European Parliament and the Council, 2000) is a milestone legislative document that transformed the way that water quality monitoring is undertaken across all Member States by introducing the Ecological and Chemical Status. A “good or higher” Ecological Status is expected to be achieved for all waterbodies in Europe by 2015. Yet, most of the European waterbodies, which are determined to be at risk, or of moderate to bad quality, further information will be required so that adequate remediation strategies can be implemented. To date, water quality evaluation is based on five biological components (phytoplankton, macrophytes and benthic algae, macroinvertebrates and fishes) and various hydromorphological and physicochemical elements. The evaluation of the chemical status is principally based on 33 priority substances and on 12 xenobiotics, considered as dangerous for the environment. This approach takes into account only a part of the numerous xenobiotics that can be present in surface waters and could not evidence all the possible causes of ecotoxicological stress that can act in a water section. The mixtures of toxic chemicals may constitute an ecological risk not predictable on the basis of the single component concentration. To improve water quality, sources of contamination and causes of ecological alterations need to be identified. On the other hand, the analysis of the community structure, which is the result of multiple processes, including hydrological constrains and physico-chemical stress, give back only a “photograph” of the actual status of a site without revealing causes and sources of the perturbation. A multidisciplinary approach, able to integrate the information obtained by different methods, such as community structure analysis and eco-genotoxicological studies, could help overcome some of the difficulties in properly identifying the different causes of stress in risk assessment. In synthesis, the river ecological status is the result of a combination of multiple pressures that, for management purposes and quality improvement, have to be disentangled from each other. To reduce actual uncertainty in risk assessment, methods that establish quantitative links between levels of contamination and community alterations are needed. The analysis of macrobenthic invertebrate community structure has been widely used to identify sites subjected to perturbation. Trait-based descriptors of community structure constitute a useful method in ecological risk assessment. The diagnostic capacity of freshwater biomonitoring could be improved by chronic sublethal toxicity testing of water and sediment samples. Requiring an exposure time that covers most of the species’ life cycle, chronic toxicity tests are able to reveal negative effects on life-history traits at contaminant concentrations well below the acute toxicity level. Furthermore, the responses of high-level endpoints (growth, fecundity, mortality) can be integrated in order to evaluate the impact on population’s dynamics, a highly relevant endpoint from the ecological point of view. To gain more accurate information about potential causes and consequences of environmental contamination, the evaluation of adverse effects at physiological, biochemical and genetic level is also needed. The use of different biomarkers and toxicity tests can give information about the sub-lethal and toxic load of environmental compartments. Biomarkers give essential information about the exposure to toxicants, such as endocrine disruptor compounds and genotoxic substances whose negative effects cannot be evidenced by using only high-level toxicological endpoints. The increasing presence of genotoxic pollutants in the environment has caused concern regarding the potential harmful effects of xenobiotics on human health, and interest on the development of new and more sensitive methods for the assessment of mutagenic and cancerogenic risk. Within the WFD, biomarkers and bioassays are regarded as important tools to gain lines of evidence for cause-effect relationship in ecological quality assessment. Despite the scientific community clearly addresses the advantages and necessity of an ecotoxicological approach within the ecological quality assessment, a recent review reports that, more than one decade after the publication of the WFD, only few studies have attempted to integrate ecological water status assessment and biological methods (namely biomarkers or bioassays). None of the fifteen reviewed studies included both biomarkers and bioassays. The integrated approach developed in this PhD Thesis comprises a set of laboratory bioassays (Daphnia magna acute and chronic toxicity tests, Comet Assay and FPG-Comet) newly-developed, modified tacking a cue from standardized existing protocols or applied for freshwater quality testing (ecotoxicological, genotoxicological and toxicogenomic assays), coupled with field investigations on macrobenthic community structures (SPEAR and EBI indexes). Together with the development of new bioassays with Daphnia magna, the feasibility of eco-genotoxicological testing of freshwater and sediment quality with Heterocypris incongruens was evaluated (Comet Assay and a protocol for chronic toxicity). However, the Comet Assay, although standardized, was not applied to freshwater samples due to the lack of sensitivity of this species observed after 24h of exposure to relatively high (and not environmentally relevant) concentrations of reference genotoxicants. Furthermore, this species demonstrated to be unsuitable also for chronic toxicity testing due to the difficult evaluation of fecundity as sub-lethal endpoint of exposure and complications due to its biology and behaviour. The study was applied to a pilot hydrographic sub-Basin, by selecting section subjected to different levels of anthropogenic pressure: this allowed us to establish the reference conditions, to select the most significant endpoints and to evaluate the coherence of the responses of the different lines of evidence (alteration of community structure, eco-genotoxicological responses, alteration of gene expression profiles) and, finally, the diagnostic capacity of the monitoring strategy. Significant correlations were found between the genotoxicological parameter Tail Intensity % (TI%) and macrobenthic community descriptors SPEAR (p<0.001) and EBI (p<0.05), between the genotoxicological parameter describing DNA oxidative stress (ΔTI%) and mean levels of nitrates (p<0.01) and between reproductive impairment (Failed Development % from D. magna chronic bioassays) and TI% (p<0.001) as well as EBI (p<0.001). While correlation among parameters demonstrates a general coherence in the response to increasing impacts, the concomitant ability of each single endpoint to be responsive to specific sources of stress is at the basis of the diagnostic capacity of the integrated approach as demonstrated by stations presenting a mismatch among the different lines of evidence. The chosen set of bioassays, as well as the selected endpoints, are not providing redundant indications on the water quality status but, on the contrary, are contributing with complementary pieces of information about the several stressors that insist simultaneously on a waterbody section providing this monitoring strategy with a solid diagnostic capacity. Our approach should provide opportunities for the integration of biological effects into monitoring programmes for surface water, especially in investigative monitoring. Moreover, it should provide a more realistic assessment of impact and exposure of aquatic organisms to contaminants. Finally this approach should provide an evaluation of drivers of change in biodiversity and its causalities on ecosystem function/services provision, that is the direct and indirect contributions to human well-being.

Risk based decision support system for effective implementation of projects

Conventional project management techniques are not always sufficient to ensure time, cost and quality achievement of large-scale construction projects due to complexity in planning, design and implementation processes. The main reasons for project non-achievement are changes in scope and design, changes in government policies and regulations, unforeseen inflation, underestimation and improper estimation. Projects that are exposed to such an uncertain environment can be effectively managed with the application of risk management throughout the project's life cycle. However, the effectiveness of risk management depends on the technique through which the effects of risk factors are analysed/quantified. This study proposes the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a multiple attribute decision making technique, as a tool for risk analysis because it can handle subjective as well as objective factors in a decision model that are conflicting in nature. This provides a decision support system (DSS) to project management for making the right decision at the right time for ensuring project success in line with organisation policy, project objectives and a competitive business environment. The whole methodology is explained through a case application of a cross-country petroleum pipeline project in India and its effectiveness in project management is demonstrated.

A systems approach to strategic manpower planning for technological development under conditions of manpower scarcity and centralised control

This thesis deals with the integration of the manpower criterion with the strategic decision making processes of technological projects in developing countries. This integration is to be achieved by ensuring the involvement of the actors, who have relevant roles and responsibilities along the whole life cycle of the project, in the strategic decision making phases of the project. The relevance of the actors is ascertained by the use of a responsibility index which relates their responsibility to the project's constituent stages. In the context of a technological project in a typical centrally-planned developing environment, the actors are identified as Arbiters, Planners, Implementors and Operators and their roles, concerns and objectives are derived. In this context, the actors are usually government and non-government organisations. Hence, decision making will involve multiple agencies as well as multiple criteria. A methodology covering the whole decision-making process, from options generation to options selection, and adopting Saaty's Analytical Hierarchy Process as an operational tool is proposed to deal with such multiple-criteria, multipleagency decision situations. The methodology is intended to integrate the consideration of the relevant criteria, the prevailing environmental and policy factors, and the concerns and objectives of the relevant actors into a unifying decision-making process which strives to facilitate enlightened decision making and to enhance learning and interaction. An extensive assessment of the methodology's feasibility, based on a specific technological project within the Iraqi oil industry is included, and indicates that the methodology should be both useful and implementable.

User interface design support for the development of knowledge-based systems

The present scarcity of operational knowledge-based systems (KBS) has been attributed, in part, to an inadequate consideration shown to user interface design during development. From a human factors perspective the problem has stemmed from an overall lack of user-centred design principles. Consequently the integration of human factors principles and techniques is seen as a necessary and important precursor to ensuring the implementation of KBS which are useful to, and usable by, the end-users for whom they are intended. Focussing upon KBS work taking place within commercial and industrial environments, this research set out to assess both the extent to which human factors support was presently being utilised within development, and the future path for human factors integration. The assessment consisted of interviews conducted with a number of commercial and industrial organisations involved in KBS development; and a set of three detailed case studies of individual KBS projects. Two of the studies were carried out within a collaborative Alvey project, involving the Interdisciplinary Higher Degrees Scheme (IHD) at the University of Aston in Birmingham, BIS Applied Systems Ltd (BIS), and the British Steel Corporation. This project, which had provided the initial basis and funding for the research, was concerned with the application of KBS to the design of commercial data processing (DP) systems. The third study stemmed from involvement on a KBS project being carried out by the Technology Division of the Trustees Saving Bank Group plc. The preliminary research highlighted poor human factors integration. In particular, there was a lack of early consideration of end-user requirements definition and user-centred evaluation. Instead concentration was given to the construction of the knowledge base and prototype evaluation with the expert(s). In response to this identified problem, a set of methods was developed that was aimed at encouraging developers to consider user interface requirements early on in a project. These methods were then applied in the two further projects, and their uptake within the overall development process was monitored. Experience from the two studies demonstrated that early consideration of user interface requirements was both feasible, and instructive for guiding future development work. In particular, it was shown a user interface prototype could be used as a basis for capturing requirements at the functional (task) level, and at the interface dialogue level. Extrapolating from this experience, a KBS life-cycle model is proposed which incorporates user interface design (and within that, user evaluation) as a largely parallel, rather than subsequent, activity to knowledge base construction. Further to this, there is a discussion of several key elements which can be seen as inhibiting the integration of human factors within KBS development. These elements stem from characteristics of present KBS development practice; from constraints within the commercial and industrial development environments; and from the state of existing human factors support.

Whole life performance bid evaluation in the Korean public sector

Korea has increasingly adopted design-build for public construction projects in the last few years. There is a much greater awareness of the need to change a system based on ‘Value for Money’ which is high on the government's agenda. A whole life performance bid evaluation model is proposed to aid decision makers in the selection of a design-builder. This is based on the integration of a framework using an analytic hierarchy process as the bid awarding system is being changed from one based on lowest price, to one based on best value over the life-cycle. Key criteria like whole life cost, service life planning and design quality are important through the key stages of evaluation process. The model uses a systematic and holistic approach which enables a public sector to make better decisions in design-builder selection, which will deliver whole life benefits, based on long term cost-effectiveness and whole life.