Using recycled aggregates in green roof substrates for plant diversity

Extensive green roofs are becoming a popular tool for restoring green infrastructure in urban areas, particularly biodiverse habitats such as post-industrial/brownfield sites. This study investigated the use of six recycled lightweight aggregates and combinations of them in green roof growing substrate, to determine their effectiveness for enhancing plant abundance and species diversity. In two separate experiments, we examined the roles of substrate type and depth on the establishment of a perennial wildflower mix over a 15-month period. We found that some of the alternative substrates are comparable to the widely used crushed red brick aggregate (predominantly found in commercial green roof growing substrate) for supporting plant establishment. For some materials such as clay pellets, there was increased plant coverage and a higher number of plant species than in any other substrate. Substrates that were produced from a blend of two or three aggregate types also supported higher plant abundance and diversity. Generally, increasing substrate depth improved plant establishment, however this effect was not consistent across substrates. We conclude that recycled materials may be viable constituents of growing substrate for green roofs and they may improve green roof resilience, through increased plant cover and diversity. The results could provide evidence to support the construction of mosaic habitat types on single roofs using various substrate blends.

Renaturing cities using a regionally-focused biodiversity-led multifunctional benefits approach to urban green infrastructure

If a ‘Renaturing of Cities’ strategy is to maximise the ecosystem service provision of urban green infrastructure (UGI), then detailed consideration of a habitat services, biodiversity-led approach and multifunctionality are necessary rather than relying on the assumed benefits of UGI per se. The paper presents preliminary data from three case studies, two in England and one in Germany, that explore how multifunctionality can be achieved, the stakeholders required, the usefulness of an experimental approach for demonstrating transformation, and how this can be fed back into policy. We argue that incorporating locally contextualised biodiversity-led UGI design into the planning and policy spheres contributes to the functioning and resilience of the city and provides the adaptability to respond to locally contextualised challenges, such as overheating, flooding, air pollution, health and wellbeing as well as biodiversity loss. Framing our research to encompass both the science of biodiversity-led UGI and co-developing methods for incorporating a strategic approach to implementation of biodiversity-led UGI by planners and developers addresses a gap in current knowledge and begins to address barriers to UGI implementation. By combining scientific with policy learning and defined urban environmental targets with community needs, our research to date has begun to demonstrate how nature-based solutions to building resilience and adaptive governance can be strategically incorporated within cities through UGI.

Green Creek PSG - R193

The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources provides maps to recreational and state shellfish grounds, available to the public for recreational harvesting or to commercial harvest. This map shows the location of Green Creek PSG - R193 Recreational Shellfish Ground in Charleston County.

Green economy: fix our 'ends' not just our 'means'

While growth remains as our main goal economic and environmental crisis will persist. A green economy requires us to aim at development rather than growth, through the responsible promotion of justice, the common good, and environmental sustainability.

The green economy and sustainable development: an uneasy balance?

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (or Rio+20) was conceived at a time of great concern for the health of the world economy. In this atmosphere ‘green economy’ was chosen as one of two central themes for the conference, building on a burgeoning body of literature on the green economy and growth. This research examines the relationship and influence between the double crisis and the rise of ‘greening’ as part of the solution. The aim is to understand what defines and distinguishes the proposals contained in twenty-four sources on the green economy (including policy documents by international agencies and think tanks, and research papers), and what is the meaning and implication of the rising greening agenda for sustainable development as it enters the 21st century. Through a systematic qualitative analysis of textual material, three categories of discourse that can illuminate the meaning and implication of greening are identified: ‘almost business as usual’, ‘greening’, and ‘all change’. An analysis of their relationship with Dryzek's classification of environmental discourse leads to the identification of three interrelated patterns: (1) scarcity and limits, (2) means and ends, and (3) reductionism and unity—which deepen our understanding of the tensions between emerging propositions. The patterns help explain the meaning and implications of greening for sustainable development, revealing an economisation and polarisation of discourses, the persisting weak interpretation of sustainable development, and a tension between the fixing or shifting of dominant socioeconomic paradigms that underpin its conceptualisation.

Literature Review WM9: Part II - light goods vehicles in urban areas, carried as as part Work Module 1, Green Logistics Project

LGVs are of ever-greater importance in terms of the final delivery of many time-critical, high value goods and are also widely used in industries that provide a wide range of critical support services. There are almost five times as many LGVs as there are HGVs (goods vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight) currently licensed in Britain. The LGV fleet in Britain is growing at a faster rate than the HGV fleet, and the LGV fleet travels more than twice as many vehicle kilometres each year than the total HGV fleet. LGVs perform a far greater proportion of their total distance travelled in urban areas than HGVs, and consume 25% of the total diesel and 3% of the total petrol used by all motorised road transport vehicles in Britain.

Literature Review WM9: Part I - urban freight transport, carried out as part of Work Module 1, Green Logistics Project

The review illustrates the importance of road movements in goods distribution in urban areas. It highlights the major economic, environmental and social impacts associated with this freight activity and reviews policy options available to those responsible for regulation. A wide range of possible solutions to problems posed by urban freight operations are also covered including approaches related to: consolidation, facilities, vehicle design, information capture and utilisation, and non-road modes.

Broadband Green's Function and Applications to Fast Electromagnetic Analysis of High-Speed Interconnects

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2015

Characterization of two immunomodulating homogalacturonan pectins from green tea

Two natural homogalacturonan (HG) pectins (MW ca. 20 kDa) were isolated from green tea based on their immunomodulatory activity. The crude tea polysaccharides (TPS1 and TPS2) were obtained from green tea leaves by hot water extraction and followed by 40% and 70% ethanol precipitation, respectively. Two homogenous water soluble polysaccharides (TPS1-2a and TPS1-2b) were obtained from TPS1 after purification with gel permeation, which gave a higher phagocytic effect than TPS2. A combination of composition, methylation and configuration analyses, as well as NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectroscopy revealed that TPS1-2a and TPS1-2b were homogalacturonan (HG) pectins consisting of a backbone of 1,4-linked α-d-galacturonic acid (GalA) residues with 28.4% and 26.1% of carboxyl groups as methyl ester, respectively. The immunological assay results demonstrated that TPS1-2, which consisted mainly of HG pectins, showed phagocytosis-enhancing activity in HL-60 cells.

Laccase bio-grafting a versatile modification tool from green chemistry technologies

Today more than 99% of plastics are petroleum-based because of availability and cost of the raw material. The durability of these disposed plastics contributes to the environmental problems as waste and their persistence in the environment causes deleterious effects on the ecosystem. Environmental pollution awareness and the demand for green technology have drawn considerable attention of both academia and industry into biodegradable polymers. In this regard green chemistry technology has the potential to provide solution to this problematic issue. Laccase bio-grafting has recently been the focus of green chemistry technologies due to the growing environmental concerns, legal restrictions and increasing availability of scientific knowledge. In the last several years, research covering various applications of laccases has been increased rapidly particularly in the field of grafting. In principle, laccase-assisted graft co-polymerization may impart a variety of new functionalities to a polymer. The modified polymers through grafting have a bright future and their development is practically boundless. In present work, novel biodegradable graft copolymers combining the advantages of bacterial cellulose backbone and PHB side chains will be prepared by introducing enzymatic grafting technique. The present research will be a first step in the biopolymer modification. To date no report has been found in literature explaining the enzymatic grafting of PHAs. The technique would also provide an efficient modulation approach to improve the biodegradability and biocompatibility of the graft copolymer. The newly grafted copolymers will exhibit unique functionalities with wider range of potential applications mainly in tissue engineering, biosensors, pharmaceutical industry (drug delivery systems) and bio-plastics.

A repeated measures experiment of green exercise to improve self-esteem in UK school children

Exercising in natural, green environments creates greater improvements in adult's self-esteem than exercise undertaken in urban or indoor settings. No comparable data are available for children. The aim of this study was to determine whether so called ‘green exercise’ affected changes in self-esteem; enjoyment and perceived exertion in children differently to urban exercise. We assessed cardiorespiratory fitness (20 m shuttle-run) and self-reported physical activity (PAQ-A) in 11 and 12 year olds (n = 75). Each pupil completed two 1.5 mile timed runs, one in an urban and another in a rural environment. Trials were completed one week apart during scheduled physical education lessons allocated using a repeated measures design. Self-esteem was measured before and after each trial, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and enjoyment were assessed after completing each trial. We found a significant main effect (F (1,74), = 12.2, p<0.001), for the increase in self-esteem following exercise but there was no condition by exercise interaction (F (1,74), = 0.13, p = 0.72). There were no significant differences in perceived exertion or enjoyment between conditions. There was a negative correlation (r = −0.26, p = 0.04) between habitual physical activity and RPE during the control condition, which was not evident in the green exercise condition (r = −0.07, p = 0.55). Contrary to previous studies in adults, green exercise did not produce significantly greater increases in self-esteem than the urban exercise condition. Green exercise was enjoyed more equally by children with differing levels of habitual physical activity and has the potential to engage less active children in exercise.

The river solofrana bicycle network: a project of green mobility

The article presents the “LungoSolofrana” project, carried out during the course “Urban and Mobility” in the academic year 2009/2010, held during the bachelor in Environmental Engineering at the University of Naples “Federico II”. The work has also been chosen as a finalist at the “UrbanPromo 2010” contest, the urban and territorial marketing event sponsored by the National Institute of Urban Planning and Urbit which was held in Venice in 2010. The project consists in a green mobility proposal, developed with an approach based on the integration of the environmental redevelopment of a portion of river Solofrana, located in the Salerno Province, and of the renewal of seven local stations of the railway line Mercato San Severino – Nocera Inferiore, including the realization of a cycle-path network for the natural environment fruition. Furthermore the work drew attention to the local and regional administration. The main intent of the project is to integrate sustainable mobility themes with the environment recovery in a territory affected by high environmental troubles. The area includes the municipalities of Nocera Inferiore, Nocera Superiore, Mercato San Severino, Castel San Giorgio and Roccapiemonte, situated in Salerno’s province, with a total population about 114.000 (font Demo ISTAT 2010). The area extension is about 84,30 sqkm and it is crossed by river Solofrana that is the central point of the project idea. The intervention strategy is defined in two kinds of actions: internal and external rail station interventions. The external rail station interventions regard the construction of pedestrian-cycle paths with the scope of increasing the spaces dedicated to cyclists and to pedestrians along the river Solofrana sides and to connect the urban areas with the railway station. In this way, it’s also possible to achieve an urban requalification of the interested area. On the other side, the interventions inside the station , according to Transit Oriented Development principles, aim at redeveloping common spaces with the insertion of new activities and at realizing new automatic cycle parks covered by photovoltaic panels. The project proposal consists of the urban regeneration of small railway stations along the route-Nocera-Codola Mercato San Severino in the province of Salerno, through interventions aimed at improving pedestrian accessibility. The project involves in particular the construction of pedestrian paths protected access to the station and connecting with neighboring towns and installation of innovative bike parking stations in elevation, covering surfaces coated with solar panels and spaces information. The project is aimed to propose a new model of sustainable transport for small and medium shifts as an alternative to private transportation

Partner selection in green supply chains using PSO - a practical approach

Partner selection is crucial to green supply chain management as the focal firm is responsible for the environmental performance of the whole supply chain. The construction of appropriate selection criteria is an essential, but often neglected pre-requisite in the partner selection process. This paper proposes a three-stage model that combines Dempster-Shafer belief acceptability theory and particle swarm optimization technique for the first time in this application. This enables optimization of both effectiveness, in its consideration of the inter-dependence of a broad range of quantitative and qualitative selection criteria, and efficiency in its use of scarce resources during the criteria construction process to be achieved simultaneously. This also enables both operational and strategic attributes can be selected at different levels of hierarchy criteria in different decision-making environments. The practical efficacy of the model is demonstrated by an application in Company ABC, a large Chinese electronic equipment and instrument manufacturer.