Nowadays, Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) are developing as innovative multifunctional tools to maximize urban ecosystem services such as storm water preservation, reduction of runoff and flood ...protection, groundwater pollution prevention, biodiversity enhancement, and microclimate control. Gdańsk is one of the first Polish cities to widely introduce rain gardens (one example of an NBS) in different areas such as parks, city center, main crossroads, and car parks. They involve different technical innovations individually tailored to local architecture, including historic buildings and spaces. Gdańskie Wody, which is responsible for storm water management in the city, adopted a pioneering strategy and started the construction of the first rain garden in 2018. Currently, there are a dozen rain gardens in the city, and this organisation's policy stipulates the construction of NBSs in new housing estates without building rainwater drainage.
Various types of rain gardens can be created depending on location characteristics such as geo-hydrology, as well as local conditions and needs. Furthermore, each of them might be equipped with specific technical solutions to improve the rain garden's function – for example, an oil separator or setter can be included to absorb the initial, most polluted runoff. During winter, the large amount of sodium chloride usually used to grit the roads may pose the greatest threat to biodiversity and plants. These installations have been included in a large rain garden in Gdańsk, located in the central reservation of the main streets in the city center.
This work presents various technical considerations and their impact on ecosystem functions, and the urban circularity challenges provided by rain gardens operating in different technologies and surroundings. The precipitation quantity and the following infiltration rate were estimated by installing pressure transducers. Furthermore, mitigation of the urban heat island was analysed based on remote sensing images.
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•Rain gardens as a smart tool for climate city adaptation•High variation in infiltration rate between monitored rain gardens•Infiltration rate of emptying to contribute to less flooding and drought mitigation•Variety of technical solutions tailored for a different types of urban runoff•Rain gardens as a unit for building system recovery in an urban circular economy
Precision, sustainability and intelligence are the development trend of livestock farming in the future. Precision livestock farming (PLF) is a key step to achieve the sustainable development of ...smart farms, but it is still in the initial stage and has broad prospects. In order to realize precise livestock production, it is necessary to speed up the popularization of intelligent technologies such as environmental control, disease early warning, precise feeding and remote diagnosis. By analyzing the background and technical features of wearable Internet of Things (W-IoT), this paper puts forward a new scheme of applying W-IoT to PLF. Through the detailed survey of the related research on W-IoT and PLF, we believe that precise perception of information, biocompatibility of wearable devices, and sustainability monitoring of wearable systems are necessary contents. However, most wearable technologies that can generate precise, dynamic and sustainable signals are only applicable to humans, and rarely modified or tested specifically for farm animals. At present, these innovative technologies are gradually promoted to livestock farming, which are expected to become one of the most effective solutions for PLF in smart farms. In addition, this paper also discusses the benefits, challenges and prospects of the W-IoT in farm animals.
•Precision, sustainability and intelligence are the trend of livestock farming.•Applying wearable IoT to precision livestock farming in smart farms.•Biocompatibility and sustainability monitoring are also necessary contents.•These innovative technologies on human will be modified or tested for farm animals.
Passenger and freight transport are responsible for nearly a quarter of global primary energy use and energy related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Given the rapid rise in transport in ...industrializing countries, particularly China and India, this fraction is expected to increase in the coming decades. In the context of the need to reduce transport energy and GHG emissions, this paper addresses the following question: Should most of our efforts to reduce transport energy use and GHG emissions concentrate on reducing emissions (or energy) per unit of transport task (e.g. kg CO2-equivalent per passenger-km), or should we rather focus on reducing the passenger transport task itself? In addressing this question we limit our examination to surface passenger transport, since this makes up a significant proportion of all transport GHG emissions. We show by consideration of the available literature that it is most unlikely that technical solutions alone can deliver anywhere near the reductions needed. We then examine proposed non-technical solutions and conclude that major transport policy changes that reduce passenger travel levels themselves will be most effective in producing timely and deep transport emission cuts in existing economies. We end by discussing the prospect for these approaches in the transport sector and the broader economic consequences.
•Technical solutions will not deliver needed transport energy reductions.•Travel reduction through acceptable land use changes are too small and slow.•De-growth might be necessary in OECD countries to achieve reductions.•Changes in transport behavior will be necessary.
In many parts of the world, sodium consumption is higher than recommended levels, representing one of the most important food‐related health challenges and leading to considerable economical costs ...for society. Therefore, there is a need to find technical solutions for sodium reduction that can be implemented by food producers and within food services. The aims of this review are to discuss the barriers related to sodium reduction and to highlight a variety of technical solutions. The barriers relate to consumer perception, microbiology, processing, and physicochemistry. Existing technical solutions include inhomogeneous salt distribution, coated salt particles, changing particle sizes and forms, surface coating, multisensory combinations, sodium replacements, double emulsions, adapted serum release by microstructure design, and adapted brittleness by microstructure design. These solutions, their implementation and the associated challenges, and applicable product categories are described. Some of these solutions are ready for use or are in their early development stages. Many solutions are promising, but in most cases, some form of adaptation or optimization is needed before application in specific products, and care must always be taken to ensure food safety. For instance, further research and innovation are required in the dynamic evolution of saltiness perception, consumer acceptance, the binding and migration of sodium, juiciness, microbiological safety, and the timing of salt addition during processing. Once implemented, these solutions will undoubtedly support food producers and food services in reducing sodium content and extend the application of the solutions to different foods.
Having identified the relationship between the influencing factors of organizational and technical solutions and the effectiveness of the organization of the process of erecting structural elements ...of multi-storey buildings, it is possible to reasonably predict the probability of achieving the desired result at any stage of the construction process. The effectiveness of the method of assessing the factors of organizational and technical solutions is determined by a large-scale approach to the selection of factors that determine the organization of the process of erecting structural elements of monolithic buildings.
Nowadays, the development of technology in agriculture, as in all other spheres, is extremely dynamic, innovative and progressive, but also incredibly necessary. Modern technologies and technical ...solutions occupy an increasingly important place and role in agriculture in Bulgaria, which is part of the world economy, which in turn is developing in a continuous process. The PURPOSE of the research is to analyze these technological solutions and innovations in the agrarian economy and bring them to lower costs, which in turn will increase profit and efficiency. A research METHOD is an analysis of the introduction of technologies through various innovative solutions such as digitization, automation, robotization, software solutions and others to help farmers renew and modernize their farms. This modernization is necessary to achieve an efficient farm and make the right technological decisions as a RESULT of the study of agro-businesses. This is necessary, as well as to deal with various problems in the agricultural sector in Bulgaria. A CONCLUSION from the implementation of innovations in the economy is that it is a good strategy for survival in the national and especially in the international market, as well as for dealing with costs and the possibility of profit. Innovation is needed to adapt to the ever-changing external environment and reduce uncertainty at all levels: international, national and regional.
Purpose:. In this age of globalization and scientific revolution, education has got more focus as a fundamental right of human. In Pakistan, substantial efforts are made, both in government and ...private sectors of education, to promote education. Resultantly, a huge number of educational institutions have been established. Both, parents and teachers, should feel the responsibility of providing the students with all the educational opportunities for the development as conscientious citizens.
Design/Methodology/Approach: This article is an extension of the work by Iqbal et al., (2020), which focuses on exploring the strategies to improve secondary education. Iqbal et. al., (2020) used QFD methodology, and found out the Needs and Demands (N&Ds) of students and their parents; and then explored the Technical Solutions (TSs) to address these N&Ds.
Findings: The results showed that ‘Teaching Behavior’ was highly important TS with weight of 71, and ‘Checked through Technical devices’ with final weight 57 and “Followed Proper time table by teachers” with weight 55 remained at second and third positions respectively. If we consider weight as the priority factor, the N&D with highest weight deserves to be considered first. But, statistically, because of the random variation in the data, two TSs with different weights could be of same importance.
Implications/Originality/Value: The rationale of this article is to test the weights difference of two TSs by using the methodology developed by Iqbal et al. (2014). This will provide guideline to others education experts to test the significance of any two TSs.
The use of techniques to automate the deployment process of deployable structures has always been of prominent interest for architects, engineers and designers of these mechanical systems. The fact ...of being “deployable” in itself implies a simple way of assembling the structure and this assembly is even more promising if it can be achieved by pressing a button. The first part of this scientific paper is focused on a brief description of the different techniques already used by other authors to automate the deployment of structures. After that, 4 techniques to deploy a structure are proposed where each one is analysed and applied to a deployable structure with straight rods and a cylindrical shape. Finally, some of these applications are built and their behaviour with respect to the theoretical model is checked.
•The development of an automatic deployable system using motors in the focal directions for deployable scissors structures.•The development of an automatic deployable system using motors in the middle joints for deployable scissors structures.•The development of an automatic deployable system using pistons between 2 scissors for deployable scissors structures.•The development of an automatic deployable system using pistons with multiple stages for deployable scissors structures.
Actuality. Studies of soil pollution assessment are based on scientific principles that define a complex system of environmental safety management in the context of increased exposure to sources of ...secondary dust pollution of the atmosphere. To ensure environmental safety under conditions of high levels of dust pollution, it is necessary to apply and improve the relevant models. Among the many types of environmental pollution, dust pollution of the atmospheric air and the deposition of harmful substances on the soil are particularly dangerous. This pollution can take two forms: direct emissions from industrial enterprises (primary) or the formation of secondary pollution through physical and chemical processes in places where dust-like waste is stored. Fine waste after air purification with dimensions of less than 100 microns is particularly hazardous. In modern environmental monitoring and assessment of soil pollution, special attention is paid to remote methods that allow for more effective monitoring of the impact of human activity and solving environmental problems. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles is one such method that has positive results. The purpose of the article is to solve the scientific problem of improving aerospace methods based on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for monitoring and assessing the quality of soil pollution. The object of the study is the use of aerospace tools for monitoring and assessing the condition of soil cover. To achieve this goal, the following tasks have been defined: to study the current state and ways to improve the efficiency of UAVs in the system of environmental monitoring of soils; to develop models of environmental assessment; to analyze existing approaches to the use of aerospace assets for monitoring and assessing the state of soil cover. Conclusions: a methodological approach based on a modified method of the comprehensive assessment of the level of technogenic hazard of industrial facilities is proposed to assess the state of environmental safety in conditions of intense dust pollution of the atmospheric air.
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