Urban environment

26 October 2023, 10.00 am – 12.30 pm Online

18 – 20 October 2023 Cascais, Portugal

District heating can provide an efficient solution to heating urban buildings, while waste-water treatment plants represent a potential source of renewable energy. This study evaluated the potential impacts of using waste-water heat to supply district heating systems and applied it to the situation in Serbia. The researchers say that widespread use of this approach could improve efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and that the methodology could be applied elsewhere. Click here to read more

Lockdown restrictions responding to the Covid-19 pandemic led to reductions in air pollution in cities across Europe. This study uses a novel approach to assess the effects of different lockdown measures on four pollutants. The researchers say that nitrogen dioxide and particulates reduced significantly, particularly in response to school and workplace closures and stay-at-home measures. Click here to read more

Increasing resource efficiency in the construction industry, in line with circular economy principles, could greatly reduce waste and increase sustainability. Focusing on bridges — often demolished when requirements change — this study presents a way to rate the circularity of different design options. The new framework could help decision making at the procurement stage of infrastructure projects.Click here to read more

Night-time light pollution from artificial sources can disrupt biological processes and fragment habitats. This study presents a new concept for addressing the problem: a 'dark ecological network'. Its development involves mapping a new system of connected functional zones and corridors where dark can be preserved to help birds, bats and other taxa, and gives people the chance to experience starry skies. Click here to read more

Corrected Link: Green Public Procurement (GPP) News Alert - July 2021 issue

Weather variables and air pollution may favour COVID-19 pandemic transmission, leading to a higher number of deaths, finds a new study conducted in Northern Italian cities during the first lockdown of 2020, when all non-essential activities ceased. The researchers paired data on COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs), in Milan, Trento and Florence, alongside weather variables and air pollution data for the first wave of the pandemic to establish if the water content of the air (humidity), temperature or air pollution¹, were positively or negatively correlated to the high numbers of COVID-19 patients in ICU admissions.

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While cities worldwide are expanding so is the significant carbon dioxide footprint of urban transport. Consequently, there is an urgent need for sustainable urban mobility solutions. A thorough analysis of the variables and dynamics of urban mobility in cities can aid in planning sustainable mobility policy. This study used a new system of classification by type (typologisation) relevant to urban mobility in global cities, with data from 331 cities in 124 countries covering 40% of the global urban population (as of 2016).

Data storage has become an essential part of digital work, but it comes at a price. In 2015, data centres and server rooms already accounted for an estimated 2.25% of EU energy consumption, and their manufacture, cooling and end-of-life also have environmental impacts.