Portuguese version of ClairCity's Community Activator Pack. A pack of resources, guides and t... more Portuguese version of ClairCity's Community Activator Pack. A pack of resources, guides and tips to support groups working towards a future with clean air and net zero carbon emissions.
Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, car... more Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, carbon footprint, ambient air concentrations), health (exposure and health effects), and economic impacts (e.g. health-related costs).<strong>content_expected</strong><br>file: content_expected.txt<br>Content will follow later.
Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, car... more Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, carbon footprint, ambient air concentrations), health (exposure and health effects), and economic impacts (e.g. health-related costs).<strong>content_expected</strong><br>file: content_expected.txt<br>Content will follow later.
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2019
The new National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive was transposed into Portuguese law in 2018 cre... more The new National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive was transposed into Portuguese law in 2018 creating the obligation to comply with the established NEC for Portugal and to develop a National Air Pollution Control Programme (NAPCP). An analysis of emission trends and projections, and potential air quality and environmental impacts, was performed as a support to the NAPCP. Notwithstanding the emissions reduction trend, NEC noncompliance cases are still foreseen for SOx, NMVOC and PM2.5 under a 2030 current level legislation scenario. In terms of air quality impacts, a likely compliance with air quality objectives for health protection is expected for NO2 and PM2.5, with an increase of O3 levels. Based on the obtained results, it is possible to identify the need for further emission reduction measures and for the air quality simulation of other scenarios.
International Journal of Environmental Impacts: Management, Mitigation and Recovery, 2018
Cities are home of about 70% of the European population, and it is expected that by 2050 this num... more Cities are home of about 70% of the European population, and it is expected that by 2050 this number will be achieved around the world. As a result, cities are facing important challenges related to pressures induced by changes on urban metabolism and by climate change (CC) effects. Understanding the key factors determining the vulnerability of a city provides a framework to consider resilience. These issues become more and more relevant since changes in urban structure and metabolism together with CC will start affecting atmospheric emissions, urban air quality and consequently human health. Cobenefits of an urban air quality and CC approach need to be further addressed taking into consideration that CC creates both risks and opportunities. Therefore, an integrated assessment of the interaction between resilience factors and CC effects, and its influence on the urban microclimate and air quality, is required to better adapt to future climate. This knowledge is fundamental to support policy makers and stakeholders helping them to choose the best strategies to manage resources, to mitigate extreme weather events and to predict air pollution episodes. This article offers a systematic review on CC impacts in cities, providing some adaptation strategies and suggesting future research topics.
The increased knowledge and awareness of the impacts of climate change on global environment and ... more The increased knowledge and awareness of the impacts of climate change on global environment and its linkage to the greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) has resulted in an expansion of a set of European policies during the past decades. Since the energy sector is one of the major contributors of GHG emissions, the need to mitigate the climate change impacts has led to a diversification of the world’s energy mix, promoted by an increased demand for renewable energy sources. The Portuguese government considers the use of biomass for pellet production as a key factor to accomplish the national goals established in the energy strategy for renewable energy sources. However, few studies have evaluated the potential impact of this type of bioenergy on air quality. In this context, a case study was selected to estimate the atmospheric emissions of the pellet energy supply chain in Portugal. A comparison of both pellet and forest biomass residue energy supply chain in terms of atmospheric emissi...
This work focus on the assessment of green infrastructures benefits on air quality in Porto urban... more This work focus on the assessment of green infrastructures benefits on air quality in Porto urban area, applying the CFD model VADIS to a particular area within the city. Three scenarios have been considered: (i) the baseline refers to the current morphological characteristics of the area; (ii) a green scenario comprises the replacement of built-up areas by green areas; and (iii) a green scenario corresponding to the implementation of green roofs. The results of baseline simulations shows a good agreement with local measurements with a NMSE of 0.4, 0.6 and 2.1 for CO, NO\(_2\) and PM10 concentrations, respectively. The benefits of green infrastructures on air quality are assessed for future medium-term climate scenarios (2041–2070), applying a cascade of numerical models, from global to urban scale, the WRF-VADIS modelling system. Future climate data point out a decrease in the number of days with moderate to strong wind speed, and an increase in the number of days recording low wind speed conditions. The assessment of green infrastructures effects on air quality under future climate focus on low wind speed conditions. The results clearly show the disturbances exerted by green infrastructures, which are positively or negatively affecting mainly the adapted areas and their close surroundings.
Given the intermittent nature of the electrical energy produced by renewable sources of solar and... more Given the intermittent nature of the electrical energy produced by renewable sources of solar and wind energy, the characterization of variability of the simultaneous production by these two types of renewable energy sources is very important for planning and management of energy distribution grid. For this purpose is presented a study that considers different contributions (percentages) from both energy sources, and seeks to determine the best combination (mix) for Mainland Portugal. The best mix is identified as the one that presents a minimum root mean square deviation between the power produced and the load and/or minor necessary of storage. To this purpose, real data of load and power production from wind and photovoltaic plants, recorded by Portuguese electric network from 2010 to 2013, were analysed. The analysis shows that the mix from the two sources, which leads to a minimum deviation between the production and the load, depends on the temporal resolution. For a grid management at a daily scale, the mix resulting in minor deviations between production and load, corresponds approximately to a contribution of 60% from photovoltaic solar energy and 40% from wind energy. In the case of hourly or monthly scales, the mix presenting minor deviations between production and load, corresponds approximately to a contribution of 65% from wind energy and 35% from solar energy denoting a clear influence of daily and seasonal cycles. Evaluating the mix quality through the required maximum storage value, the best mix (requiring the smaller storage capacity), is reached with a combination of approximately 60% wind energy and 40% solar energy. The storage needs are, naturally, independent from the temporal resolution in which the analysis is made. Previous studies show that increasing the spatial distribution for photovoltaic facilities contributes to a reduction of the energy production variability. Having in consideration that the majority of the solar energy production injected into the "Rede Eléctrica Nacional" is concentrated in a small number of facilities in the south of the country, this work sought to assess the effect in photovoltaic energy production variability of a country distributed production scenario. With this purpose, surface solar radiation data, provided by "Projecto Land SAF", a project led by the "Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA)" were used. These solar radiation data result from estimations based on satellite observations, and were provided from 2009 to 2012, with a 30 minute temporal resolution and 3 km spatial resolution. Applying a model for the decomposition of global solar radiation into direct and diffuse components, followed by the application of a model for the transposition of the radiation components from an horizontal plane to an inclined one, it was possible to estimate the incident solar radiation on an inclined plane. Finally, the estimations of incident radiation on an inclined plane were used as input in a photovoltaic panel model in order to estimate the electrical power produced. The efficiency of a photovoltaic panel depends, among other factors, on the ambient temperature, which was characterized using hourly temperature values observed in the automatic station network of IPMA. The quality of the photovoltaic production estimations, given by the set of used models, was evaluated comparing the estimated values to the observed values
Computational Fluid Dynamics - Basic Instruments and Applications in Science, 2018
Green infrastructures play an essential role in urban planning, namely with their potential to re... more Green infrastructures play an essential role in urban planning, namely with their potential to reduce the impact from air pollution episodes together with extreme weather events. This chapter focuses on the assessment of green infrastructures' benefits on current and future microclimate and air quality patterns in Porto's urban area (Portugal). The effects of green infrastructures on flow dynamics are evaluated for the baseline scenarios by means of numerical and physical simulations, using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model VADIS and the wind tunnel of the University of Aveiro. The baseline morphological (BM) scenario focuses on the current morphological characteristics of Porto's urban area, while a baseline green (BG) scenario comprises the replacement of built-up areas by green areas and parks. In addition, the benefits of green infrastructures on air quality are assessed for the baseline and under future climate scenarios. The air quality simulations focus on particulate matter, one of the most critical air pollutants with severe impacts on human health. For the BM scenario, the simulated concentrations are compared with hourly averaged PM10 concentrations measured during a weekday at the air quality station located within the study domain.
In order to achieve the targets underlined in the European Strategy for climate change and energy... more In order to achieve the targets underlined in the European Strategy for climate change and energy efficiency, the so called 20-20-20 package, the European Commission launched the Covenant of Mayors to endorse and support the efforts deployed by local authorities in the implementation of sustainable energy plans, and at the same time contribute to greenhouse gases emissions mitigation. This paper explores how the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) has been adopted in Portugal, and which type of measures are being defined and implemented by the municipalities. For that, all Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) submitted by Portuguese municipalities (124) have been examined, for which a detailed analysis was performed, including the Baseline Emission Inventory (70, i.e., around 50%). The municipalities that submitted SEAP cover 60% of the total population of the country because the main urban centres are a part of the 30% that have signed the CoM. Most common measures are related with changes on behaviour and infrastructure related to energy (such as renewable energies, energy efficiency in buildings, public lighting, etc.), waste and transport (for example optimization of: transport infrastructures, used vehicles and road operations). Public lighting is one of the energy measures present in all submitted SEAP, which plays a key role in energy consumption, reaching values of upwards of 12%, particularly in coastal areas due to higher population density and urban residential areas. Besides all efforts there is still a long way to go in terms of energy consumption reduction at local level.
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2017
Air pollution has become a growing concern in the past few years, with an increasing number of ac... more Air pollution has become a growing concern in the past few years, with an increasing number of acute air pollution episodes in many cities worldwide. Ozone (O3) is a powerful oxidising agent and one of the air pollutants of most concern in Europe. Source apportionment modelling provides valuable information on the contributions of different source sectors and source regions to ozone concentrations. This information can be useful in designing air quality management strategies and in understanding the potential benefits of reducing emissions from a particular source category. In the present work, the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx), with its Ozone Source Apportionment Technology (OSAT), was applied over Amsterdam Region, Netherlands, for the period of 8 th to 12 th July 2010, when high concentration of ozone were measured in several air quality monitoring stations in the region of Amsterdam. The contributions of different source categories and the NOx/VOC limitation to the ozone formation were quantified. Results indicated a great influence of transboundary transport on the O3 simulated concentrations. The OSAT tool revealed that this is the main factor affecting O3 levels in the area of study, followed by VOC emissions from solvent use and NOx emissions from industry and other sources not individually analysed. O3 formation is slightly more NOx limited than VOC limited.
Portuguese version of ClairCity's Community Activator Pack. A pack of resources, guides and t... more Portuguese version of ClairCity's Community Activator Pack. A pack of resources, guides and tips to support groups working towards a future with clean air and net zero carbon emissions.
Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, car... more Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, carbon footprint, ambient air concentrations), health (exposure and health effects), and economic impacts (e.g. health-related costs).<strong>content_expected</strong><br>file: content_expected.txt<br>Content will follow later.
Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, car... more Data output from the tool set application for the assessment of the environmental (emissions, carbon footprint, ambient air concentrations), health (exposure and health effects), and economic impacts (e.g. health-related costs).<strong>content_expected</strong><br>file: content_expected.txt<br>Content will follow later.
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2019
The new National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive was transposed into Portuguese law in 2018 cre... more The new National Emission Ceilings (NEC) Directive was transposed into Portuguese law in 2018 creating the obligation to comply with the established NEC for Portugal and to develop a National Air Pollution Control Programme (NAPCP). An analysis of emission trends and projections, and potential air quality and environmental impacts, was performed as a support to the NAPCP. Notwithstanding the emissions reduction trend, NEC noncompliance cases are still foreseen for SOx, NMVOC and PM2.5 under a 2030 current level legislation scenario. In terms of air quality impacts, a likely compliance with air quality objectives for health protection is expected for NO2 and PM2.5, with an increase of O3 levels. Based on the obtained results, it is possible to identify the need for further emission reduction measures and for the air quality simulation of other scenarios.
International Journal of Environmental Impacts: Management, Mitigation and Recovery, 2018
Cities are home of about 70% of the European population, and it is expected that by 2050 this num... more Cities are home of about 70% of the European population, and it is expected that by 2050 this number will be achieved around the world. As a result, cities are facing important challenges related to pressures induced by changes on urban metabolism and by climate change (CC) effects. Understanding the key factors determining the vulnerability of a city provides a framework to consider resilience. These issues become more and more relevant since changes in urban structure and metabolism together with CC will start affecting atmospheric emissions, urban air quality and consequently human health. Cobenefits of an urban air quality and CC approach need to be further addressed taking into consideration that CC creates both risks and opportunities. Therefore, an integrated assessment of the interaction between resilience factors and CC effects, and its influence on the urban microclimate and air quality, is required to better adapt to future climate. This knowledge is fundamental to support policy makers and stakeholders helping them to choose the best strategies to manage resources, to mitigate extreme weather events and to predict air pollution episodes. This article offers a systematic review on CC impacts in cities, providing some adaptation strategies and suggesting future research topics.
The increased knowledge and awareness of the impacts of climate change on global environment and ... more The increased knowledge and awareness of the impacts of climate change on global environment and its linkage to the greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) has resulted in an expansion of a set of European policies during the past decades. Since the energy sector is one of the major contributors of GHG emissions, the need to mitigate the climate change impacts has led to a diversification of the world’s energy mix, promoted by an increased demand for renewable energy sources. The Portuguese government considers the use of biomass for pellet production as a key factor to accomplish the national goals established in the energy strategy for renewable energy sources. However, few studies have evaluated the potential impact of this type of bioenergy on air quality. In this context, a case study was selected to estimate the atmospheric emissions of the pellet energy supply chain in Portugal. A comparison of both pellet and forest biomass residue energy supply chain in terms of atmospheric emissi...
This work focus on the assessment of green infrastructures benefits on air quality in Porto urban... more This work focus on the assessment of green infrastructures benefits on air quality in Porto urban area, applying the CFD model VADIS to a particular area within the city. Three scenarios have been considered: (i) the baseline refers to the current morphological characteristics of the area; (ii) a green scenario comprises the replacement of built-up areas by green areas; and (iii) a green scenario corresponding to the implementation of green roofs. The results of baseline simulations shows a good agreement with local measurements with a NMSE of 0.4, 0.6 and 2.1 for CO, NO\(_2\) and PM10 concentrations, respectively. The benefits of green infrastructures on air quality are assessed for future medium-term climate scenarios (2041–2070), applying a cascade of numerical models, from global to urban scale, the WRF-VADIS modelling system. Future climate data point out a decrease in the number of days with moderate to strong wind speed, and an increase in the number of days recording low wind speed conditions. The assessment of green infrastructures effects on air quality under future climate focus on low wind speed conditions. The results clearly show the disturbances exerted by green infrastructures, which are positively or negatively affecting mainly the adapted areas and their close surroundings.
Given the intermittent nature of the electrical energy produced by renewable sources of solar and... more Given the intermittent nature of the electrical energy produced by renewable sources of solar and wind energy, the characterization of variability of the simultaneous production by these two types of renewable energy sources is very important for planning and management of energy distribution grid. For this purpose is presented a study that considers different contributions (percentages) from both energy sources, and seeks to determine the best combination (mix) for Mainland Portugal. The best mix is identified as the one that presents a minimum root mean square deviation between the power produced and the load and/or minor necessary of storage. To this purpose, real data of load and power production from wind and photovoltaic plants, recorded by Portuguese electric network from 2010 to 2013, were analysed. The analysis shows that the mix from the two sources, which leads to a minimum deviation between the production and the load, depends on the temporal resolution. For a grid management at a daily scale, the mix resulting in minor deviations between production and load, corresponds approximately to a contribution of 60% from photovoltaic solar energy and 40% from wind energy. In the case of hourly or monthly scales, the mix presenting minor deviations between production and load, corresponds approximately to a contribution of 65% from wind energy and 35% from solar energy denoting a clear influence of daily and seasonal cycles. Evaluating the mix quality through the required maximum storage value, the best mix (requiring the smaller storage capacity), is reached with a combination of approximately 60% wind energy and 40% solar energy. The storage needs are, naturally, independent from the temporal resolution in which the analysis is made. Previous studies show that increasing the spatial distribution for photovoltaic facilities contributes to a reduction of the energy production variability. Having in consideration that the majority of the solar energy production injected into the "Rede Eléctrica Nacional" is concentrated in a small number of facilities in the south of the country, this work sought to assess the effect in photovoltaic energy production variability of a country distributed production scenario. With this purpose, surface solar radiation data, provided by "Projecto Land SAF", a project led by the "Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA)" were used. These solar radiation data result from estimations based on satellite observations, and were provided from 2009 to 2012, with a 30 minute temporal resolution and 3 km spatial resolution. Applying a model for the decomposition of global solar radiation into direct and diffuse components, followed by the application of a model for the transposition of the radiation components from an horizontal plane to an inclined one, it was possible to estimate the incident solar radiation on an inclined plane. Finally, the estimations of incident radiation on an inclined plane were used as input in a photovoltaic panel model in order to estimate the electrical power produced. The efficiency of a photovoltaic panel depends, among other factors, on the ambient temperature, which was characterized using hourly temperature values observed in the automatic station network of IPMA. The quality of the photovoltaic production estimations, given by the set of used models, was evaluated comparing the estimated values to the observed values
Computational Fluid Dynamics - Basic Instruments and Applications in Science, 2018
Green infrastructures play an essential role in urban planning, namely with their potential to re... more Green infrastructures play an essential role in urban planning, namely with their potential to reduce the impact from air pollution episodes together with extreme weather events. This chapter focuses on the assessment of green infrastructures' benefits on current and future microclimate and air quality patterns in Porto's urban area (Portugal). The effects of green infrastructures on flow dynamics are evaluated for the baseline scenarios by means of numerical and physical simulations, using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model VADIS and the wind tunnel of the University of Aveiro. The baseline morphological (BM) scenario focuses on the current morphological characteristics of Porto's urban area, while a baseline green (BG) scenario comprises the replacement of built-up areas by green areas and parks. In addition, the benefits of green infrastructures on air quality are assessed for the baseline and under future climate scenarios. The air quality simulations focus on particulate matter, one of the most critical air pollutants with severe impacts on human health. For the BM scenario, the simulated concentrations are compared with hourly averaged PM10 concentrations measured during a weekday at the air quality station located within the study domain.
In order to achieve the targets underlined in the European Strategy for climate change and energy... more In order to achieve the targets underlined in the European Strategy for climate change and energy efficiency, the so called 20-20-20 package, the European Commission launched the Covenant of Mayors to endorse and support the efforts deployed by local authorities in the implementation of sustainable energy plans, and at the same time contribute to greenhouse gases emissions mitigation. This paper explores how the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) has been adopted in Portugal, and which type of measures are being defined and implemented by the municipalities. For that, all Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) submitted by Portuguese municipalities (124) have been examined, for which a detailed analysis was performed, including the Baseline Emission Inventory (70, i.e., around 50%). The municipalities that submitted SEAP cover 60% of the total population of the country because the main urban centres are a part of the 30% that have signed the CoM. Most common measures are related with changes on behaviour and infrastructure related to energy (such as renewable energies, energy efficiency in buildings, public lighting, etc.), waste and transport (for example optimization of: transport infrastructures, used vehicles and road operations). Public lighting is one of the energy measures present in all submitted SEAP, which plays a key role in energy consumption, reaching values of upwards of 12%, particularly in coastal areas due to higher population density and urban residential areas. Besides all efforts there is still a long way to go in terms of energy consumption reduction at local level.
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2017
Air pollution has become a growing concern in the past few years, with an increasing number of ac... more Air pollution has become a growing concern in the past few years, with an increasing number of acute air pollution episodes in many cities worldwide. Ozone (O3) is a powerful oxidising agent and one of the air pollutants of most concern in Europe. Source apportionment modelling provides valuable information on the contributions of different source sectors and source regions to ozone concentrations. This information can be useful in designing air quality management strategies and in understanding the potential benefits of reducing emissions from a particular source category. In the present work, the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx), with its Ozone Source Apportionment Technology (OSAT), was applied over Amsterdam Region, Netherlands, for the period of 8 th to 12 th July 2010, when high concentration of ozone were measured in several air quality monitoring stations in the region of Amsterdam. The contributions of different source categories and the NOx/VOC limitation to the ozone formation were quantified. Results indicated a great influence of transboundary transport on the O3 simulated concentrations. The OSAT tool revealed that this is the main factor affecting O3 levels in the area of study, followed by VOC emissions from solvent use and NOx emissions from industry and other sources not individually analysed. O3 formation is slightly more NOx limited than VOC limited.
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Papers by Sílvia Coelho