Found 10359 publications. Showing page 371 of 415:
2023
Integrating Solar Energy and Nature-Based Solutions for Climate-Neutral Urban Environments
This study focuses on achieving climate neutrality in European cities by integrating solar energy technologies and nature-based solutions. Through an examination of current practices, emerging trends, and case examples, the study explores the benefits, challenges, and prospects associated with this integration in urban contexts. A pioneering approach is presented to assess the urban heat and climate change mitigation benefits of combining building-integrated photovoltaics and nature-based solutions within the European context. The results highlight the synergistic relationship between nature-based components and solar conversion technology, identifying effective combinations for different climatic zones. In Southern Europe, strategies such as rooftop photovoltaics on cool roofs, photovoltaic shadings, green walls, and urban trees have demonstrated effectiveness in warmer regions. Conversely, mid- and high-latitude European cities have seen positive impacts through the integration of rooftop photovoltaics and photovoltaic facades with green roofs and green spaces. As solar cell conversion efficiency improves, the environmental impact of photovoltaics is expected to decrease, facilitating their integration into urban environments. The study emphasizes the importance of incorporating water bodies, cool pavements, spaces with high sky-view factors, and effective planning in urban design to maximize resilience benefits. Additionally, the study highlights the significance of prioritizing mitigation actions in low-income regions and engaging citizens in the development of social photovoltaics-positive energy houses, resilient neighbourhoods, and green spaces. By adopting these recommendations, European cities can create climate-neutral urban environments that prioritize clean energy, nature-based solutions, and the overall wellbeing of residents. The findings underscore the need for a multidisciplinary approach combining technological innovation, urban planning strategies, and policy frameworks to effectively achieve climate neutrality.
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Troll observing network – for useful new data about Antarctica
What do Antarctic petrels in Svarthamaren, soil structure movements at Troll research station and ocean chemistry in the Håkon VII Sea have in common? They will all be studied at the Troll observing network currently being established at Troll research station in Dronning Maud Land in Antarctica.
2023
2023
Aerosols are an important constituent of the atmosphere both influencing the climate system and contributing to increasing pollution of the Arctic. At the same time, their adequate monitoring is a big challenge, as instruments on the ground only can sample aerosols in the lowermost atmosphere. For this reason, these measurements are complemented with observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD) which quantify the total amount of aerosols throughout the atmosphere from the attenuation of direct sunlight (and moonlight). This procedure requires extremely careful instrument calibration and removal of cloud contaminated data. In Svalbard, such measurements have been performed by several research groups with different instruments, mostly in Ny-Ålesund and in Hornsund, but also on research vessels offshore. In the framework of the SSF Strategic Grant project ReHearsol, all AOD data from the Svalbard region since 2002 have been collected and made available to the SIOS research community. They indicate that number and intensity of Arctic haze episodes occurring in late winter and spring have decreased consistently and significantly in the last 20 years, while pollution events in summer/early autumn, caused by boreal biomass burning, are on the rise, though not as consistently. Comparison between in-situ measurements at Gruvebadet Atmosphere Laboratory in Ny-Ålesund and AOD measurements indicate that most (more than 65%) of the episodes with high aerosol load are not captured by surface measurements. This finding does not change when one includes in-situ measurements at Zeppelin Observatory (475 m a.s.l.). Studying extensive high-AOD episodes such as those in summer 2019 requires a multi-tool approach including in-situ and remote-sensing measurements combined with model tools.
2023
2023
In Europe, emissions of many air pollutants have decreased in recent decades, but there exist sites where concentrations of pollutants are still high and have become a public health problem. The air quality monitoring networks include urban stations in big cities and rural background stations. Main pollutants (SO2, NOx, CO, particulate matter) are measured automatically and reported on hourly basis, but there is very few research about air quality in small towns. The small towns are important transport nodes between cities and nowadays they are growing bigger, often being focused on seasonal tourism. In this paper, we try to understand the level of pollution in three small towns in Northern Europe, namely Otepää (Estonia), Lillehammer (Norway) and Saldus (Latvia) This research we point at seasonality of air pollution in towns related with winter sport activities, where the traffic flow increases in cold time simultaneously with heating season and higher prevalence of thermal inversions in atmospheric surface layer. Concentration peak of PM10 in Northern Europe appears in early spring, in snow thawing season and shortly after that. Even higher episodic concentrations may occur near unpaved streets in dry season. High seasonal variation of measured nitrogen dioxide concentrations was found in Lillehammer and Otepää, with remarkable contributions of traffic hotspots. This paper confirms that it is worth to study the air quality in small towns, furthermore, because air pollution levels and related public health concerns in small towns are not negligible.
2023
The turbulent future brings a breath of fresh air
Ventilation of health hazardous aerosol pollution within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) – the lowest layer of the atmosphere – is dependent upon turbulent mixing, which again is closely linked to the height of the PBL. Here we show that emissions of both CO2 and absorbing aerosols such as black carbon influence the number of severe air pollution episodes through impacts on turbulence and PBL height. While absorbing aerosols cause increased boundary layer stability and reduced turbulence through atmospheric heating, CO2 has the opposite effect over land through surface warming. In future scenarios with increasing CO2 concentrations and reduced aerosol emissions, we find that around 10% of the world’s population currently living in regions with high pollution levels are likely to experience a particularly strong increase in turbulence and PBL height, and thus a reduction in intense pollution events. Our results highlight how these boundary layer processes provide an added positive impact of black carbon mitigation to human health.
2023
Carcinogenic chemicals, or their metabolites, can be classified as genotoxic or non-genotoxic carcinogens (NGTxCs). Genotoxic compounds induce DNA damage, which can be detected by an established in vitro and in vivo battery of genotoxicity assays. For NGTxCs, DNA is not the primary target, and the possible modes of action (MoA) of NGTxCs are much more diverse than those of genotoxic compounds, and there is no specific in vitro assay for detecting NGTxCs. Therefore, the evaluation of the carcinogenic potential is still dependent on long-term studies in rodents. This 2-year bioassay, mainly applied for testing agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, is time-consuming, costly and requires very high numbers of animals. More importantly, its relevance for human risk assessment is questionable due to the limited predictivity for human cancer risk, especially with regard to NGTxCs. Thus, there is an urgent need for a transition to new approach methodologies (NAMs), integrating human-relevant in vitro assays and in silico tools that better exploit the current knowledge of the multiple processes involved in carcinogenesis into a modern safety assessment toolbox. Here, we describe an integrative project that aims to use a variety of novel approaches to detect the carcinogenic potential of NGTxCs based on different mechanisms and pathways involved in carcinogenesis. The aim of this project is to contribute suitable assays for the safety assessment toolbox for an efficient and improved, internationally recognized hazard assessment of NGTxCs, and ultimately to contribute to reliable mechanism-based next-generation risk assessment for chemical carcinogens.
2023
Low-Cost Particulate Matter Sensors for Monitoring Residential Wood Burning
Conventional monitoring systems for air quality, such as reference stations, provide reliable pollution data in urban settings but only at relatively low spatial density. This study explores the potential of low-cost sensor systems (LCSs) deployed at homes of residents to enhance the monitoring of urban air pollution caused by residential wood burning. We established a network of 28 Airly (Airly-GSM-1, SP. Z o.o., Poland) LCSs in Kristiansand, Norway, over two winters (2021–2022). To assess performance, a gravimetric Kleinfiltergerät measured the fine particle mass concentration (PM2.5) in the garden of one participant’s house for 4 weeks. Results showed a sensor-to-reference correlation equal to 0.86 for raw PM2.5 measurements at daily resolution (bias/RMSE: 9.45/11.65 μg m–3). High-resolution air quality maps at a 100 m resolution were produced by combining the output of an air quality model (uEMEP) using data assimilation techniques with the network data that were corrected and calibrated by using a proposed five-step network data processing scheme. Leave-one-out cross-validation demonstrated that data assimilation reduced the model’s RMSE, MAE, and bias by 44–56, 38–48, and 41–52%, respectively.
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Uptake of organic contaminants from car tire microplastics in Arctic marine species
Car tire particles represent an important environmental challenge that is difficult to alleviate. The particles stem from abrasion during driving, so-called tire wear particles (TWPs), down-cycled end-oflife tire crumb rubber (CR) granulate that is used widely as low-cost infill on sports fields, or degradation products from discarded tires. The material contains a variety of additives and chemical residues from the manufacturing process, including metals, especially high concentrations of zinc, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and benzothiazoles (Halsband et al., 2020), but also paraphenylenediaminesb (PPDs) and numerous other organic chemicals. In urbanized areas, TWPs arebemitted from vehicles, while CR is dispersed from artificial sports fields and other urban surfaces to the environment. This suggests that particulate and chemical runoff to coastal systems is likely and represents a route of exposure to marine organisms. In the Arctic, even small human settlements can represent local sources of TWPs and CR granulate emissions. Here, we summarize recent experimental studies examining the responses of different marine animals to tire rubber particle or leachate exposure, focusing on toxicity and the uptake kinetics of tire-related organic chemicals into organs and tissues. We present data for different ecological functional groups relevant to the Arctic, including copepods, shrimps, crabs, and fish, representing different body sizes, marine habitats, and feeding modes, and thus varying exposure scenarios. Our findings from GC-HRMS SIM chromatography demonstrate that several tire additives are taken up into tissues. Although the available data indicates many tire-derived organic chemicals do not seem to bioaccumulate, mapping of tire rubber particle and chemical distributions in Arctic coastal systems, dose-response toxicity testing and risk assessments of environmental concentrations are warranted, also with a view to potential trophic transfer within the Arctic marine food chain.
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