Environmental impacts of household appliances in Europe and scenarios for their impact reduction     

Roland Hischier  Francesca Reale  Valentina Castellani  Serenella Sala 《Chemie der Erde / Geochemistry》2013

Assessing the environmental impact due to consumption of goods and services is a pivotal step towards achieving the sustainable development goal related to responsible production and consumption (i.e. SDG 12). Household appliances plays a crucial role and should be assessed in a systemic manner, namely considering all life cycle stages, technological efficiency, and affluence aspects. The present study assess the impact of such household appliances used in Europe, and tests scenarios of potential impact reduction at various scales. Life cycle assessment is applied to 14 different household appliances (ranging from dishwashers to television devices) selected to build a set of representative products, based on their economic value and diffusion in households in Europe. Related impacts are calculated with the Environmental Footprint method for calculating a Consumer Footprint “appliances” for the baseline year 2010. A number of scenarios encompassing eco-solutions on a technical level, changes in consumption pattern, behavioral changes, as well as the combination of all these aspects are run to estimate the Consumer Footprint related to household appliances for the year 2030, compared against this baseline scenario. The baseline Consumer Footprint is confirming the importance of the use phase in leading the impacts in almost all impact categories. Testing different scenarios concludes that there is a reduction of the impact for most of the categories (with up to 67% for the ozone depletion potential, and still around 35% for the global warming potential), while two of the here examined impact categories (i.e. land-use and mineral resource depletion) show an overall potential that is even negative – i.e. the results of all scenarios are higher than the ones of the 2010 baseline scenario. The increase in purchase and use of such appliances may offset energy efficiency benefits in some of the examined categories. Hence, the assessment of sustainability of appliances consumption should always include several scales, from the efficiency of the products (micro scale), to the improvement of the energy mix (meso scale), up to accounting for socio-economic drivers and patterns of consumption affecting the overall appliances stock (macro scale).  相似文献   

Impact of groundwater withdrawals on the interaction of multi-layered aquifers in the Viterbo geothermal area (central Italy)     

Antonella Baiocchi  Francesca Lotti  Vincenzo Piscopo 《Hydrogeology Journal》2013,21(6):1339-1353

The impact of groundwater withdrawals on the interaction between multi-layered aquifers with different water qualities in the Viterbo geothermal area (central Italy) was studied. In this area, deep thermal waters are used to supply thermal spas and public pools. A shallow overlying aquifer carries cold and fresh water, used for irrigation and the local drinking-water supply. Starting with a conceptual hydrogeological model, two simplified numerical models were implemented: a steady-state flow model of the entire groundwater system, and a steady-state flow and heat transport model of a representative area, which included complex interactions between the aquifers. The impact of increased withdrawals associated with potential future development of the thermal aquifer must be considered in terms of the water temperature of the existing thermal sources. However, withdrawals from the shallow aquifer might also influence the discharge of thermal sources and quality of the water withdrawn from the shallow wells. The exploitation of the two aquifers is dependent on the hydraulic conductivity and thickness of the intervening aquitard, which maintains the delicate hydrogeological equilibrium. Effective methods to control this equilibrium include monitoring the vertical gradient between the two aquifers and the residual discharge of natural thermal springs.  相似文献   

Peridinioid dinoflagellate cysts in a Holocene high-mountain lake deposit in Italy     

Massimiliano Tardio  Francesca Sangiorgi  Henk Brinkhuis  Maria Letizia Filippi  Marco Cantonati  André F. Lotter 《Journal of Paleolimnology》2006,36(3):315-318

This paper documents the discovery of peridinioid organic walled dinoflagellate cysts in Holocene sediments of the freshwater, low-alkalinity, high mountain Lake Nero di Cornisello (Adamello mountain range, Trentino, Italy). Among the three main cyst morphotypes found in the samples, the dominant one is acavate, with a smooth and light brown colored wall, with a clear conical shape, elongated with a pointy to rounded end in the antapical-ventral part, with the epicyst broader than the hypocyst and displays a typical peridinioid archeopyle. Comparison with data available in literature, besides pointing out the general scarcity of observations on dinocysts in lakes sediments, suggested a strong morphological similarity with the marine genus Brigantedinium. This finding pinpoints the need for more detailed studies on cysts in freshwater environments offering a new tool for paleoenvironmental interpretations.  相似文献   

Time-course evaluation of ROS-mediated toxicity in mussels, Mytilus galloprovincialis, during a field translocation experiment     

Giada Frenzilli  Raffaella Bocchetti  Massimiliano Pagliarecci  Marco Nigro  Francesca Annarumma  Vittoria Scarcelli  Daniele Fattorini  Francesco Regoli   《Marine environmental research》2004,58(2-5):609

Harbours can be considered as model environments for developing and validating field monitoring procedures and to investigate mechanistic relationships between different biological responses. In this study several biomarkers were investigated in marine mussels caged for 4 weeks (June–July 2001) into an industrialized harbour of NW Italy. Organisms were collected at different time-intervals to better characterize the sensitivity, temporal variations and interactions of analysed responses. Besides single antioxidants the total oxyradical scavenging capacity (TOSC) assay was used to analyse the capability of the whole antioxidant system to neutralize specific forms of radicals: these data were further integrated by measurement of DNA integrity, oxidized bases and the impairment of lysosomal membrane stability in haemocytes. Results showed a biphasic trend for single antioxidants and TOSC, with an increase during the first 2 weeks of exposure to the polluted site followed by a progressive decrease up to a severe depletion in the final part of the experiment.  相似文献   

Vestan lithologies mapped by the visual and infrared spectrometer on Dawn     

Eleonora Ammannito  M. Cristina De Sanctis  Fabrizio Capaccioni  M. Teresa Capria  F. Carraro  Jean‐Philippe Combe  Sergio Fonte  Alessandro Frigeri  Steven P. Joy  Andrea Longobardo  Gianfranco Magni  Simone Marchi  Thomas B. McCord  Lucy A. McFadden  Harry Y. McSween  Ernesto Palomba  Carle M. Pieters  Carol A. Polanskey  Carol A. Raymond  Jessica M. Sunshine  Federico Tosi  Francesca Zambon  Christopher T. Russell 《Meteoritics & planetary science》2013,48(11):2185-2198

We present global lithological maps of the Vestan surface based on Dawn mission's Visible InfraRed (VIR) Spectrometer acquisitions with a spatial sampling of 200 m. The maps confirm the results obtained with the data set acquired by VIR with a spatial sampling of 700 m, that the reflectance spectra of Vesta's surface are dominated by pyroxene absorptions that can be interpreted within the context of the distribution of howardites, eucrites, and diogenites (HEDs). The maps also partially agree with the ground and Hubble Space Telescope observations: they confirm the background surface being an assemblage of howardite or polymict eucrite, as well as the location of a diogenitic‐rich spot; however, there is no evidence of extended olivine‐rich regions in the equatorial latitudes. Diogenite is revealed on the Rheasilvia basin floor, indicating that material of the lower crust/mantle was exposed. VIR also detected diogenites along the scarp of Matronalia Rupes, and the rims of Severina and a nearby, unnamed crater, and as ejecta of Antonia crater. The diogenite distribution is fully consistent with petrological constraints; although the mapped distribution does not provide unambiguous constraints, it favors the hypothesis of a magma ocean.  相似文献   

Potential Use of Remote Sensing Techniques for Exploration of Iron Deposits in Western Sahara and Southwest of Algeria     

Andrea Ciampalini  Francesca Garfagnoli  Chiara Del Ventisette  Sandro Moretti 《Natural Resources Research》2013,22(3):179-190

At present, Western Sahara is politically one of the most sensitive areas of the World. Its economic development could be achieved through the exploitation of mineral resources that can be found in the almost unexplored area administrated by the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic. In this paper, we describe applications of known and cost-effective remote sensing techniques to detect and map areas containing mineral deposits, through the enhancement of Landsat ETM+ imageries. Several image processing techniques (false color composite, band ratioing, and principal component analysis) were used to highlight the presence of iron deposits. Two test areas were selected, one in Western Sahara and another one in Algeria. The occurrence of iron deposits in these test areas was assured using literature data for the Algerian test site and through a field campaign for the Western Sahara. There is good agreement between the ground truth data and the results obtained by the enhancements of the satellite images. Landsat images can be downloaded free of charge and their enhancements does not need expensive hardware or software tools. Therefore this technology could be transferred to the Saharawi technicians, enabling them to explore and manage the mineral resources of their own country independently.  相似文献   

Consequences on water retention properties of double-porosity features in a compacted silt   总被引：2，自引：1，他引：1  

Francesca Casini  Jean Vaunat  Enrique Romero  Augusto Desideri 《Acta Geotechnica》2012,7(2):139-150

The paper deals with an experimental investigation aimed at studying microstructural features and their consequences on water retention properties of statically compacted unsaturated silt. The evolution of the microstructure of the aggregate fabric induced by compaction is investigated by studying the pore size distribution changes under different initial conditions (void ratio and water content). The material used is low plasticity silt from Jossigny near Paris, France. A series of mercury intrusion porosimetry tests (MIP) were performed at different void ratios and water contents to provide microstructural information. The arrangement of aggregation/particles and pore network was also investigated with environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM). The MIP data were used to determine the water retention curve on drying for the specific pore network configuration induced on compaction. The MIP data were used to formulate and calibrate a multimodal water retention model for a specific pore network configuration, which is obtained by linear superposition of subcurves of a modified van Genuchten type. The study is then complemented with controlled suction oedometer tests on compacted samples to obtain the water retention properties of the material at two different void ratios. Finally, we compare the water retention properties obtained by the simulated progression of the different pore network configurations induced on the hydraulic path with the water retention properties under suction-controlled conditions. Good agreement between the two methods for the drying path is reached.  相似文献   

Potential loading damage to industrial storage tanks due to volcanic ash fallout     

Maria Francesca Milazzo  Giuseppa Ancione  Anna Basco  David George Lister  Ernesto Salzano  Giuseppe Maschio 《Natural Hazards》2013,66(2):939-953

The phenomenon of volcanic fallout ash from Mt. Etna in Sicily (Italy) is well known and frequent in recent years, as in the period 2001–2004. As a consequence, significant problems for the population, road, rail and air traffic and production activities have occurred. The industrial areas of Catania and Augusta-Priolo, located in south eastern Sicily, might be involved during particular weather conditions. This paper aims at determining the potential scenarios of damage to industrial facilities caused by volcanic ash fallout. The work has been focused on the study of both fixed and floating roof storage tanks, containing flammable liquids, and examines extreme failures damage causing the greatest loss of containment for these facilities. To include scenarios arising from natural phenomena (Na-Tech events) in the standard risk assessment procedure, the estimation of the vulnerability of these facilities is necessary. The study has been applied to the area surrounding Mt. Etna, and the procedure can also be extended to other case studies.  相似文献   

Influence of shear rate,organic matter content,pH and salinity on mud flocculation   总被引：5，自引：0，他引：5  

Francesca Mietta  Claire Chassagne  Andrew J. Manning  Johan C. Winterwerp 《Ocean Dynamics》2009,59(5):751-763

The purpose of this paper is to establish a relation between a few measurable quantities (the so-called ζ potential, organic matter content, and shear rate) and the flocculation behavior of mud. The results obtained with small-scale flocculation experiments (mixing jar) are compared to results of large-scale experiments (settling column). The mud used for all experiments has been collected in October 2007 in the lower Western Schelde, near Antwerp, Belgium. From this study, it was found that the mean floc size and the Kolmogorov microscale vary in a similar way with the shear rate for suspensions with different pH and salt concentrations. The size of flocs at a given shear rate depends on the properties of the suspension, which affect the electrokinetic properties of the sediment; these can be described by means of the ζ potential. The main findings of this paper are: (1) In saline suspensions at pH = 8, the mean floc size increases when the salt concentration and the ζ potential increase. (2) For a given ζ potential, the mean floc size at low pH is larger than observed at pH = 8 for any added salt. (3) The mean floc size increases with increasing organic matter content. (4) Mud with no organic matter at pH = 8 and no added salt flocculates very little. The response of mud suspensions to variations in salinity and pH is similar to that of kaolinite. This suggests that a general trend can be established for different and complex types of clays and mud. This systematic study can therefore be used for further development of flocculation models.  相似文献   

A reappraisal of shear wave splitting parameters from Italian active volcanic areas through a semiautomatic algorithm   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Francesca Bianco  Lucia Zaccarelli 《Journal of Seismology》2009,13(2):253-266

Shear wave splitting parameters represent a useful tool to detail the stress changes occurring in volcanic environments before impending eruptions. In the present paper, we display the parameter estimates obtained through implementation of a semiautomatic algorithm applied to all useful datasets of the following Italian active volcanic areas: Mt. Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, and Mt. Etna. Most of these datasets have been the object of several studies (Bianco et al., Annali di Geofisica, XXXXIX 2:429–443, 1996, J Volcanol Geotherm Res 82:199–218, 1998a, Geophys Res Lett 25(10):1545–1548, 1998b, Phys Chem Earth 24:977–983, 1999, J Volcanol Geotherm Res 133:229–246, 2004, Geophys J Int 167(2):959–967, 2006; Del Pezzo et al., Bull Seismol Soc Am 94(2):439–452, 2004). Applying the semiautomatic algorithm, we confirmed the results obtained in previous studies, so we do not discuss in much detail each of our findings but give a general overview of the anisotropic features of the investigated Italian volcanoes. In order to make a comparison among the different volcanic areas, we present our results in terms of the main direction of the fast polarization (φ) and percentage of shear wave anisotropy (ξ).  相似文献