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Population in developed countries spend most of their time indoors, whether in their homes, workplaces, stores or leisure areas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this situation worsened and now, more than ever, the importance of a high Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is highlighted. The IEQ is very important in building performance since it is directly related to its occupants’ comfort, health, wellbeing, and productivity and the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) concept.Therefore, it is essential to develop tools to support designers’ decision-making in the materialization of indoor environments with higher quality. From the state-of-art analysis, it is possible to conclude that the methods to assess the overall building performance already consider the IEQ. Still, most use an approach that does not cover all relevant indicators.In this context, this paper presents the first milestone of a research work that aims to develop a new method to rate the overall IEQ of office buildings in Portugal.The main objective of the present study is to propose a list of IEQ indicators for office buildings, adapted to the Portuguese context, based on the analysis of existing rating methods for buildings and the recommendations of national and international standards.

Refractory masonry with dry joints is widely employed as a protective lining in industrial applications requiring high-temperature treatments. The thermal and mechanical behaviour of alumina spinel refractory masonry is investigated for a wide range of mechanical loading conditions at ambient and high temperature up to 1500 °C within the framework of the ATHOR project. This paper discusses the different numerical analysis approaches for the simulation of the experimental results. Micro and macro modelling approaches show good agreement with the large scale uniaxial and biaxial compression tests for loading and unloading at the ambient temperature. Simulations carried out for large scale uniaxial and biaxial creep tests as well as biaxial relaxation tests at 1500 °C show good agreement. The numerical results indicate the ability of these modelling approaches to represent the complex thermomechanical behaviour of the refractory masonry. Both methods demonstrate an orthotropic and highly nonlinear behaviour of the refractory masonry as observed in the experimental campaign. The numerical outcome, validated with experimental results demonstrate compatibility between micro and macro modelling approach that can be employed to evaluate local and global behaviour of large industrial installations., This work was supported by the funding scheme of the European Commission, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks in the frame of the project ATHOR - Advanced THermomechanical multiscale mOdelling Refractory linings 764987 Grant. The first, sixth and seventh author also acknowledge the financial support by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB / 04029/2020, and under the Associate Laboratory Advanced Production and Intelligent Systems ARISE underreference LA/P/0112/2020. This work is financed by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology, under grant agreement 2021.05961.BD attributed to the first author.

Facing the increasing pursuit of sustainable buildings, the construction industry has been adopting new project technologies. Building Sustainability Assessment (BSA) methods are a key tool to evaluate building sustainability, but their use is hindered by the time-consuming assessment process and required data. With the emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM), new potentialities have been found, such as continuous data storage and integrated building design. Facing the opportunity to integrate BSA into BIM, this research aims to automate the assessment of a BSA scheme by creating a BIM-based application for the project's early stages. Visual Programming Language (VPL) was used to translate SBToolPT-H criteria requirements into computable rules and create the SBToolBIM application. Results show the feasibility of automating BSA with BIM, by integrating 19 criteria into SBToolBIM and identifying BIM connections for the remaining 6 criteria. The applied procedure has established a novel framework to carry out BSA within the BIM environment in a faster and more reliable way using fewer resources. It offers a decision support tool for the design process able to provide valuable contributions to enhance building sustainability and meet decarbonisation and climate goals.

Apresentação de Poster em conferência Nacional., Presentation of a wave profile and tide monitoring system, with low-cost and low-power pressure sensors connected to a datalogger in a wired or acustic network.

How to analyse the omissions of thermal regulations and evaluate methodologies that provide building execution or thermal certificates that do not correspond to reality and usually incur costs? We can start by analysing different simulation methods and shading calculations that provide solar gains and shadow optimisation. After evaluating how the regulations define the calculation assumptions and how this calculation is performed, the discrepancies (simplifications) that the regulations allow or ignore are presented, and it is exemplified using two case studies. Using the Portuguese regulation as a case study, it leads to incorrect conclusions or assumptions due to unequal access to solar radiation or the shading factor calculation that experiences the omission of angles or time periods. Therefore, the aim is to propose a calculation process (premises) that minimises the discrepancies between simulation (optimisation strategy) and reality (applicability of strategies) for sustainable output., This work was financed by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (Grant SFRH/BD/2018)/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction (CTAC), under reference UID/04047/2020, and the Landscapes, Heritage and Territory Laboratory (Lab2PT) Center of Design and Technology (DeTech).

The inventory of the geological heritage, along with the quantification of its value, is an essential task for the implementation of geoconservation strategies. Despite the Brazilian’s rich geological heritage, only the state of São Paulo has concluded its systematic inventory. This paper presents the geological heritage inventory of Paraná State and a quantitative assessment of the scientific value of geosites and their vulnerability. The method applied for the geosites evaluation was adjusted after analyzing the most deemed protocols in international literature, taking into account the Brazilian socioeconomic and cultural conditions. The selection of geosites made by experts was based on the following criteria: representativeness, rarity, integrity, and degree of scientific knowledge. The inventory consists of 76 geosites, distributed in nine geological frameworks, which represent the geological evolution of Paraná. It is expected that this work may support future planning and management actions, which can safeguard the state’s geological heritage, with efficient strategies, especially for those places with high risk of degradation.

Integrado na coleção Debater o Social, cujo diretor é um dos organizadores do livro, Espaço Urbano e Habitação Básica como Primeiro Direito nasceu do projeto de investigação “Modos de vida e formas de habitar: ilhas e bairros populares no Porto e em Braga”, coordenado por Manuel Carlos Silva e financiado pela FCT entre 2016 e 2020. Como parte deste projeto, e já na sua parte final, realizou-se em Braga o Colóquio Internacional sobre Espaço Urbano e Habitação como Primeiro Direito (outubro 2019). Foi precisamente a partir de várias das intervenções deste Colóquio Internacional que nasceu este livro, organizado em 13 capítulos, e com uma matriz interdisciplinar: nove sociólogos, dois arquitetos, dois geógrafos, um antropólogo, uma demógrafa e um investigador na área do direito.

The accurate description of the dynamics of dry-joint masonry structures strongly relies on the characterisation of the interaction at the units’ interfaces. Several experimental techniques are available for estimating the mechanical properties of the interface (i.e. stiffness and damping), yet, their reliability remains questionable given the lack of comprehensive comparative studies. This work presents an extensive experimental campaign on the meso-scale mechanics of dry-joint interfaces and quantifies both the interface stiffness and interface damping. Importantly, this paper reveals, for the first time, remarkable agreement of the interface stiffness estimated by inherently different experimental methods, namely deformation-based and vibration-based. Thus, it paves the way for the formulation of reliable constitutive laws that govern structural response in numerical modelling of dry-joint masonry structures.

Promoting urban sustainability has been on the agenda of researchers, planners, and policymakers. This paper uses quantitative and qualitative approaches to evaluate the sustainability of the Cypriot city of Limassol through transportation and green spaces indicators. The quantitative approach relies on a geostatistical evaluation of six indicators to describe the transportation sector and the proximity and provision of urban green spaces. The qualitative approach is based on a questionnaire (N = 387) conducted in the city. Results showed that car trips represent more than 90% of the modal share, and around 90% of the city’s transportation infrastructure is designed for cars. In terms of urban green spaces, only 5% of the areas with the highest population density are within 300 m of a green space > 2 ha. The questionnaire confirmed that 71% of the residents are not satisfied with the conditions provided by the city to walk and cycle, while 76% are not satisfied with the green spaces available in the city. This study contributes to informing planners and decision-makers about the need to promote walking, cycling, and greening policies to make Limassol and other similar cities more sustainable.

This is the Book of Abstracts of the oral and poster presentations made at the 3rd Iberian Thermoeletric Workshop (ITW-2023). The conference was hosted at Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear of IST-UL, Lisbon, Portugal, the 30-31 March 2023 and chaired by António P. Gonçalves (IST, C2TN). This meeting occurs each two years, alternating between Portugal and Spain. It aims to provide opportunities to improve the collaboration between researchers and specialists in the thermoelectricity field and also allow an open discussion about the most recent advances on materials, properties measurement, module fabrication, and device applications, with exchange of ideas, experiences, opinions and discussion about the most recent trends and priorities in this exciting topic. The Editors of this Book of Abstracts were Francisco P. Brito (University of Minho,MEtRICs / Mechanical Eng. Department), António P. Gonçalves (IST, C2TN) and Elsa Branco Lopes (IST, C2TN), who also formed the local organizing committee of the conference. All submissions passed through a peer review process. Official conference site can found at http://www.ctn.tecnico.ulisboa.pt/itw-2023/index.html.

Nowadays, society has challenged the scienti c community to nd solutions able to use technology to solve the gentri cation3 of city centers. Within this context, smart cities have had an important role because they view each citizen as a data source. In the same way, the Internet of Things network increases the number of physical devices generating peta-bytes of information into a Smart city architecture. Thus an appropriate Machine Learning approach is required to process and analyze collected data. In this paper, we apply three di erent Machine Learning techniques such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM), and a combined architecture, which we call CNN-LSTM, to the data generated by LinkNYC Kiosks devices | based on the city of New York |, and come to the conclusion the combined model gets better results in predicting human mobility.

The evidence of climate change has increased the necessity for actions to avoid severe consequences for future generations. Recognising the benefits of sustainable and energy-efficient buildings has led to the development of several methods to estimate and rate the performance of building. Healthcare buildings are functional and dynamic structures that support their occupants’ healing processes and comfort. They have a significant role in society and specific goals in merging their strategic planning requirements (cost reduction, regulatory compliance, social responsibility, and performance improvement) with Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, this paper addresses critical issues regarding the sustainability of the Brazilian healthcare sector by analysing the suitability of the most common international healthcare building sustainability assessment methods to the specific social, economic, and environmental contexts of the Brazilian healthcare sector. The paper analyses the HBSAtool-PT, a sustainability assessment method developed for this type of building, and identifies the possibilities for adapting to the Brazilian context. As a result, this research proposes a framework to assess the sustainability of healthcare buildings in Brazil. In the framework’s definition, a survey was conducted to determine the opinion of building stakeholders regarding the importance of indicators. A weighing system for the proposed sustainability indicators was developed using the AHP method.

Geoconservation consists of the selection and conservation of geodiversity elements that have significant heritage value. The management of geological sites is based on specific procedures to ensure public use and minimize adverse impacts. The evaluation of the carrying capacity of geological sites is a management tool that helps to define the acceptable limits of visitation, without causing significant impacts on the integrity of these sites. This work presents a review of the carrying capacity concept and the most common methods used to assess the carrying capacity in tourist destinations. Based on this review and analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of existing methods, this work presents a method that defines a set of actions for management and calculation of the number of visitors recommended for geological sites, based on specific geoindicators for each type of site.

Explainable artificial intelligence has been used in several scientific fields to understand how and why a machine learning model makes its predictions. Its characteristics have allowed for greater transparency and outcomes in AI-powered decision-making. This building trust and confidence can be useful in human mobility research. This work provides a comparative study in terms of the explainability of artificial intelligence on smart human mobility in the context of a regression problem. Decision Tree, LIME, SHAP, and Seldon Alibi are explainable approaches to describe human mobility using a dataset generated from New York Services. Based on our results, all of these approaches present relevant indicators for our problem., This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. It has also been supported by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through project UIDB/04728/2020.

A importância de se proceder à análise dos principais desafios jurídicos que a economia colaborativa coloca – pelas implicações que as mudanças de paradigma dos modelos de negócios e dos sujeitos envolvidos suscitam − é indiscutível, correspondendo à necessidade de se fomentar a segurança jurídica destas práticas, potenciadoras de crescimento económico e bem-estar social. O Centro de Investigação em Justiça e Governação (JusGov) constituiu uma equipa multidisciplinar que, além de juristas, integra investigadores de outras áreas, como a economia e a gestão, dos vários grupos do JusGov – embora com especial participação dos investigadores que integram o grupo E-TEC (Estado, Empresa e Tecnologia) – e de outras prestigiadas instituições nacionais e internacionais, para desenvolver um projeto neste domínio, com o objetivo de identificar os problemas jurídicos que a economia colaborativa suscita e avaliar se já existem soluções para aqueles, refletindo igualmente sobre a conveniência de serem introduzidas alterações ou se será mesmo necessário criar nova regulamentação. O resultado desta investigação é apresentado nesta obra, com o que se pretende fomentar a continuação do debate sobre este tema., Esta obra é financiada por fundos nacionais através da FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., no âmbito do Financiamento UID/05749/2020

Adapting the Built Environment for Climate Change: Design Principles for Climate Emergencies analyzes several scenarios and proposes various adaptation strategies for climate emergencies (heat waves, wildfires, floods, and storms). Divided into three themes, the book offers an organized vision of a complex and multi-factor challenge. It covers climatic resilience and building refurbishment, implications for service life prediction and maintainability, and climate adaptation in the maintenance and management of buildings. Sections cover infrastructure materials, climate emergency adaptation and building adaptation to heat waves, wildfires, floods and storms., (undefined)

This study assessed the sustainability of two partition walls and intended to contribute to the Circular Economy in the construction sector. A life cycle approach and a multi-criteria decision support method were applied to know the environmental, functional, and economic performances of the production process of half-sandwich panels based on alkali-activated ceramic/slag waste cement, choosing as system boundary the method “cradle to gate”. The proposed building solutions differ from each other in the type of insulating material used, either extruded polystyrene foam (APXPS) or expanded cork agglomerate board (APICB). Besides, a comparative analysis of the developed building solutions versus three reference constructive solutions: i) a conventional heavyweight partition wall, ii) a lightweight gypsum wall panel, and iii) a conceptual lightweight sandwich membrane building solution was performed. Results showed that the two proposed half-sandwich wall panels (APXPS and APICB) resulted in the most sustainable alternatives, of which the APXPS obtained the best overall results since it combined the best environmental, functional, and economic behavior. Besides, the environmental contribution analysis determined that the greatest environmental burden to the Global Warming Potential (GWP), in the case of the APXPS was associated with the XPS (57%), being the alkali activator (23%) placed as the second major contributor. When the ICB was used as the insulation layer, the energy used (nearly 38%) and the sodium silicate (about 17%) were the larger contributors to CO2 emissions. It is worth mentioning that the use of ICB represented a negative contribution (of about −34%) to the GWP category., This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/ 04029/2020, and the research project “CirMat: CIRcular aggregates for sustainable road and building MATerials”(ref. 16_Call#2)is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants and Norway Grants, operationalized by the Portuguese Office of the Secretary of State for the Environment. RENEw, POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033834, that was co-funded by Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER), with Programa Operacional da Competitividade e Internacionalizaçao ˜ do Portugal 2020 (COMPETE 2020) The authors acknowledge the support of the DST group construction company for funding the project Chair DST/IB-S: Smart Systems for Construction.

Bio-based and natural building materials can support the building sector to reduce its environmental impact. In this study, experimental research was developed to evaluate the performance of giant reed when used as a building thermal insulation. Reed was chosen due to its high availability and close relationship to Portuguese vernacular architecture. The role of the reed’s origin in this context, its physical characteristics and its durability aspects were evaluated. The results showed that the performance of the reed boards was compatible with their use as a thermal insulation material, regardless of the reed’s origin. Denser boards showed better results. Under the favourable conditions related to the reed’s water content, mould growth could occur., The authors would like to acknowledge the support granted by the FEDER funds through the Competitively and Internationalization Operational Programme (POCI) and by national funds through FCT (the Foundation for Science and Technology) within the scope of the project with the reference POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029328, reVer+.

Sustainable mobility aims a modal shift towards more sustainable forms of mobility to minimize the harmful impacts associated to the intensive use of cars. The promotion of active travel, namely for short daily urban commutes, can help in decarbonizing transportation. As almost every trip begins and ends with walking, pedestrian infrastructure is a crucial component of any sustainable transportation system. Sidewalks are a critical pedestrian infrastructure and can be defined as an uninterrupted facility parallel to a carriageway to conduct pedestrian traffic and related activities. The general characteristics and condition of sidewalks determine the extent to which walking is a comfortable and safe mode of transport (Fonseca et al., 2022). Wide, well‐maintained, and clean sidewalks have been reported as enabling comfortable and safe walking experiences. The paving materials used on sidewalks can affect pedestrians' comfort and safety significantly. Slippery materials, uneven surfaces, cracks, depressions, and flooded sidewalks are very hazardous to pedestrians and may lead to accidents, falls and limit the mobility of seniors and disabled people. However, many cities still lack information about the characteristics of their sidewalks' paving materials (Hosseini et al., 2022). And surprisingly, the influence of sidewalk paving materials in walking remains a under-researched topic. This article summarizes the preliminary conclusions of an innovative study conducted in Braga, Portugal, to understand the effect of sidewalk paving materials and their condition on walking. A pedestrian route between the bus station and the University of Minho (Campus de Gualtar) was selected as a case study. This route connects the city center with the urban fringes, crossing various public facilities, commercial and residential areas, being utilized by many people, including students of the University of Minho. Methodologically, the evaluation includes a mixed approach, combining objective and subjective components. The objective component involved the evaluation of the following five indicators: roughness, friction, texture, thermal comfort, and reflectance of the paving materials used on sidewalks. The general characteristics of the sidewalks were collected through a street audit to identify the paving materials and their condition. The performance of the five indicators was evaluated in situ at seven specific locations. The presence of irregularities can be caused by several factors, such as broken, raised, or cracked surfaces. This indicator was measured by using a 3-meter ruler. In addition, the roughness of the entire route was measured through an accelerometer installed in a baby stroller. Friction is a fundamental parameter since a paving surface with adequate friction minimizes the risk of falls due to slipping. This indicator was evaluated through the British pendulum method. The texture is related to surface roughness, which influences drainage, surface deformation, anti-slipping and friction. The texture was evaluated through the Mean Profile Depth (MPD) method. Thermal comfort determines the level of comfort of pedestrians at the street level. This indicator was measured with a thermal camera and surface temperature sensor. Finally, reflectance shows the fraction of light a paving material reflects, which influences the pedestrian thermal and visual comfort. This indicator was measured with an albedometer. The subjective component was based on a face-to-face questionnaire addressed to pedestrians walking on the selected route. The questionnaire aimed to understand the pedestrians' perceptions about the paving materials used on sidewalks. The questionnaire includes a Likert scale through which respondents were invited to evaluate the influence of having paving materials providing a regular surface and appropriate friction, texture, thermal comfort, and reflectance on walking. Various different paving materials can be found along the route, which include granite cubes, mortar, stone slabs, traditional Portuguese cobblestones, concrete blocks, and concrete hexagons. Some segments are in poor condition, having extremely degraded paving materials. Regarding friction, the paving materials with lower values (moderate risk of slipping) were the traditional Portuguese cobblestones and the stone slabs, while the materials with higher friction were the concrete blocks and concrete hexagons. Most of the irregularities on the route were found in the segments paved with granite cubes, mainly at the beginning of the route (near de bus station). The questionnaire showed that respondents would like to have even sidewalks with paving materials providing an adequate friction, but in general they are not satisified with sidewalks found in the selected route. In sum, the preliminary results show that sidewalks on the selected route should be improved, as they are significantly damaged, thus interfering with pedestrian comfort and safety. Improving the sidewalk paving materials in this route and extending this work to the entire city should be included in future planning policies in order to make Braga a more pedestrian-friendly city.

This chapter starts with a brief review of extremely worrying signs of a climate emergency ahead. They show that in the best-case scenario for the next hundreds of years, humanity will have to live in a world with 2°C warmer (than it was in the late 1800s). The more plausible scenario, however, encompasses a much harsher world 3°C warmer, with extreme weather events, such as heat waves, flash flooding, and hurricanes. The adaptation of the built environment to the new climatic reality is therefore an urgent issue that needs to be addressed. An outline of the book is also included., (undefined)

"Available online 17 November 2022", Assessing singular elements that constitute the air barrier of a building envelope is quite unfeasible in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The study of these solutions through this particular scope is often overlooked. Two major aspects contribute to it: the complexity of the relationships between elements and the reduced embodied impact of these materials in the overall construction or retrofitting works. This work uses LCA and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) to study the viability of applying two envelope air barrier solutions in dwellings with excessive air change rates and equipped with different heating systems. The application of air barrier solutions resulted in average energy consumption savings in urban terrain, almost half of those in rural terrain during the heating season. Environmental performance and life cycle costs revealed mechanically (MECH) fastened air barriers to outperform fluid (FLUID) applied ones. The median annualized cost of adopting a FLUID solution was almost four times that of a MECH solution. Dwellings equipped with electric radiators ranked first in the shortest average Energy Payback Period (EPP) and the highest average Reference Service Life (RSL) savings. With the current analysis, the adoption of MECH solutions is recommended, independently of the heating system the dwelling is equipped with., This work was financially supported by: Base Funding - UIDB/04708/2020 and Programmatic Funding - UIDP/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT - Instituto de I&D em Estruturas e Construções - funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). The author would like to acknowledge the support of FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the funding of the Doctoral Grant PD/BD/135162/2017, through the Doctoral Programme EcoCoRe. This work is supported by the European Social Fund (ESF), through the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) [Funding Reference: NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000176].

Designing effective products and services requires a sensitive understanding of the people for whom you are designing. There are a number of established approaches for achieving this, all of which are predicated on notions of community participation in research and development work. However, such participatory approaches are often deemed to be too specialized and time-consuming to be used at scale. Taking the opportunity generated by four concurrent RiseWise secondments in Guimarães, Portugal, we developed, trialled, and evaluated a framework for working together across disciplines and levels of experience, and with a local community of older adults. This chapter details this work and makes two key contributions. In describing our approach to engaging with a diverse group of older people through their local community association, we first provide a framework for inclusive and efficient community involvement. Secondly, we reflect on the experience of consolidating approaches and knowledge across disciplines within the research team, and on the impact that working closely with the community had on the research team., RiseWise (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange under grant agreement 690874)

Dry Stone Retaining Walls are structures made of rubble stones assembled without mortar and have been present worldwide for centuries. Today, they still constitute an attractive alternative to building techniques involving higher embodied energy, such as reinforced concrete walls. This study uses a pseudo-static approach to give design recommendations to maintain this built heritage and allow its modern construction. Both non-seismic (Eurocode 7) and seismic (Eurocode 8) cases are addressed. The present work confirms that a seismic design is not critical and is therefore not required for zones with a design acceleration below 0.05g. In addition, this work highlights the significant positive effect of the stone bed inclination and the internal wall face batter. Finally, depending on the wall site conditions and the seismic zone associated with the project, general design recommendations are given to optimise the volume of stones used, which are illustrated in the case of France. These recommendations based on pseudo-static analyses are already usable in practice for low to moderate seismic areas as the required retaining wall dimensions can be easily implemented on-site. In addition, it is also shown that the actual French recommendations for these walls fully comply with Eurocode 7., This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. This study has also been partly funded by the STAND4-HERITAGE project (New Standards for Seismic Assessment of Built Cultural Heritage) that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 833123), as an Advanced Grant. In addition, the authors want to acknowledge the French Ministry of Education and Research for their financial support through a PhD grant attributed to the first author. The opinions and conclusions presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring organisations.

A two-step strategy for the mechanical analysis of UnReinforced Masonry (URM) structures, either subjected to in- and out-of-plane loading, is presented. At a first step, a semi-automatic digital tool allows the parametric modeling of the structure that, together with an Upper bound limit analysis tool and a heuristic optimization solver, enables tracking the most prone failure mechanism. At a second step, a coupled concurrent FE model with micro- and macro-scales is assumed. A micro-modeling description of the masonry is allocated to regions within the failure mechanism found in the former step. In converse, the other domain regions are modeled via a macro-approach, whose constitutive response is elastic and orthotropic and formulated through closed-form homogenized-based solutions. The application of the framework is based on non-linear static (pushover) analysis and conducted on three benchmarks: (i) an in-plane loaded URM shear wall; (ii) a U-shaped URM structure; and (iii) a URM church. Results are given in terms of load capacity curves, total displacement fields, and computational running time; and compared against those found with a FE microscopic model and with a limit analysis tool. Lastly, conclusions on the potential of the framework and future research streams are addressed.

O “betão de cânhamo industrial”, muito estudado nos últimos anos, tem se tornado uma alternativa viável para as demandas atuais, sendo um material de construção com bom isolamento térmico e acústico, oferecendo a vantagem de ser uma opção mais sustentável do que o betão convencional. No entanto, uma de suas principais limitações ainda é a ausência de um traço padrão internacional que permita a sua utilização, o que acaba por afetar a sua utilização a larga escala. O bagaço de cana-de-açúcar é um resíduo agrícola disponível em grande abundância mundialmente (são produzidas cerca de 1.890.000.000 Ton./ano de cana-de-açúcar). A cana processada gera, em massa, de 25 a 30 % de bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, o que perfaz cerca de 470 milhões de toneladas por ano. Propõe-se, então, a combinação do “betão de cânhamo” com o bagaço de cana-de-açúcar, resultando num compósito híbrido. Este estudo teve como objetivo testar diferentes formulações para avaliar o seu desempenho em função das propriedades mecânicas e confirmar a integridade do novo compósito, com adição de aglutinantes como a cal hidratada, pó de tijolo e a cinza de bagaço de cana-de-açúcar. A mistura das duas fibras incrementou a resistência à compressão entre 19 a 24 %, verificando-se que o bagaço de cana preenche os espaços vazios entre as aparas de cânhamo. Relativamente à quantidade de ligante, também se confirma os resultados de outros estudos apenas com cânhamo, de melhores rendimentos com proporção 70 a 75 %, em massa, na composição.

Published: 11 November 2022., Retail water use accounts for up to 19% of public water globally supplied. However, the water intensity of retail stores and its drivers remains largely unexplored. This study is the first of its kind to provide water intensity indicators for retail buildings, namely Water Intensity per store Area (WIA), Water Intensity per Store (WIS), Water Intensity per Worker (WIW) and Water Intensity per Revenue (WIR), providing metrics for better water management in the retail sector. The water intensity of the world's highest revenue retailers was assessed through data published online in their sustainability reports. A statistical analysis on location, store size, number of workers and revenue was also performed to evaluate the influence of these variables in water intensity indicators. Results confirm that the number of workers, location, store size, and sales revenue statistically influence some of the four water intensity indicators analysed. These results contribute to assist retailers in setting best practice water consumption reference levels and to better understanding water variability, thus offering tools for improved sustainability and water efficiency across the retail sector., FCT funded this work–Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia [grant number PD/BD/127852/2016] under the Doctoral Program EcoCoRe–Eco-Construction and Rehabilitation.

Detecting scour in railway bridges is possible by locating accelerometers and GPS on carriages of passing trains and processing the resulting signals. This research aims to detect scour based on these drive-by measurements, obtained from na instrumented passing vehicle. Signals from multiple train passages will be collected before and after scour repair to determine the change in bridge behavior. Measurements from a train in the UK passing over the Carlisle Bridge will be provided through In2Track3, an ongoing Horizon 2020 project. In the first stage of the numerical approach, off-bridge conditions are considered. The carriage vibrational responses to track with different ground conditions – represented by altering the stiffnesses in a Winkler spring model – are calculated. In second stage, the bridge ‘apparent profile’(AP), which is made up of the true profile on the bridge plus components of bridge/track deflection, will be computed. The Moving Reference Influence Line, i.e., deflection per unit load at a moving reference point, is found from the measured deflections. Bridge support stiffnesses will be modified to represent the loss of stiffness due to scour. Then, signals from the instrumented in-service train carriage i.e., measured AP, will be processed. Finally, an optimization algorithm will find foundation stiffnesses by minimizing the sum of squared differences between the calculated AP and the corresponding measured AP. The presence of scour will be determined by the difference between the stiffness values in the scoured and repaired cases. The results will help to optimize retrofits or develop mitigation measures to scour., This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), with reference UIDB / 04029/2020. This work has also been partly financed within the European Horizon 2020 Joint Technology Initiative Shift2Rail through contract no. 101012456 (IN2TRACK3).

This paper presents a hybrid maximum power point tracking (MPPT), which combines a metaheuristic algorithm and a traditional MPPT method applied in a photovoltaic system operating under partial shading conditions. The MPPTs based on traditional methods are not able to track the global maxi-mum power point (GMPP) when partial shadings occur. Thus, MPPT algorithms based on metaheuristic algorithms, which are used for global optimization, have presented efficiency to extract the maximum power from photovoltaic arrays. However, these methods are random, resulting in large power oscillations in transients of small variations in solar irradiance. Therefore, this paper proposes the metaheuristic algorithm called Differential Evolution (DE) to seek and track the GMPP. After the DE convergence, the MPPT algorithm is switched to Incremental Conductance (IC) in order to refine the tracking. The effectiveness of the algorithm is proved through simulation results. Furthermore, comparative analyses are provided for each algorithm (DE and IC) to evaluate their performances in the PV system.

La vida conectiva se ha acelerado a partir de 2020, momento en que inició la pandemia de covid-19, la cual contribuyó a intensificar algunos procesos de digitalización en marcha desde hacía décadas. Esta vida conectiva también presenta nuevos desafíos, como el capitalismo de vigilancia, la economía de la atención y los intelectos contingentes, formados por potentes algoritmos persuasivos. En este contexto, la edición de Chasqui número 147 se propone como un observatorio de cultura digital transnacional iberoamericana. Para ello, hemos seleccionado 10 artículos que revelan redes significativas, y en que se estudian los comportamientos de los usuarios; se mapean hábitos, usos y costumbres iberoamericanas en redes sociales; se describen formas de organización en el consumo, producción y circulación de contenidos; se analizan técnicas y contenidos utilizados para manipular información y opinión; se describen e identifican en formas de propagar noticias falsas y discursos de odio; y se presentan nuevas propuestas teóricas para entender a Iberoamérica a través del análisis y la lectura de campos como la big data, el machine learning, la Inteligencia Artificial, los algoritmos, o los sistemas de análisis y visualización de datos., Connective life has accelerated since 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic began, which contributed to intensify some digitization processes that have been underway for decades. This connective life also presents new challenges, such as surveillance capitalism, the attention economy, and contingent intellects, formed by powerful persuasive algorithms. In this context, the 147th edition of Chasqui is proposed as an Ibero-American transnational digital culture observatory. To do this, we have selected 10 articles that reveal significant networks, and in which user behaviors are studied; Ibero-American habits, uses and customs are mapped on social networks; Forms of organization in the consumption, production and circulation of content are described; techniques and content used to manipulate information and opinion are analyzed; describe and identify themselves in ways of spreading false news and hate speech; and new theoretical proposals are presented to understand Latin America through the analysis and reading of fields such as big data, machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, algorithms, or data analysis and visualization systems, A vida conectiva tem sido acelerada desde 2020 após as restrições sociais devido à pandemia de covid-19, contribuindo para a intensificação de alguns processos de digitalização que estavam em curso há décadas. Tal vida conectiva também apresenta novos desafios, como o capitalismo de vigilância, a economia da atenção e a criação de intelectos contingentes – algumas vezes manobrados por desinformação e estratégias de verdade à medida e quase sempre quitados por poderosos algoritmos persuasivos. Neste contexto, a 147ª edição do Chasqui propõe um olhar sobre a cultura digital transnacional ibero-americana. Para isso, foram selecionados 10 artigos que revelam significativas redes da região, nos quais foram pesquisados comportamentos dos usuários; mapeados hábitos, usos e costumes ibero-americanos contidos nas redes sociais; descritas formas de organização no consumo, produção e circulação de conteúdos; analisadas técnicas e conteúdos para manipular informações e opiniões; identificadas e descritas notícias falsas e discurso de ódio; e apresentadas novas propostas teóricas para entender a América Latina por meio da análise e leitura de campos como big data, aprendizado de máquina, inteligência artificial, algoritmos, sistemas de análise e visualização de dados.

Recently, several studies on pedestrian safety and particularly those addressing pedestrian crossing behaviour and decision-making have been performed using virtual reality systems. The use of simulators to assess pedestrian behaviour is conditioned by the feeling of presence and immersion, for which the sound is a determining factor. This paper presents an implementation procedure in which tyre-road noise samples are auralized and presented as auditory stimuli in a virtual environment, for assessing pedestrian crossing decision-making. The auditory samples obtained through the Close Proximity (CPX) method and subsequently auralized to represent Controlled Pass-By (CPB) recordings reproduce the sounds of a vehicle approaching a crosswalk. The auralized sounds together with the presentation of visual stimuli were used in an experiment carried out with 15 participants. Safety indicators, such as the time-to-passage at the moment that participants decided to cross a virtual crosswalk and the minimum time-to-collision were registered and compared with data obtained in real-world road crossings. The comparison of the results obtained in virtual and real environments, indicated a good suitability of the approach for studying pedestrian crossing behaviour., A preliminary indication that the simulation approach used in the experiments is able to realistically depict road crossing situations, where the CPB auralized sounds certainly played an important role. However, full validation will require more in-depth studies of multiple conditions, to assess the suitability of the implementation of the approach as a valid tool for simulation-based safety analysis of car-pedestrian interactions. FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, under grant agreement [SFRH/BD/131638/2017] attributed to the first author; by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Engineering Structures (ISISE) [UIDB/04029/2020]; and by the project Promoting Scientific Production and Technological Development and Thematic Networking (3599-PPCDT), supported by the European Community Fund FEDER, through the grant attributed to the project AnPeB – Analysis of pedestrians behaviour based on simulated urban environments and its incorporation in risk modelling [PTDC/ECM-TRA/3568/2014]

Reflexão projetual desenvolvida pelo Atelier de Projeto “ Programas Emergentes, ano 21 / 22 do 5o ano do Mestrado Integrado de Arquitetura da Escola de Arquitetura, Artes e Design da Universidade do Minho. Os resultados desta reflexão são aqui partilhados com a comunidade a quem esta se dirige. A sua ambição é ser capaz, pelo seu pensamento divergente e especulativo, influenciar ainda que tangencialmente o poder político e as opções de futuro. Esta investigação é uma janela sobre o tema da Fronteira e a da sua transformação em espaço de partilha e encontro. O Atelier “Programas Emergentes” atua na região transfronteiriça do Rio Minho, onde se cruzam as comunidades de Melgaço, Arbo e Crecente. Ao longo dos tempos o Rio Minho foi recurso económico e de ligação. Depois, o rio foi progressivamente afetado e transformado pela poluição e pela construção de barragens a montante.

O artigo irá abordar os desafios com que a Comunicação da Igreja, a devoção Mariana, se depara na atualidade, operando num ambiente digital e interativo, que suporta mudanças profundas no compor-tamento das comunidades devocionais. No espaço académico, surgem novos modelos comunicacio-nais mais simétricos. Existem também exemplos de media sociais de movimentos católicos onde a estrutura comunicacional passou a ser integrada para a gestão da presença nos media sociais lançando um novo desafio na relação com os fiéis. Novas dinâmicas para a comunicação e interrelacionamento entre povos são propostos no ambiente digital, gerando imagens consistentes, sendo um desafio para a presença de identidade. Nas últimas duas décadas, a sociedade contemporânea tem sido conceptuali-zada e discutida em torno do pressuposto de que as tecnologias digitais são a sua característica mais marcante. Atualmente, encontramo-nos à beira da disseminação de inovações disruptivas que pode-mos descrever sob o conceito “chapéu” da Internet das Coisas (IoT, Internet of Things), e não obser-vamos uma substituição, mas um profundo e complexo entrelaçado entre experiências online e offline. O nosso estudo baseia-se na análise de três páginas de Instagram com uma relação com o culto de Nossa Senhora da Nazaré, entre os quais @senhoranazarepatrimonio, @ciriooficial e @municipiodanazare.

Detecting scour in railway bridges is possible by locating accelerometers and GPS on carriages of passing trains and processing the resulting signals. This research aims to detect scour based on these drive-by measurements, obtained from an instrumented passing vehicle. Signals from multiple train passages will be collected before and after cour repair to determine the change in bridge behavior. Measurements from a train in the UK passing over the Carlisle Bridge will be provided through In2Track3, an ongoing Horizon 2020 project. In the first stage of the numerical approach, off-bridge conditions are considered. The carriage vibrational responses to track with different ground conditions – represented by altering the stiffnesses in a Winkler spring model – are calculated. In second stage, the bridge ‘apparent profile’(AP), which is made up of the true profile on the bridge plus components of bridge/track deflection, will be computed. The Moving Reference Influence Line, i.e., deflection per unit load at a moving reference point, is found from the measured deflections. Bridge support stiffnesses will be modified to represent the loss of stiffness due to scour. Then, signals from the instrumented in-service train carriage i.e., measured AP, will be processed. Finally, an optimization algorithm will find foundation stiffnesses by minimizing the sum of squared differences between the calculated AP and the corresponding measured AP. The presence of scour will be determined by the difference between the stiffness values in the scoured and repaired cases. The results will help to optimize retrofits or develop mitigation measures to scour., This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB / 04029/2020. This work has also been partly financed within the European Horizon 2020 Joint Technology Initiative Shift2Rail through contract no. 101012456 (IN2TRACK3).

This work aims at assessing the durability of the CFRP-concrete bond exposed to different outdoor ageing environments for a period of three years., Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites have been shown to possess desirable properties for strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. The application of CFRP composites is mainly through Externally Bonded Reinforcement (EBR) or Near Surface-Mounted (NSM) techniques. The main objective of the present work was to provide insights on durability of bond between concrete and CFRP strips installed according to EBR and NSM techniques under the effects of ageing induced by outdoor conditions for a period of three years. Specimens were placed in four different outdoor environments (E3-E6) with ageing mainly induced by freeze-thaw attacks, carbonation, airborne chlorides, and elevated temperatures. Besides, the study included a reference environment (E1: ≈20 C / 55% RH) and another environment (E2: ≈20 C / water immersion). The bond test results for the specimens collected from the aforementioned outdoor environments showed a low degradation of the CFRP-concrete bond after three years., This work was carried out in scope of the project FRPLongDur POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016900 (FCT PTDC/ECM-EST/1282/2014) and Durable-FRP (PTDC/ECI-EGC/4609/2020) funded by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and co-financed by the European Fund of the Regional Development (FEDER) through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Lisbon Regional Operational Program. This work was partly financed by FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. This work is financed by national funds through FCT under grant agreement [DFA/BD/08403/2021] attributed to the first author.

A historical center can be defined as the oldest part of a city where a significant part of the building stock dates back to the early stages of urban growth. Historical cen- ters often contain special urban fabrics with unique, historic, social and cultural identity. Owing to this, they have been subject to special urban planning interventions in order not only to protect the existing urban fabric and its originality, but also to revert depopulation and built deterioration processes aiming to make these old centers attractive and functional again. However, in the inter-urban domain, there is a deficit of spatial planning research, and the delimitation of historical centers is a topic that has been under explored. This paper describes a morphological approach for delimiting the historical center of Guarda, Portu- gal. Methodologically, the work uses building stock-age data from eight periods between, The authors would like to thank the Polytechnic of Guarda and the Centre for Territory, Environment and Construction (CTAC) at the University of Minho for supporting this research.

Artificial Intelligence is a hot topic and Machine Learning is one of the most fluent approaches and practices. The problem with many AI models is that they can be useful for predicting but they are bad at explaining why they behave a certain way. In some contexts, the explanation may even be more important than the prediction itself, mainly in systems in which decisions are made based on their predictions. Therefore, it is increasingly necessary to provide a forecast accompanied by an explanation, when decisions are made automatically. This paper aims to contribute to the solution of problem based on human mobility research, or at least, to be a starting point for its solution, This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. It has also been supported by na tional funds through FCT – Fundac¸ao para a Ciência e Tecnologia through project UIDB/04728/2020.

Complete chattering occurs when a structure undergoes a theoretically infinite sequence of impacts in finite time, that eventually bring the structure to the state of persistent (continuous) contact. This study investigates the conditions under which a rigid rocking block undergoes complete chattering when subjected to sinusoidal ground excitation. The analysis explains how the acceleration amplitude of the ground excitation affects the chattering time. It also proves that there exists a (sinusoidal) ground acceleration amplitude, below which rocking motion terminates even under a nonzero ground excitation, almost independently of the frequency of the ground excitation. Furthermore, the study adopts perturbation theory and proposes an asymptotic approximation of the time needed for chattering to be completed, i.e. chattering time. It then verifies the asymptotic approximation using an independent semi-analytical approach. Overall, the results highlight the importance of complete chattering on the dynamic rocking response; a feature of nonlinear dynamics which is often overlooked in earthquake engineering., This study has been funded by the STAND4-HERITAGE project (new STANDards FOR seismic assessment of built cultural HERITAGE) that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant No. 833123) as an Advanced Grant. Its support is gratefully acknowledged. The opinions and conclusions presented in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring organization.

Sandwich foaming is a manufacturing process in which a liquid monomer mixture is injected on the bottom face sheet of the sandwich panel where it polymerizes to form cross-linked polyurethane (PUR) foam providing an adhesive joint between the bottom and upper metal sheets. The single-step process avoids manual operations in the assemblage of the panel and the use of adhesive. However, the PUR foam in the core of the panel and at foam-to-face sheet interface may present fluctuations in the mechanical properties. The aim of this study is the mechanical and thermophysical characterization of PUR foam of various densities produced by sandwich foaming. Additionally, a qualitative assessment of the foam-to-face sheet interface is carried out based on the results of the flatwise tensile and shear tests., This work was developed within the scope of the research project “Lightslab – Desenvolvimento de soluções inovadoras de lajes de painel sandwich”, supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Program for Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) – project no. 33865 [POCI-01-0247- FEDER-033865]. This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. The first and second authors wish also to acknowledge the grants DFA/BD/8319/2020 and DFA/BD/07696/2021 respectively, provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, IP (FCT), financed by European Social Fund and national funds through the FCT/MCTES.

Sandwich panels based on cold-formed-steel (CFS) face sheets and polyurethane foam (PUR) core were designed and manufactured to be used as a feasible solution for the rehabilitation of degraded floors. This panel is manufactured by a continuous process, whereby the polymerization and foaming of the PUR core is performed simultaneously with the face sheets assembling and their adhesive bonding in certain zones. A three-component polyurethane adhesive, manufactured with the same components as the PUR, is used on the bonding of these steel elements. However, the foaming process of the sandwich panel involves moderate heating at specific stages of its manufacture to enhance polymerization of the PUR, which may influence the adhesive mechanical response. This work intends to establish the best adhesive composition and its thickness to be used on this connection. Additionally, the influence of different curing and post-curing conditions on the shear response of the adhesive is assessed., This work was developed within the scope of the research project “Lightslab – Desenvolvimento de soluções inovadoras de lajes de painel sandwich”, supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Program for Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) – project no. 33865 [POCI-01-0247- FEDER-033865]. This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. The second and fourth authors wish also to acknowledge the grants DFA/BD/07696/2021 and DFA/BD/8319/2020 respectively, provided by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, IP (FCT), financed by European Social Fund and national funds through the FCT/MCTES.

In recent years, construction industry has been looking for ways to adopt technical solutions towards environmental preservation and conservation of natural resources. With the scarcity of building materials and the consequent increase in construction prices intensified after the Covid-19 pandemic, sustainable development based on the concepts of the circular economy has become increasingly essential. Meanwhile, the environmental impact associated with most conventional building systems has renewed interest in earth as a building material, combining traditional techniques with technological advancement. The main objective of this work is to understand the environmental and mechanical performance of earth-based mixtures incorporating construction and demolition waste (CDW), filling the gap represented by the absence of review articles that address this new material more comprehensively. The outcomes demonstrated the potential of CDW in improving environmental performance and increasing the compressive strength. Key findings include the need to consider the impact of the transport distance from the waste treatment plant to the construction site in environmental feasibility studies. Results describe the concrete prospect of a construction solution that adapts the environmental and functional advantages of earthen construction to the circular economy model. Further studies on the behaviour of CDW as a substitute for chemical binders are encouraged., This work was funded by FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and MPP (MIT Portugal Program) under grant agreement SFRH/BD/151345/2021 attributed to the first author. The authors also would like to acknowledge the support granted by FCT under grant agreement UIBD/150874/2021 attributed to the third author. This work was partly financed by Fundação “La Caixa”, under the reference PV20-00072, and FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020.

The great social development of the last few decades has led more and more to free time becoming an essential aspect of daily life. As such, there is the need to maximize free time trying to enjoy it as much as possible and spending it in places with positive atmospheres that result in positive sentiments. In that vein, using Machine Learning models, this project aims to create a time series prediction model capable of predicting which sentiment a given place cause on the people attending it over the next few hours. The predictions take into account the weather, whether or not an event is happening in that place, and the history of sentiment in that place over the course of the previous year. The extensive results on dataset illustrate that Long Short-Term Memory model achieves the state-of-the-art results over all models. For example, in multivariate model, the accuracy performance is 80.51% when it is applied on the LinkNYC Kiosk dataset., This work has been supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020. It has also been sup ported by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciˆencia e Tecnologia through project UIDB/04728/2020

Public involvement has the power to promote an active circulation of media content and can generate economic and cultural value for organizations. The current perspectives on interactions between audiences, organizations, and content production suggests a relational logic between audiences and media through new productivity proposals. In this sense, it is interesting to observe the reasoning of audience experience through the concepts of interactivity and participation. However, there is a gap between the intentions of communication professionals and their organizations and the effective circulation and content retention among the audiences of interest, as well as the distinction between informing and communicating.

The design, implementation and use of wastewater treatment systems (WTS) are fundamental to mitigate hydrological and environmental problems, and to improve population health. Furthermore, the significant advances in treatment systems technology offer, nowadays, several alternatives and provide many combinations of WTS which must be correctly evaluated and constitute a decision problem for public and private investors and decision makers. Thus, this article presents a multi-criteria methodology based on six steps for the evaluation of WTS considering relevant economic, social, technical and environmental criteria. Particularly, forty-eight main criteria were identified and ranked considering their importance based on the previous literature. This methodology was applied in a Brazilian sanitation company in a specific treatment area of approximately five thousand inhabitants and with recurrent environmental problems, such as the contamination and low efficiency of wastewater treatment. Twenty available alternatives were considered and twelve criteria were selected for this application. The AHP and ELECTRE II methods were combined to weight the different criteria and to rank the most suitable WTS. This methodology can be extended and applied in different scenarios to improve the decision-making process., We thank the Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior -Brazil (CAPES) for the scholarship as part of the aid for this research -Financial Code 001.

It is increasingly recognised that the energy renovation of the existing building stock will be determinant for achieving 2030 and 2050 decarbonisation targets in Europe. As operational energy is being dramatically reduced through regulatory efforts and funding from the European Union, the relevance of the environmental performance of these interventions becomes higher, namely regarding embodied energy and carbon emissions associated with the materials that compose the renovation solutions. Although some studies address these impacts in buildings, the range of studies focusing on the neighbourhood scale is limited. This article presents a methodological framework combining a life cycle cost assessment (LCC) and a life cycle assessment (LCA). The purpose is to assess the relevance of embodied energy and carbon emissions on the cost-effectiveness of building renovation solutions towards nZEB at the neighbourhood scale by comparing an operational energy approach and a whole life cycle approach in a case study of a social housing neighbourhood in Braga, Portugal. The results suggest an increase in indicators values demonstrating a negative impact on the achievable reduction of both energy and emissions when the whole life cycle approach is considered, which can constitute a critical point for policy formulation in the decarbonisation of the built environment., FCT / MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. Currently, Raúl Briones-Llorente is a Research Teaching Staff at the University of Burgos, thanks to a postdoctoral contract co-financed by the Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León and the Operational Programme of the European Social Fund.

In civil engineering there is a need for lightweight structural elements, specifically in applications such as the rehabilitation of degraded floors in existing buildings and modular construction. Metaheuristic search procedures are suitable to tackle optimization problems concerning material efficiency, but their use in real design applications is still limited. This paper presents the preliminary design in terms of structural, thermal, and acoustic performance of a floor system based on steel web core sandwich panels with polyurethane (PUR) foam core and a new genetic algorithm (GA) procedure developed to optimize its mass. The optimization study also addresses the minimization of cost and environmental impact and includes a wide range of practical engineering requirements. The constraints stemming from the building codes are incorporated in a new adaptive penalty function whose formulation and performance are thoroughly investigated. Examples of how to formulate the optimization problem in terms of Eurocode verifications are provided to foster the use of optimization procedures in current design practice. The results are presented in terms of design variables and constraints search histories as well as optimal feasible and unfeasible solutions. General conclusions and specific recommendations are drawn based on the case study presented for the design of sandwich floor panels and steel web core sandwich panels, respectively., This work was developed within the scope of the research project "Lightslab -Desenvolvimento de solucoes inovadoras de lajes de painel sandwich", supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Program for Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI) -project no. 33865 [POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033865]. This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), under reference UIDB/04029/2020. The first and third authors wish also to acknowledge the grants DFA/BD/8319/2020 and SFRH/BSAB/150266/2019 respectively, provided by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, IP (FCT), financed by European Social Fund and national funds through the FCT/MCTES.

The San Sebastian Basilica, located in Manila in Philippines, consists of a unique architectural monument in the area, representing the colonial neo-gothic style of the 19th century. The site where the church is constructed is characterized by high seismicity, and as an attempt to make it earthquake resistance, it was constructed by steel, after multiple collapses of previous versions of the church. The aim of this study is to assess the safety of the Basilica, by integrating an in-situ diagnostic campaign. More specifically, the investigation works performed in the last decade are enriched by experimental dynamic identification tests. After obtaining the dynamic properties of the church, a detailed numerical model is constructed and calibrated to match the experimental results. The final model is then employed and several non-linear static analyses are performed in order to assess the capacity of the church. A number of numerical and methodological issues are highlighted throughout the process, before concluding about the safety, the damage state and the main structural vulnerabilities of the Basilica., The support of the San Sebastian Basilica Conservation and Development Foundation, Inc. in providing access to the building and information on the Church is gratefully acknowledged. This work was partly funded by project STAND4HERITAGE that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 833123), as an Advanced Grant.

The building sector plays a significant role in reducing global energy use and carbon emissions. In the European Union (EU), the building stock represents 40% of total energy use and in which cooling and heating systems represent over 50%. Portugal is one of the EU countries where the consequences of energy poverty are most evident due to the families' financial inability to adequately climate their homes. The reasons are several, but they are mainly linked to buildings' poor passive thermal performance, resulting from inadequate adaptation to the climatic context and reduced thermal insulation. Thus, it is necessary to develop solutions to increase buildings’ thermal performance and reduce their potential environmental impact, which arises mainly from the significant use of active systems. In this sense, natural building materials are a promising solution, reducing energy use and carbon emissions related to buildings. This research studies the potential use of reed found in Portugal (Arundo donax) as a thermal insulation material. Its physical characterisation and the influence of geometry configuration on its thermal performance are evaluated. Its durability was studied too. Reed stalks were used to carry out the physical and durability tests. A reed board (150 x 150 mm) was built, and its thermal performance was tested in a hotbox. According to the results, the characteristics of reeds found in Portugal make it suitable to be used as a building material. Furthermore, regardless of the configuration studied, the reeds have a satisfactory thermal performance to be used as thermal insulation, under the requirements defined by Portuguese thermal regulation, Re ≥ 0.30 (m2.oC)/W. There is a trend to the mould growth in the reed, but only under favourable conditions. Additionally, considering the abundance of reed throughout the Portuguese territory, this is an eco-friendly and low-cost option that gathers all requirements to be more used in the construction market.

A new lightweight floor system was developed to tackle the sustainability issue in the construction sector. The proposed flooring system is suited for rehabilitation of degraded timber floors in existing building. Despite the great potential that sandwich construction shows as load bearing elements their use has been hindered by the high initial cost. Three alternative architecture, all including steel face sheets, were envisaged, namely i) steel webs and polyurethane (PUR) foam core system, ii) glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) webs and PUR foam system and iii) outer steel webs and balsa wood core. The structural, thermal, acoustic and fire resistance requirements were identified in the Portuguese national codes. Particular attention is given to the description of the materials adopted for the different components with respect to the driving factors of the design of the panel, namely weight, cost, environmental impact, load bearing capacity, rigidity, thermal and acoustic properties and fire resistance. The preliminary design of the three sandwich panels is carried out considering the value of the actions established in the Eurocode standards. The final layout and cost estimate are the results of a parametric study aimed at retrieving the lightest and most economical solutions., This work is part of the research project Lightslab - development of innovative slab solutions using sandwich panels (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033865), co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the "Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao" (POCI) and the Portuguese National Innovation Agency (ANI). The first and second authors acknowledge the grants DFA/BD/8319/2020 and SFRH/BSAB/150266/2019, respectively, provided by FCT, financed by European Social Fund and by national funds through the FCT/MCTES.

Pretende-se abordar neste documento o modo como a morfologia urbana condiciona/estimula as políticas de mobilidade, por um lado, e, por outro, o papel destas políticas nas transformações do espaço público, na organização espacial e na identidade das cidades. A contemporaneidade das políticas e das ações de mobilidade são suscetíveis de interferir com as formas da cidade, no entanto, o desafio consiste na perceção das características intrínsecas à sua identidade urbana e ao respeito pela génese da urbe. Recorre-se ao caso de estudo de Braga para aplicar a metodologia das cidades caminháveis e dos superblocks oriundos de Barcelona., This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência and a Tecnologia, IP (FCT)/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-Portugal), grant number SFRH/BD/151416/2021, in the context of the doctoral thesis of Filipa Corais, with the title “THE CITY “WALKING” TO 2050. BRAGA AS A LABORATORY FOR A RESILIENT & SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM”.