Biblioteca Digital

The annual NO2 concentrations in many European cities exceed the established air quality standard. This situation is mainly caused by Diesel cars whose NOx emissions are higher on the road than during type approval in the laboratory. Moreover, the fraction of NO2 in the NOx emissions appears to have increased in modern diesel cars as compared to previous models. In this paper, we assess 1) to which level the distance-specific NOx emissions of Diesel cars should be reduced under real driving conditions to meet established air quality standards and 2) if it would be useful to introduce a complementary NO2 emissions limit. To this end, we develop a NO2 pollution model that accounts in an analysis of 9 emission scenarios for changes in both, the urban background NO2 concentrations and the local NO2 emissions at street level. We apply this model in a case study to the city of Antwerp, Belgium. NOx emission reductions reduce the regional and urban NO2 background concentration while a high NO2 fraction increases the NO2 concentration only close in big cities. In a busy access road to the city centre, the average NO2 concentration can be reduced by 23% if Diesel cars emitted 0.35 g NOx/km instead of the current 0.62 g NOx/km (2010). Reductions of 45% are possible if the NOX emissions of Diesel cars decreased to the level of gasoline cars (0.03 g NOx/km). Our findings suggest that the Real-Driving Emissions (RDE) test procedure can solve the problem of NO2 exceedances in cities if it reduced the on-road NOx emissions of diesel cars to the permissible limit of 0.08 g/km. The implementation of a complementary NO2 emissions limit may then become superfluous. If Diesel cars continue to exceed by several factors their NOx emissions limit on the road...

The performance of several indices of benthic functioning, based on the traits of estuarine macroinvertebrates, was tested in the lower Mondego estuary (Portugal), whose two arms exhibit different disturbance levels related to hydromorphology. The results showed that some indices responded clearly to this type of disturbance and others not so well. We argue that the community-weighted mean trait values (CWM) in combination with the newly developed SR-FRED index provided the best overall picture of how the benthic communities might have been affected by hydromorphological disturbance. This study also showed that certain indices should be used with caution when dealing with communities with few and dominant species, such as in estuarine environments.; JRC.H.1-Water Resources

We investigate different methods for estimating anthropogenic CO2 using modeled continuous atmospheric concentrations of CO2 alone, as well as CO2 in combination with the surrogate tracers CO, δ13C(CO2) and 114C(CO2). These methods are applied at three hypothetical stations rep- resenting rural, urban and polluted conditions. We find that, independent of the tracer used, an observation-based estimate of continuous anthropogenic CO2 is not yet feasible at rural measurement sites due to the low signal-to-noise ratio of anthropogenic CO2 estimates at such settings. The tracers δ13C(CO2) and CO provide an accurate possibility to determine anthropogenic CO2 continuously, only if all CO2 sources in the catchment area are well characterized or calibrated with respect to their isotopic signature and CO to anthropogenic CO2 ratio. We test different calibration strategies for the mean isotopic signature and CO to CO2 ratio using precise 114C(CO2) measurements on monthly integrated as well as on grab samples. For δ13C(CO2), a calibration with annually averaged 14C(CO2) grab samples is most promising, since integrated sampling introduces large biases into anthropogenic CO2 estimates. For CO, these biases are smaller. The precision of continuous anthropogenic CO2 determination using δ13C(CO2) depends on measurement precision of δ13C(CO2) and CO2...

Utilising a fleet of commercial airliners, MOZAIC/IAGOS provides atmospheric composition data on a regular basis that are widely used for modelling applications. Due to the specific operational context of the platforms, such observations are collected close to international airports and hence in an environment characterised by high anthropogenic emissions. This provides opportunities for assessing emission inventories of major metropolitan areas around the world, but also challenges in representing the observations in typical chemical transport models. We assess here the contribution of different sources of error to overall model data mismatch using the example of MOZAIC/IAGOS carbon monoxide (CO) profiles collected over the European regional domain in a time window of 5 yr (2006 to 2011). The different sources of error addressed in the present study are: 1) mismatch in modelled and observed mixed layer height; 2) bias in emission fluxes and 3) spatial representation error (related to unresolved spatial variations in emissions). The modelling framework combines a regional Lagrangian transport model (STILT) with EDGARv4.3 emission inventory and lateral boundary conditions from the MACC reanalysis. The representation error was derived by coupling STILT with emission fluxes aggregated to different spatial resolutions. We also use the MACC reanalysis to assess uncertainty related to uncertainty sources 2) and 3). We treat the random and the bias components of the uncertainty separately and found that 1) and 3) have a comparable impact on the random component for both models...

Soil erosion by water is one of the most widespread forms of soil degradation. The loss of soil as a result of erosion can lead to decline in organic matter and nutrient contents, breakdown of soil structure and reduction of the water-holding capacity. Measuring soil loss across the whole landscape is impractical and thus research is needed to improve methods of estimating soil erosion with computational modelling, upon which integrated assessment and mitigation strategies may be based. Despite the efforts, the prediction value of existing models is still limited, especially at regional and continental scale, because a systematic knowledge of local climatological and soil parameters is often unavailable. A new approach for modelling soil erosion at regional scale is here proposed. It is based on the joint use of low-data-demanding models and innovative techniques for better estimating model inputs. The proposed modelling architecture has at its basis the semantic array programming paradigm and a strong effort towards computational reproducibility. An extended version of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) has been implemented merging different empirical rainfall-erosivity equations within a climatic ensemble model and adding a new factor for a better consideration of soil stoniness within the model. Pan-European soil erosion rates by water have been estimated through the use of publicly available data sets and locally reliable empirical relationships. The accuracy of the results is corroborated by a visual plausibility check (63% of a random sample of grid cells are accurate...

The European Parliament recently called for urgent measures to halve food waste in the EU, where consumers are responsible for a major part of total waste along the food supply chain. Due to a lack of data on national food waste statistics, uncertainty in (consumer) waste quantities (and resulting associated natural resources quantities) is very high, but has never been assessed in previous studies for the EU. Here we quantify 1) EU consumer food waste and 2) associated natural resources required for its production, in term of water and nitrogen, providing also an estimate of the uncertainty of these values. Total EU consumer food waste averages 123 (min 55-max 190) kg/capita annually (kg/cap/yr), i.e. 16% (min 7-max 24%) of all food reaching consumers. Almost 80% (i.e. 97 (min 45-max 153) kg/cap/yr) is avoidable food waste, which is edible food not consumed. We calculate water and nitrogen (N) resources associated with avoidable food waste. The associated blue water footprint (the consumption of surface and groundwater resources) averages 27 litre per capita per day (min 13-max 40 l/cap/d), which slightly exceeds the total blue consumptive EU municipal water use. The associated green water footprint (consumptive rainwater use) is 294 (min 127-max 449) l/cap/d...

Conservationists recognise that remote sensing can make a substantial contribution to their job. However, it is perceived these needs are not being met by the remote sensing community. Here we review five recent workshops help to answer the broad question "What conservationists need and want from remote sensing". We identify recurring requests, and consider potential ways forward for the conservation and remote sensing communities to deliver.; JRC.H.5-Land Resources Management

Observing trends in global ecosystem dynamics is an important first step, but attributing these trends to climate variability represents a further step in understanding Earth system changes. In the present study, we classified global Ecosystem Response Types (ERTs) based on common spatio-temporal patterns in time-series of Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and FPAR3g anomalies (1982–2011) by using an extended Principal Component Analysis. The ERTs represent region specific spatio-temporal patterns of ecosystems responding to drought or ecosystems with decreasing severity in drought events as well as ecosystems where drought was not a dominant factor in a 30-year period. Highest explanatory values in the SPEI12-FPAR3g anomalies and strongest SPEI12-FPAR3g correlations were seen in the ERTs of Australia and South America whereas lowest explanatory value and lowest correlations were observed in Asia and North America. These ERTs complement traditional pixel based methods by enabling the combined assessment of the location, timing, duration, frequency and severity of climatic and vegetation anomalies with the joint assessment of wetting and drying climatic conditions. The ERTs produced here thus have potential in supporting global change studies by mapping reference conditions of long term ecosystem changes.; JRC.H.5-Land Resources Management

Smart specialisation is currently probably the largest innovation policy experiment in the world. Its aim is to move the EU less developed countries and regions on path of R&D based growth. This transformation requires not only endogenous knowledge and technology accumulation building but also coupling with international knowledge and production networks. Yet, internationalization does not seem to be a crucial component in the design and development of Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3), which is at odds with the strong dependence of the EU New Member States (EU-13) on FDI and global value chains. Our analysis is grounded in the key ’stylized facts’ related to EU-13 R&D&I activities, and the complex link between innovation and internationalization. Innovation systems in the EU-13 are fragmented and based on largely public R&D systems and on predominantly production oriented foreign direct investment (FDI). This structural weakness calls for stronger support for innovation oriented activities and for the integration of global value chains (GVCs) and FDI into local innovation systems. We explore the main obstacles to the internationalization of smart specialisation and discuss ways to overcome them. We highlight the policy action areas related to providing support for technology upgrading in relation to the internationalization of smart specialisation.; JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growth

The report presents the results of a survey conducted on 700 wheat farmers in France and Hungary. The survey aimed to single out the most critical elements at the base of wheat productivity, collecting information for the growing seasons 2010/2011, 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. Two types of data are obtained: farmers’ opinions on the determinants of wheat productivity; quantitative data on wheat output, production factors, marketing strategies, damages, and field and risk management practices. Through descriptive statistics, the report revealed important and significant differences between the countries. According to French farmers' opinion, the most important wheat yield determinants at national level are seasonal weather and soil quality; while Hungarians addressed climate change and seasonal weather. At the farm level, the high prices of inputs and the low wheat market prices are considered the most constraining factors in both countries. Wheat yields are positively correlated to higher agro-chemicals use in Hungary and to additional days of labour in France. The adoption of precision farming provides 7-12% higher yields in both countries, while yield gains from conservation agriculture and IPM are found in partial adopters. In both countries...

This contribution provides an overview of different approaches used to analyse drug policies within and across countries. Besides the great number of cost of illness studies which have contributed to the assessment of health harms and risks associated to the drug use, most of the recent efforts have focused on the creation of synthetic indices to classify countries around the world or to evaluate particular law enforcement policies in some countries. This is probably due to a general lack of comparable data across countries. The wide variety of budgetary practices in the drugs field in Europe contributes to the problems that exist in estimating drug-related public expenditure. These heterogeneous accounting practices, together with the complexity of the drug phenomenon and the multiplicity of perspectives on the issue, strongly constrains the possibility of economically evaluate and compare drug laws across countries.; JRC.J.2-Knowledge for Growth

While MOOCS have emerged as a new form of open online education around the world, research is still lagging behind to come up with a sound theoretical basis that can cover the impact of socio-economic background variables, ICT competences, prior experiences and lifelong learning profile, variance in intentions, environmental influences, outcome expectations, learning experience, and economic return on taking and completing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The potential diversity of participants of MOOCs has been taken as a starting point to develop a theoretical model and survey instrument with the goal to establish a large-scale, cross-provider data collection of participants of (European) MOOCs. This article provides an overview of the theoretical model, the start-phase of the project, and reflects on first experiences with the cross-provider data collection.; JRC.J.3-Information Society

Since 2000 grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems have increased their world-wide cumulative capacity about 200 times to exceed 135 GW at the end of 2013. A further doubling is forecast until 2016 and the further development is coupled with the question at what prices solar photovoltaic electricity can be delivered to the customers.; JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficiency

The international reactor safety project Phebus FP is devoted to the study of core meltdown in the case of a severe accident scenario. Its main objective is to study the fuel degradation, the release and transport of fission products and structure material in the reactor coolant system (RCS) and containment building, with special attention to iodine radiochemistry. The test sequence of those experiments included an irradiation phase, a fuel bundle degradation phase and a long-term phase dedicated to the analysis of aerosol and iodine radiochemistry in the containment vessel. The FPT-2 test was performed using a bundle configuration in a steam poor environment and with injection of boric acid. On-line measurements and post-test analyses indicate that releases of noble gases (Xe, Kr) from the fuel bundle are very high (up to 80% of initial bundle inventory); other elements can be classified as high-volatile with releases higher than 50% of bundle initial inventory (FPs: Cs, I, Te, Mo), as semi-volatile with releases comprised between 10 and 50% (FPs: Rb and control rod material: Cd) and low-volatile with releases lower than 10% (FPs: Ru, Ba and control rod material: Ag, In). Important material deposition was observed in the circuit, so that material inventory reaching the containment is significantly lower than the fractions released from the degraded bundle. The release and transport kinetics of material could be determined and seems strongly correlated with bundle degradation events (first fuel Zircaloy cladding oxidation phase...

The JRC-EU-TIMES is a partial equilibrium energy system model maintained by the Institute for Energy and Transport (IET) of the Joint Research Centre (JRC) to analyse the role of energy technologies development and their potential contribution to decarbonisation pathways of the energy system. The technical potentials for renewable energies are a key input in models of this kind. In this context, it is important to ensure transparency in the assumptions: making available the underlying data to the public is thus an important step that can also further contribute to a scientific and transparent debate. This report is the first in a series, and addresses the quantification of current and future biomass potentials for energy. As already identified in the 2011 European Commission’s Communication Energy roadmap 2050, biomass is expected to play a key role in strengthening the Energy Union pillars by diversifying the energy supply, increasing the energy internal market, decarbonising the economy and boosting competitiveness. Estimating the technical potentials available in EU countries using state of the art methodologies and updated data is important to fully understand the implications of an increased used of biomass for energy. Acknowledging this relevance...

The Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), adopted on 4 December 2012, establishes a set of binding measures to help the EU reach its 20% energy efficiency target by 2020. Under the Directive, all EU countries are required to use energy more efficiently at all stages of the energy chain from its production to its final consumption. Member States were required to translate the EED into national law by 5 June 2014. The EED will repeal the existing Cogeneration Directive (2004/8/EC) and the Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive (2006/32/EC) as of 5 June 2014. Article 14(5) of the EED requires Member States to ensure that thermal electricity generation installations and industrial installations exceeding 20 MWth, carry out a cost-benefit analysis when they are planned or substantially refurbished to assess whether the use of high-efficiency cogeneration, the connection to a district heating or cooling network or other means of waste heat recovery would be cost-effective. The obligation to carry-out a cost-benefit analysis also applies to new district heating and cooling networks, when those are planned or when an energy production installation with a capacity exceeding 20 MWth is planned or substantially refurbished within those networks...

This methodology is intended to provide guidance to MS on the structure and methods of preparation of a map of the national territory, identifying heating and cooling demand points, district heating and cooling infrastructure and potential heating and cooling supply points. Since there are many diverse methods and tools that can be used for processing of the data, making of the map and eventual publishing, this methodology is not intended to cover them all but instead should be viewed as a supporting document and a source of ideas.; JRC.F.6-Energy Technology Policy Outlook

Algae are suggested as a biomass source with significant growth rates, which may be cultivated in the ocean (seaweed) or on marginal land (microalgae). Biogas is suggested as a beneficial route to sustainable energy; however the scientific literature on algal biogas is relatively sparse. This report comprises a review of the literature and provides a state of the art in algal biogas and is aimed at an audience of academics and energy policy makers. It was produced by IEA Bioenergy Task 37 which addresses the challenges related to the economic and environmental sustainability of biogas production and utilisation.; JRC.F.8-Sustainable Transport

Since 2000 grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have increased their world-wide cumulative capacity about 200 times to reach about 135 GW at the end of 2013. A further doubling is forecasted until 2016 and the further development is coupled with the question at what prices solar PV electricity can be delivered to the customers. This article will show the price development of PVs, the current levelised cost of PV electricity and what can be expected over the next decade.; JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficiency

The overall aim of the ProGasNet (Probabilistic Gas Network) simulator project is to develop a natural gas transmission network probabilistic model capable to analyse reliability, resilience and security of supply aspects under normal or extreme load situations. This paper presents bottleneck analysis using ProGasNet of a regional natural gas transmission network and proposes not only bottleneck identification methodology, but also determines missing capacity in the congested area. The results indicate that connection 17-34-18 is a bidirectional bottleneck in the network when one out of two largest gas sources is lost. This helps network operators and policy decision makers to propose network development plans.; JRC.F.3-Energy Security, Systems and Market